Well-stratified Middle Palaeolithic assemblages are extremely rare in Mongolia. Initially investigated between the 1960s and 1990s, three major Middle Palaeolithic sites in the Orkhon Valley of central Mongolia yielded a large quantity of data and generated many research questions that still await answers. Re-investigation of these sites has uncovered chronostratigraphic and cultural sequences that may shed new light on human dispersal routes.

Archaeological reconnaissance and test excavation conducted in south-central Ethiopia reveal the region's rich Stone Age and Holocene archaeology. Ongoing lithic, faunal and dating analyses aim to understand chronological and behavioural contexts of prioritised rockshelters as part of a newly launched project. Speleothems in some of the caves promise high-resolution palaeoclimatic reconstruction.

Survey at Sar Pol-e Zahab has revealed a hitherto unknown long wall in western Iran. Possibly dating to the Partho-Sasanian period, the wall extends more than 100km along the modern border of Iraq and Iran.

Human sacrifice is a well-attested and much mythologised phenomenon of human society, but what constitutes human sacrifice? Why is socially sanctioned violence considered sacrifice? And why are human lives sacrificed? New research uses archaeological case studies from Scandinavia to understand performative violence.

O.G.S. Crawford was not only a prominent archaeologist, but also an active photographer who prioritised this relatively new medium in archaeological reserach. This article examines archival images taken by Crawford during the 1939 Sutton Hoo excavation, on the eve of its eightieth anniversary.

The authors introduce an ongoing project that explores a solution for the long-term preservation of proxies in archaeological and geological sediment cores to protect unique palaeoenvironmental data. To prevent alterations of organic properties and/or fungal growth, the sediment cores are vacuum freeze-dried, allowing long-term storage at 55 per cent relative humidity (RH).