While a clear human presence may be recognised in the Andes by 12 000–11 000 cal BP, most archaeological research has focused on occupation of the Andean highlands. To understand the initial occupation of inland areas of South America, the authors consider regional connections and spatial exploitation strategies of hunter-gatherers highlighted in a recent survey of Andean sites. Focusing on north-central Chile, artefacts and radiocarbon dates from three rock shelters suggest sporadic and brief occupation during the Terminal Pleistocene–Early Holocene. Co-occurrence of marine and montane resources, the authors argue, demonstrates a strategy of high mobility and local adaptation in early Andean occupation, using rock shelters as landmarks to navigate and learn new landscapes.

Indigenous Australian art relies on motifs and figures to visually symbolise a traditional story, myth and/or ritual, encompassing a narrated performance. In contrast, digital tracings or ‘finger flutings’ impressed into the soft precipitate covering cave surfaces are not typically considered visually symbolic expressions. Using Koonalda Cave in southern Australia as a case study, the authors argue that digital tracings also operate within a performative space, but without their narrator these undulating lines are rendered silent. Here, emphasis is placed on ritual maintenance or the spiritual propagation of a prized food or trade item that would then ‘rise up’.

The monumental alignments found in southern Brittany, particularly Carnac, potentially mark the beginnings of the megalithic tradition in north-west Europe. Radiocarbon dates from excavations at a previously unknown section of this extensive megalithic complex, presented here, provide new insights into the dynamic history of construction during the fifth millennium cal BC. This refined chronology reveals not only that the site of Le Plasker—consisting of a pre-megalithic monumental tomb, alignments of standing stones and hearths—developed over 300 years in the Middle Neolithic, but that the choice of location may have been influenced by an earlier Late Mesolithic occupation.

Efforts to drain Lake Maliq, in the Korça Basin of eastern Albania, during the 1940s and 1950s revealed waterlogged wooden structures that were excavated in the 1970s and identified as Neolithic pile-dwellings. Fifty years later, new excavations are exposing the exceptional organic preservation and complex stratigraphy of the Dunavec site. Through a combination of dendrochronological and radiocarbon dating, the authors provide the first secure absolute dates for the structures, placing early activity at the site within the beginning of the fifty-third century BC and creating a chronological anchor for our understanding of Neolithic communities in the western Balkans.

Broad cultural similarities are apparent between Neolithic sites across the Middle Nile Valley, yet local variation may also be witnessed. The dearth of well-preserved skeletal assemblages in this region means that biological connections between populations, and thus potential modes for the transmission of material culture, are not well understood. Here, the authors compare dental morphological traits in five Neolithic cemeteries (c. 5600–3800 BC) and 14 time-successive sites to explore biological relatedness along the Middle Nile Valley. Their findings parallel the artefactual evidence, suggesting that the spread of the Nubian Neolithic may have been as nuanced as the populations who practised it.

The earliest pottery vessels in the Arabian Gulf, appearing in the mid-sixth millennium BC, belong to two distinct traditions: Ubaid Ware was imported from Mesopotamia, but the origins of the Coarse Red Ware have remained obscure. Geochemical examination of pottery from Bahra 1, in modern-day Kuwait, and geological samples from the surrounding area reveal a regional origin for the clay. Further exploration of the Bahra 1 assemblage indicates that Coarse Red Ware was probably made at the site by low-skilled potters. This research provides insights into the organisation of pottery production and distribution in the Arabian Neolithic.

Despite an early surge in copper-ore mining during the sixth and fifth millennia BC (the ‘boom’), evidence for metal production in the Balkans dwindles in the fourth millennium (the ‘bust’). Here, the authors present new evidence for copper mining at Curak in south-west Serbia, c. 3800 cal BC, during this apparent downturn. By integrating field surveys, excavations and provenance analyses, they explore activity at the site, challenging the visibility bias in the archaeological record of this region for this key period. Rather than a societal collapse, the authors argue, fewer artefacts may instead reflect a widening Balkan sphere of influence.

In terms of the grand narrative of Upper Egypt’s expansion into, and unification with, Lower Egypt in the second half of the fourth millennium BC, substantial debate surrounds the processes of state formation. Referring to a recently discovered engraving near Aswan, the author argues that rock art has much to contribute to these discussions. Typological and comparative analyses of the engraving, which is interpreted as a processional boat bearing a seated human figure, are used to suggest that it was created at the dawn of the First Dynasty, thus adding to the limited corpus of political authority expressed in Protodynastic rock art.

A shift towards constructing large circular monuments, including henges, during the Middle Neolithic of Britain and Ireland is exemplified in the monumental landscape of south-west England. Seventeen new radiocarbon dates for the Flagstones circular enclosure and the adjacent long enclosure of Alington Avenue, presented here, provide a chronology that is earlier than expected. Comparison with similar sites demonstrates that Flagstones was part of a broader tradition of round enclosures but was also distinctly innovative, particularly in terms of its size. These findings reinforce the value in developing precise chronologies for refining understanding of monument forms and associated practices.

The River Thames, winding through the English capital of London, is the source of a substantial archaeological assemblage that includes hundreds of human bones, but the lack of a robust chronology for these finds limits interpretation. Here, 30 new radiocarbon dates are reported for the human remains. In combination with other available dates (some of which are also published here for the first time), this improved chronological framework demonstrates a predominance of Bronze and Iron Age dates and emphasises the need to explore the Thames assemblage in the broader context of watery deposition practices of later prehistoric north-west Europe.

During the fourth millennium BC, public institutions developed at several large settlements across greater Mesopotamia. These are widely acknowledged as the first cities and states, yet surprisingly little is known about their emergence, functioning and demise. Here, the authors present new evidence of public institutions at the site of Shakhi Kora in the lower Sirwan/upper Diyala river valley of north-east Iraq. A sequence of four Late Chalcolithic institutional households precedes population dispersal and the apparent regional rejection of centralised social forms of organisation that were not then revisited for almost 1500 years.

Administrative innovations in South-west Asia during the fourth millennium BC, including the cylinder seals that were rolled on the earliest clay tablets, laid the foundations for proto-cuneiform script, one of the first writing systems. Seals were rich in iconography, but little research has focused on the potential influence of specific motifs on the development of the sign-based proto-cuneiform script. Here, the authors identify symbolic precursors to fundamental proto-cuneiform signs among late pre-literate seal motifs that describe the transportation of vessels and textiles, highlighting the synergy of early systems of clay-based communication.

The discovery of more than 600 whole and fragmentary engraved stone plaques in the early third millennium BC infill from the ditches of a causewayed enclosure at Vasagård, on the Danish island of Bornholm, represents a unique find in Neolithic miniature art. Termed ‘sun stones’ in reference to the rayed images that characterise many of the plaques, the stones were deposited en masse over a short period. This article offers a fundamental classification of the rich imagery captured in the engravings and examines its potential function at a time of possible climatic crisis that impacted not just Bornholm but the wider northern hemisphere.

Recent genomic analysis of a skull fragment from Newgrange, Ireland, revealed a rare case of incest. Together with a wider network of distantly related passage tomb interments, this has bolstered claims of a social elite in later Neolithic Ireland. Here, the authors evaluate this social evolutionary interpretation, drawing on insecurities in context and the relative rarity of engendered status or resource restrictions in the archaeological record of prehistoric Ireland to argue that the status of individuals during this period is better understood through unstable identity negotiations. Inclusion in a passage tomb, while ‘special’, need not equate to a perpetual elite.

Multidisciplinary research is deepening our understanding of high-altitude pastoralism on the Tibetan Plateau, but such studies also highlight a strong riverine bias in the location of excavated sites. In a move to address this skewing of the dataset, the authors propose the exploration of modern highland corrals with shovel testing and test excavations as a labour-efficient survey method, streamlined through the identification of potential sites from satellite imagery. Three prehistoric sites were successfully located using this method, the earliest dating to the first millennium BC, encouraging the reconsideration of current survey strategies in Tibet and other mountainous regions.