The authors present a new, interdisciplinary project focusing on the interaction between people and the landscape within abandoned and populated villages following the founding of Niokola-Koba National Park in south-eastern Senegal. In this article, they assess anthropogenic transformations from geoarchaeological, ethnoarchaeological and ethnobotanical perspectives in order to document and preserve the heritage of both displaced and settled agricultural communities.

This article discusses the objectives of the Stone Age Man in Caves of the Tatra Mountains project, which aims to explain the mysterious absence of evidence for the Palaeolithic in the Tatra Mountains of Eastern Europe. We present preliminary work from Hučivá Cave, which demonstrates clear traces of Magdalenian settlement within this region.

New excavations at the Jebel Moya cemetery in Sudan reveal previously unknown, continuous burial activity from the third millennium BC to c. 2000 years ago. Radiometric dates, archaeobotanical analyses and new approaches to the pottery sequence reveal a long-lasting and vibrant community in what was previously dismissed as a marginal environment in south-central Sudan.

The Çanakkale-Balıkesir Coastline Palaeolithic Survey Project covers the Çanakkale and Balıkesir coastlines of the Aegean. It aims to reveal Palaeolithic assemblages and their connection to the surrounding islands—primarily Lesbos. In 2021, four important findspots were detected on the Çanakkale coastline, and more than 500 lithics were uncovered, exhibiting the characteristics of large cutting tools, as well as pebble and prepared core technologies. These tools attest to the presence of hominins along the Çanakkale coastline during the Lower Palaeolithic.

Northern Britain is one of a few areas in Western Europe over which the Roman Empire did not establish full control. In order to reassess the impact of Rome in this northernmost frontier, the new Leverhulme-funded project Beyond Walls is analysing the long-term transformation of settlement patterns in an area extending from south of Hadrian's Wall to north of the Antonine Wall. The results of a pilot study around Burnswark hillfort demonstrate the potential of such a landscape-based approach.

Beginning in the Middle Palaeolithic, human populations penetrated areas of Central Asia that are today characterised by extremely arid conditions. Mongolia's Gobi Desert comprises one such region. Tsagaan Agui Cave presents an example of the later Pleistocene occupation of this area, containing stratified evidence of diachronic, intense human and animal occupation.

New research at the Doroshivtsi site in Ukraine has provided data that allow fresh insights into a well-known and important Gravettian site in the Middle Dniester Valley.

Three seasons of archaeological fieldwork by the Avdat in Late Antiquity Project have yielded new evidence of intensive Early Islamic activity in the late antique town of Avdat in Israel's Negev Highlands. This evidence has important implications for understanding the fate of such towns in the region during the Byzantine–Islamic transition.

This study presents preliminary discoveries from Sding Chung cave, an early multi-burial cave site in the Himalayan highlands dating from 300BC–AD 300. Multiple human and animal bones within the cave provide unique evidence for understanding the diverse mortuary rituals and biocultural adaptations in this region.

The microscopic analysis of tool marks on objects from the Late Bronze Age ‘shaman's grave’ at Przeczyce, Poland, has demonstrated that two wild boar tusk pendants, a bone disc and a set of bone tubes were manufactured exclusively using metal tools. We argue that the tubes were a musical instrument that originally consisted of several separate pieces, rather than a pan flute, as has previously been suggested.

South-eastern Iran flourished during the Bronze Age and several important settlements from this period have been excavated. Few contemporaneous cemeteries, however, have been investigated. Excavations at Bampur 14 have revealed 10 graves dating from the late fourth to early second millennium BC. Finds include a copper-bronze seal and a stone column, demonstrating connections with north-eastern Iran and Central Asia.

Nearly 500 kite-like structures have recently been discovered in the western Sahara using high resolution satellite images. Although four distinct types with different morphologies have been distinguished, their characteristics, topographical location and orientation in the landscape indicate that they are all most likely hunting traps.

Large, conglomerate caves in north-eastern Iberia have been significant places since the Neolithic through to historical times; however, their significance during the Palaeolithic has barely been explored. This project is the first systematic study of the use of these iconic geological landmarks among Pleistocene hunter-gatherers.

This article presents an innovative methodology in which virtual reality-based eye-tracking techniques and 3D Geographical Information Systems are employed to record and measure human visual attention within the virtually reconstructed space of a Pompeian house.

The transformation of Second World War heritage sites is a common challenge for today's memory culture. In this project, we combine ground truthing with drone-based, high-resolution laser scanning to document recent anthropogenically and environmentally caused transformation processes, and to raise public awareness of the importance of the ever-changing conflict landscape of the ‘Huertgen Forest’.

Archaeological fieldwork at the fortified site of Kuiyukexiehai'er (Koyuk Shahri) in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of north-western China yields the earliest known evidence for urban occupation in the Tarim Basin, providing new insights into early urbanism and agro-pastoral subsistence practices in the region during the first millennium BC.

European urban dark earth investigations have aided our understanding of Late Roman and early medieval populations and their activities. Deposits from two locations below Exeter Cathedral were compared in a geoarchaeological study and contrasting uses of space were identified. This supports the need for case-by-case investigations of urban deposits.

We explore the long-term environmental and human history of a small outer coast archipelago on the Northwest Coast in western Canada. Using relative sea-level change, we reconstruct ancient landscapes to design archaeological surveys that document a rich archaeological record spanning at least 11 000 years and demonstrate the cultural centrality of this geographically marginal landscape.

Reconstructing the history of elite communication in ancient China benefits from additional archaeological evidence. We combine textual analysis with new human stable carbon and nitrogen isotope data from two Chu burials in the Jingzhou area to reveal significant dietary differences among Chu nobles of the middle Warring States period (c. 350 BC). This research provides important new information on the close interaction between the aristocratic families of the Qin and Chu.

In a sculpted frieze on a lintel of the so-called Temple of Allat at Hatra (second century AD), two rows of sitting camels converge towards a possible royal portrait. The two lead animals were previously interpreted as Bactrian camels. We reconsider this interpretation in light of recent information on ancient and contemporary practices of hybridisation between Camelus bactrianus and Camelus dromedarius.