The context of Childe's decade as Director of the Institute of Archaeology and Professor of Prehistoric European Archaeology in the University of London is described. Particular attention is given to the circumstances leading to his appointment; his participation in a conference on ‘The Future of Archaeology’ held at the Institute in 1943; his inaugural lecture, ‘Archaeology as a Social Science’, delivered in 1946; his and Frederick Zeuner's involvement in the beginnings of radiocarbon dating; and his contrasted contributions as administrator, excavator, and teacher during his 10 years at the Institute.

This paper presents the results of the use of a minimally destructive biomolecular technique to explore the resource networks behind one of the first specialized urban crafts in early mediaeval northern Europe: the manufacture of composite combs of deer antler. The research incorporates the largest application of species identification by peptide mass fingerprinting (ZooMS) to a mediaeval artefact assemblage: specifically to collections of antler combs, comb manufacturing waste, and raw antler from Ribe, Aarhus, and Aggersborg. It documents the early use of reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) antler, from the 780s AD at the latest, presenting the earliest unambiguous evidence for exchange-links between urban markets in the southern North Sea region and the Scandinavian Peninsula. The results demonstrate that the common conceptual distinction between urban hinterlands and long-distance trade conceals a vital continuity. Long-range networks were vital to urban activities from the first appearance of towns in this part of the world, preceding the historically documented maritime expansion of the Viking Age. We consequently suggest that urbanism is more appropriately defined and researched in terms of network dynamics than as a function of circumscribed catchment areas or hinterlands.

Vikings with artificially modified teeth have previously been documented in the south-eastern parts of Scandinavia and in England. In a project dealing with life in the Mälaren Valley in Sweden during the period AD 750–1100, new cases of people with modified maxillary teeth were observed. The hypothesis that the practice was entirely associated with adult men dating to the Viking Age was tested. The new cases demonstrate that the habit extended to eastern-central Sweden, including the proto-town of Birka, perhaps as early as in the middle of the eighth century. Additionally, cases from Sigtuna show that the practice may have ended as late as the beginning of the twelfth century. A microanalysis, using a scanning electron microscope, showed the heterogeneous character of the modifications. The affected individuals were all adult men, similar to previously published cases. Some of the men are associated with weapons and violent acts and the cases from Sigtuna were all from cemeteries with a possible association with lower social strata. However, discrepancies in archaeological contexts and in the characteristics of the modifications suggest temporal and spatial variation in the social meaning of the modifications.

Faunal reports from Magdalenian levels at Cueva de Nerja have been surveyed from both a taxonomic and a paleocultural standpoint in order to spot overall and specific patterns concerning the exploitation of animal resources. Although both diachronic and inter-site comparisons are limited due to the scarcity of data and the assemblages themselves have been studied by different scientists with different aims and methods, both first- and second-order magnitude patterns emerge from this study. The most important pattern concerns the constancy of the main subsistence basis throughout the periods under consideration despite dramatic differences in the diversity of cropped resources. Such a result substantiates, to a certain extent, the hypotheses concerning an intensification of cropping by humans during the latest stages of the upper Paleolithic (a phenomenon which we have named the ‘Tardiglacial paradigm’).