Characterised by the extensive use of obsidian, a blade-based tool inventory and microblade technology, the late Upper Palaeolithic lithic assemblages of the Changbaishan Mountains are associated with the increasingly cold climatic conditions of Marine Isotope Stage 2, yet most remain poorly dated. Here, the authors present new radiocarbon dates associated with evolving blade and microblade toolkits at Helong Dadong, north-east China. At 27 300–24 100 BP, the lower cultural layers contain some of the earliest microblade technology in north-east Asia and highlight the importance of the Changbaishan Mountains in understanding changing hunter-gatherer lifeways in this region during MIS 2.

China was a centre for early plant domestication, millets in the north and rice in the south, with both crops then spreading widely. The Laoguantai Culture (c. 8000–7000 BP) of the middle Yellow River region encompasses a crucial stage in the transition from hunting and gathering to farming, yet its subsistence basis is poorly understood. The authors present archaeobotanical data from the site of Beiliu indicating that farmers exploited a variety of wild and cultivated plants. The predominance of broomcorn millet accords with other Neolithic cultures in northern China but the presence of rice—some of the earliest directly dated examples—opens questions about the integration of rice cultivation into local subsistence strategies.

During the Late Neolithic, a series of short-lived, monumental-scale farmhouses were constructed across southern Scandinavia. The size of these structures is often taken as a tangible manifestation of the elite status of the inhabitants. Here, the author explores the architecture and associated material culture of the six largest known examples, drawing attention to general parallels with smaller farmhouses in the region. The comparison highlights similarities in spatial organisation and function indicating that, despite their size, these monumental houses served the same roles as dwellings and centres of agricultural production. Attention to function rather than size emphasises the importance of food production and control of surpluses in the emergence of social elites at the end of the Neolithic.

Horses began to feature prominently in funerary contexts in southern Siberia in the mid-second millennium BC, yet little is known about the use of these animals prior to the emergence of vibrant horse-riding groups in the first millennium BC. Here, the authors present the results of excavations at the late-ninth-century BC tomb of Tunnug 1 in Tuva, where the deposition of the remains of at least 18 horses and one human is reminiscent of sacrificial spectral riders described in fifth-century Scythian funerary rituals by Herodotus. The discovery of items of tack further reveals connections to the earliest horse cultures of Mongolia.

During the second half of the first millennium BC, hundreds of hillforts dotted the central Italian Apennines. Often interpreted as ‘proto-towns’, the authors present results of investigations at Monte Santa Croce-Cognolo that challenge this idea. Previous studies identified a small area (<1ha) of occupation and suggested that habitation extended across the whole 18ha site. Combining geophysical and pedestrian survey with remotely sensed data, and local ethnographic accounts, the authors detect little evidence for permanent habitation and instead argue for activities connected with animal husbandry. The results challenge urban-centric interpretations by demonstrating the coexistence of monumental but uninhabited hillforts and urban sites—usually seen across the Mediterranean and Europe.

Post-mortem manipulation of human bodies, including the commingling of multiple individuals, is attested throughout the past. More rarely, the bones of different individuals are assembled to create a single ‘individual’ for burial. Rarer still are composite individuals with skeletal elements separated by hundreds or even thousands of years. Here, the authors report an isolated inhumation within a Gallo-Roman-period cremation cemetery at Pommerœul, Belgium. Assumed to be Roman, radiocarbon determinations show the burial is Late Neolithic—with a Roman-period cranium. Bioarchaeological analyses also reveal the inclusion of multiple Neolithic individuals of various ages and dates. The burial is explained as a composite Neolithic burial that was reworked 2500 years later with the addition of a new cranium and grave goods.

The Roman army was a vast military machine that demanded huge amounts of material and complex supply mechanisms. A 14kg hoard of mail armour from near the Roman legionary fortress of Bonn, Germany, offers insight into the organisation of recycling and repair on Rome's northern frontier. Computed tomography reveals there are at least four garments and suggests a likely date. The authors explore the hoard's context and motivations for its deposition and non-retrieval, arguing it formed a collection of ‘donor’ mail for repairing other mail garments. Its discovery in a settlement outside the military fortress indicates the involvement of local craftworkers. The settlement was abandoned in the mid-third century AD.

Substantial debate surrounds the relative lack of formal burials in Britain during the fifth century AD, which was a key period of social and economic transition following the withdrawal of the Roman army. Here, the authors argue that the ‘missing fifth century’ may be explained, in part, by the continuation of archaeologically invisible mortuary treatments practised in the preceding Iron Age and Roman period. Compilation of published radiocarbon dates from human remains found in cave and riverine contexts demonstrates that a variety of methods for the disposal of the dead—outside of formal cemeteries—existed in the first millennium AD.

Crafting is often assumed to have been a ‘dirty’ and hence low-status activity: elites managed the supply of materials or distribution of the products, lower-status workers undertook the hard graft. Here, the authors present an in situ stoneworking toolkit from El Perú-Waka’ in the central Maya lowlands of Guatemala. Recovered from a high-status neighbourhood, the tools indicate the involvement of elite crafters in the working of various types of stone and greenstone. The assemblage is discussed with reference to ontological understandings of raw materials in the Maya world and the importance of specialised and ritual knowledge. The results encourage greater consideration of the involvement of elites in craft production across Mesoamerica and beyond.

The Hydrierwerke Pölitz AG was a synthetic-fuel plant of strategic importance to the Nazi war machine. The surrounding area contained labour camps, factories and other military infrastructure. The area was a target for sustained Allied bombardment causing extensive damage to the plant and nearby towns and villages. After the war, the plant's troubled past faded before interest was revived in the 1990s. Here, with the aid of historical aerial photographs and modern remote-sensing methods, the authors document the physical remains of the site, reconstruct its ‘dark history’ and reflect on the significance of the Hydrierwerke for the discourse on neglected and appropriated Second World War heritage.

Volunteers are a key part of the archaeological labour force and, with the growth of digital datasets, these citizen scientists represent a vast pool of interpretive potential; yet, concerns remain about the quality and reliability of crowd-sourced data. This article evaluates the classification of prehistoric barrows on lidar images of the central Netherlands by thousands of volunteers on the Heritage Quest project. In analysing inter-user agreement and assessing results against fieldwork at 380 locations, the authors show that the probability of an accurate barrow identification is related to volunteer consensus in image classifications. Even messy data can lead to the discovery of many previously undetected prehistoric burial mounds.

The fragmentation of the archaeological record presents methodological challenges: as researchers analyse and construct models, they do not (and in most cases cannot and will not) know what is missing. Here, the author argues that these gaps are one of the field's greatest strengths; they force practitioners to be reflective in their understanding of, and approach to, studying the material traces of past people's lives and to make space for ways of being foreign to present reality. The uncertainty of a past in ruins is a place of possibility that empowers us all to imagine and to work towards a better future.