The end of the last Ice Age in Britain (c. 11500 BP) created major disruption to the biosphere. Open habitats were succeeded by more wooded landscapes, and changes occurred to the fauna following the abrupt disappearance of typical glacial herd species, such as reindeer and horse (Conneller & Higham 2015). Understanding the impact of these changes on humans and how quickly they were able to adapt may soon become clearer, due to recent discoveries in the Colne Valley on the western edge of Greater London, north of the River Thames. An exceptionally well-preserved open-air site was discovered in 2014 as part of a wider project of archaeological investigation and excavation carried out by Wessex Archaeology (2015), on behalf of CEMEX UK. The site, at Kingsmead Quarry in Horton, is unusual because it has good organic preservation and, in addition to worked flint artefacts, it has yielded groups of articulated horse bone. The extreme rarity of such sites of this period in Britain makes this discovery especially significant and re-emphasises the potential importance of the Colne Valley (Lacaille 1963; Lewis 2011; Morgi et al. 2011).

In world archaeology, there has always been a problem regarding the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition. Late twentieth-century research has attempted to address this issue through the recognition of Initial Upper Palaeolithic (IUP) lithic industries. These assemblages were first characterised through evidence from the sites of Boker Tachtit and Ksar Akil (the Levant), and they are now identified in many regions of Eurasia, including Central Asia, the Near East, the Altai Mountains, Transbaikalia, Mongolia and northern China. A characteristic IUP assemblage has also been recently found in Kazakhstan (Ushbulak-1) (Shunkov et al. 2016). Large blades and elongated pointed flakes dominate these assemblages, and there is a prevalence of Upper Palaeolithic tool types in tool sets.

The paucity of archaeological evidence from the northern Afar Rift and Red Sea littoral remains a major hindrance to testing the hypothesised Out-of-Africa dispersal of early humans via the ‘Southern Route’—across the Bab al-Mandeb into Arabia and beyond. Encouraged by renewed geological studies (e.g. Atnafu et al. 2015), and recent archaeological discoveries (e.g. Walter et al. 2000; Beyin 2013), we initiated a pioneering exploration along the ancient Red Sea coast in the Danakil Depression (Figure 1a–c). The most conspicuous geomorphological features here constitute terraces of reef carbonates and associated marine deposits, formed when the depression was covered by the open Red Sea during the Middle to Late Pleistocene. Initial results of our exploration promise contexts in which the distribution and cultural/behavioural adaptation of early humans during the Out-of-Africa event can be closely investigated.

Modern research in the Caucasus involving both obsidian artefact characterisation and sourcing enhances our knowledge of the early exploitation and exchange of this raw material (Le Bourdonnec et al. 2012; Montoya et al. 2013; Chatainger & Gratuze 2014; Doronicheva & Shackley 2014; Frahm et al. 2014; Pleurdeau et al. 2016).

Prehistoric communities carried out quarrying activities to obtain raw materials for tool production. These were produced either directly for immediate or later use by the same groups who quarried the stone, or indirectly by distributing the raw material or partially or completely manufactured products to third parties. All these procedures could be performed within a temporal and spatial sequence of variable extent, giving rise to archaeological evidence of very different types (Nelson 1991; Ingold 2012).

In recent years, the study of Palaeolithic people has been a vigorous, productive topic, with the increasing knowledge of diet contributing significantly to the debate's liveliness (e.g. Richards 2009; Henry et al. 2010; Hardy et al. 2012, 2016; El Zaatari et al. 2016).

As a part of the multidisciplinary project entitled ‘Archaeological Investigations into the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene of the Lim Channel, Istria’, archaeological research has been conducted at four sites: Romuald's Cave, Abri Kontija 002, Pećina at Rovinjsko Selo and Lim 001 (Figure 1). There is much debate on issues related to biological and behavioural continuity, to patterns of changes and adaptations during this crucial period, and to external factors (e.g. changes in ecology and climate). For example, a clearer insight is needed into how climatic change affects the ecology of specific regions, including changing sea levels. Additionally, there continues to be debate centring on who produced the earliest (Initial) Upper Palaeolithic industries in Europe. To achieve a more precise insight into long-term diachronic changes and cultural relations around the Adriatic, and to document the presence of Middle and Upper Palaeolithic humans in Istria, we concentrated on a single microregion (the Lim Channel in Istria, Croatia). Here we report work on the two sites that to date have yielded Pleistocene material: Romuald's Cave and Abri Kontija 002.

Archaeologists worldwide have shown much interest in the origins of metallurgy in China (e.g. Mei 2005; Hanks et al. 2007; Parzinger 2011; Fan et al. 2012). Around 2200–1700 BC, the Seima-Turbino Culture originated in the Altai Mountains of Central Asia and spread across the Eurasian steppes (Chernykh 2004, 2008). The most iconic artefact of this culture is the socketed spearhead with single side hook; these have been found across the Eurasian steppes (Figure 1: 1–2). Two new observations of these spearheads suggest that Seima-Turbino metal-casting technology was responsible for the development of metallurgy in China.

At the onset of the Iron Age, after c. 1200 BC, Iran was a place of major social transformation. After the collapse of the Bronze Age urban civilisations, the land was inhabited mainly by groups of mobile pastoralists that gradually transitioned from tribal organisation into loose federations, before finally developing into the Median and Persian early states (Potts 2014). This transition is still poorly recognised, as settlement sites from this period are scarce and most evidence is from cemeteries that were excavated many decades ago. Here we report results of excavations at a recently discovered cemetery that may provide new insights into the social complexity and cultural affinities of Iron Age nomads in Iran.

Archaeological fieldwork in the central Helmand Valley of modern-day Afghanistan has been sparse as a result of the region's remoteness and lack of security; the work that has been done suggests that the area has been occupied since prehistoric times. The Central Helmand Archaeological Study (CHAS) is the most recent archaeological field research to be conducted in the valley. It was launched in 2011 with the support of the US Marine Corps and the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, to locate and record archaeological sites in the region and to report any evidence of looting or damage (Abramiuk & Wong 2015). This paper reports on some early findings in the course of continuing analysis and provides a preliminary assessment.

Buddhism spread from northern India throughout the Asian continent from the first century BC onwards. As it spread, it changed and adapted to suit the new peoples and customs with which it came into contact. In recent years, studies have been undertaken on the landscape archaeology of Indian, Central Asian and Southeast Asian Buddhism. By focusing on China, this study represents a preliminary step in attempting to illuminate a new aspect of early Buddhist practice in China. It considers the chronological implications of the way in which the sites are positioned within the landscape. The study is based on survey work and site visits undertaken over the last five years, during the course of which certain patterns began to emerge. Based on these observations, an initial hypothesis was formed which states that the visibility of the locations into which cave sites are carved increases over time. Visibility is taken as the presence or prominence of a site within the physical landscape. This study focuses only on rock-cut cave-temples because they can still be clearly seen within their (nearly) original landscape settings. They can also be dated with relative accuracy on stylistic grounds. The same cannot be said of surface religious structures.

Archaeological excavations of urban sites in the Mediterranean have a long history, but only recently are geoarchaeology-based landscape studies beginning to provide insight into the complex and dynamic relationships between cities and their hinterlands. Such studies are becoming increasingly important as archaeologists seek to understand how cities sustained themselves, demonstrating resilience to both external shocks and long-term environmental changes, and, conversely, how cities contributed to their own demise through the over-exploitation of environmental resources (Barthel & Isendahl 2013; Butzer et al. 2013; Kintigh et al. 2014; Nelson et al. 2016).

After the Portuguese discovered the Cape Verde Islands in AD 1456 they divided its main island, Santiago, into two governing captaincies. The founding settlement in the south-west, Cidade Velha, soon became the Islands’ capital and a thriving trade centre; in contrast, that in the east, Alcatrazes, only lasted as an official seat from 1484–1516 and is held to have ‘failed’ (see Richter 2015).

There is a paucity of Palaeolithic art in the southern Levant prior to 15 000 years ago. The Natufian culture (15 000–11 500 BP; Grosman 2013) marks a threshold in the magnitude and diversity of artistic manifestations (Bar-Yosef 1997). Nevertheless, depictions of the human form remain rare—only a few representations of the human face have been reported to date. This article presents a 12 000-year-old example unearthed at the Late Natufian site of Nahal Ein Gev II (NEGII), just east of the Sea of Galilee, Israel (Figure 1). The object provides a glimpse into Natufian conventions of human representation, and opens a rare opportunity for deeper understanding of the Natufian symbolic system.

Despite the potential importance of southern Iran, and the Persian Gulf area in particular, for discussions on the dispersal of early hominins from Africa into Eurasia during the late Pliocene and early Pleistocene (Bar-Yosef & Belfer-Cohen 2001; Rose 2010), this area has remained almost unexplored until recently. Historically, Palaeolithic survey and excavations in Iran have mainly concentrated in western regions, especially the Zagros Mountains. As a result of recent studies, however, evidence for Palaeolithic sites in the southern regions of Iran, from Fars province to Qeshm Island, has greatly increased (Dashtizade 2009, 2010). Even with this improvement, no sites of Lower Palaeolithic date have yet been reported from the southern coastal areas on one of the proposed early hominin routes into Eurasia. As a result, it has been suggested that the few Lower Palaeolithic sites reported from other parts of Iran, especially in the west (e.g. Biglari & Shidrang 2006), were not populated from the south.

The Central Belize Archaeological Survey (CBAS) was initiated in 2005 as a sub-project of the Belize Valley Archaeological Reconnaissance project (BVAR; directed by Jaime Awe) to investigate the prehistoric Maya cemetery site of Caves Branch Rockshelter. Subsequently, we began to survey other nearby cave and rockshelter sites (Hardy 2009) and to excavate the monumental civic-ceremonial centre of Deep Valley (Jordan 2008). CBAS became an independent project in 2009, with an increasing focus on sites in the neighbouring Roaring Creek Valley (Figure 1). This slight geographic shift was in part intended to expand bioarchaeological investigations to include dark zone cave contexts identified during the late 1990s by BVAR's Western Belize Regional Cave Project. In the area around these caves, we identified two large, previously unreported civic-ceremonial centres and a network of raised roads (sacbeob) connecting them and other sites. Our survey and excavations at Tipan Chen Uitz (Figure 2) have yielded evidence that it was a regional capital with ties to powerful foreign polities, as attested by the discovery of multiple carved stone monuments (Figure 3; see Andres et al. 2014; Helmke & Andres 2015; Andres et al. in press in Antiquity). We have also continued our investigations of mortuary rockshelters, including Sapodilla Rockshelter in the Caves Branch Valley.

Until about two decades ago, the Neolithic of north-east Iran was known only from a few brief excavation reports: the sites of Yarim Tappeh (Stronach 1972) and Turang Tappeh (Deshayes 1967) on the Gorgan Plain, and preliminary reports of large-scale excavations at the twin mound of Sang-e Chakhmaq in the southern foothills of the eastern Alborz Mountains (e.g. Masuda 1984). In the absence of absolute chronologies, these sites were dated by ceramic assemblages to the sixth millennium BC, and were considered to relate to the so-called ‘Jeitun Culture’ of southern Turkmenistan (Figure 1; Roustaei 2016a).

Plant foods are closely connected to cultural, social and economic aspects of human societies, both past and present. Food-preparation techniques and the etiquette of consumption involve complex interactions of natural resources and human cultures. During European prehistory, these changes included the shift to sedentism, the cultivation and domestication of plants, food storage, the production and exchange of alcoholic beverages and luxury foodstuffs, and the continuous adaptation of established culinary practices to newcomers in fields and gardens.

Mycenaean monumental architecture has been well studied. Yet the extent to which large-scale building programmes may have contributed to change and crises in Late Bronze Age Greece (c. 1600–1100/1070 BC) has never been investigated using actual field data. The aim of the SETinSTONE project is to assess if and how monumental building activities in Late Bronze Age Greece affected the political and socio-economic structures of Mycenaean polities, and how people may have responded to these changes (Brysbaert 2013).

The EARMEDCASTILE project, based at the University of the Basque Country, has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme, Marie Sklodowska-Curie Action (grant agreement 656540); http://earmedcastile.blogspot.com).