A new review of the geoglyphs of the Atacama Desert in Northern Chile has allowed the author to define a vocabulary of forms and show how these relate to particular groups of people crossing the desert from the mountains to the sea in the prehispanic period. Geometric, zoomorphic and anthropomorphic symbols mark routes, destinations and usage by particular llama caravans. The travellers were key players in society and were winning prominence in their region from AD 800.

This update on radiocarbon calibration results from the 19th International Radiocarbon Conference at Oxford in April 2006, and is essential reading for all archaeologists. The way radiocarbon dates and absolute dates relate to each other differs in three periods: back to 12400 cal BP, radiocarbon dates can be calibrated with tree rings, and the calibration curve in this form should soon extend back to 18000 cal BP. Between 12400 and 26000 cal BP, the calibration curves are based on marine records, and thus are only a best estimate of atmospheric concentrations. Beyond 26000 cal BP, dates have to be based on comparison (rather than calibration) with a variety of records. Radical variations are thus possible in this period, a highly significant caveat for the dating of middle and lower Paleolithic art, artefacts and animal and human remains.

The authors propose a new model for the origins of humans and their ecological adaptation. The evolutionary stimulus lies not in the savannah but in broken, hilly rough country where the early hominins could hunt and hide. Such ‘roughness’, generated by tectonic and volcanic movement characterises not only the African rift valley but probably the whole route of early hominin dispersal.

Rock art in an inland cave on the island of Lifou, New Caledonia, has been radiocarbon dated. A cluster of early paintings date to 2500 years ago, soon after the arrival of the first settlers, who must have quickly gone inland probably in pursuit of fresh water, available near the cave. They left their mark on the cave in the form of numerous hand stencils. During the first millennium AD, later generations of artists used the same cave, drawing birds and a circular sign for water still recognised by the present community.

This paper shows the remarkable level of social history that can be drawn from the high quality excavation and analysis of a well-preserved stratigraphic sequence. A Bronze Age settlement in Cyprus could be defined as a series of households, comprising dwellings, outbuildings and courtyards that were established, extended, replaced or abandoned over some 500 years. The authors' interpretation offers intimate access to the private lives of the inhabitants over a period in which their settlement grew from a village to a town and then reverted to a deserted ruin.

For modern communities, she is the moon goddess and protectress of Maya culture and women; for scholars she is one of a number of deities with different roles in the Postclassic period. Which is the real Ixchel? The author excavates the story of the Maya goddess and her re-invention by myth-makers – including archaeologists.

Why did Palaeolithic people wear shells, and why was the practice so widespread in the world? The authors' own researches in Western Australia show that specific marine shells were targeted, subject to special processes of manufacture into beads and that some had travelled hundreds of kilometres from their source. Whether they were brought in land by the manufacturers, or by specially ornamented people, these beads provided a symbolic language that somehow kept the early peoples of Australia in touch with the sea.

The authors review the significance of bracers by undertaking a detailed examination of their morphology, fragmentation, manufacture and wear. The results have a number of implications regarding their use and value and this is supported by the use of petrographic and geochemical analyses which suggest discrete patterns of raw material acquisition. A description of the technical methodology and appropriate data tables are available at http://www.antiquity.ac.uk/projgall/woodward.

A new study of the group of kurgans (burial mounds) which stands near Orenburg at the south end of the Ural mountains has revealed a sequence that began in the early Bronze Age and continued intermittently until the era of the Golden Horde in the Middle Ages. The application of modern techniques of cultural and environmental investigation has thrown new light on the different circumstances and contexts in which mound burial was practised, and confirmed the association between investment in burial and nomadism.

Lapita pottery, the herald of the settlement of the wider island Pacific, turns out to have been painted with lime and clay, to give a red and white finish over the decorated surface. The find of a pot in Vanuatu, its sherds in different states of deterioration showed why painted Lapita has previously gone unrecognised. The author suggests that it was widespread from 1000 BC and reminds us that pottery was painted in China 7000 years ago.

The Teouma site, on Efate in central Vanuatu, was uncovered during quarrying in 2003 and has proved to be one of the most significant discoveries to date for the colonisation of Remote Oceania. Not only did it bring to light a fine assemblage of the famously diagnostic Lapita ceramics, but a cemetery of more than 25 individuals along with the pots. The skeletons offer an opportunity to investigate the origins of the ‘Lapita people’ who first appeared in the Bismarck archipelago around 3300 years ago and rapidly moved through island Melanesia and Western Polynesia over the next few centuries.

The system of exchange known as the Kula ring practised in recent times by the Trobriand Islanders has provided a powerful model for anthropology, but its roots in prehistory have remained elusive. Focusing on the island of Woodlark, the author and his team have surveyed the stone monuments which characterise the region and here assign them a date and social context. In them, they see evidence for prehistoric chiefdoms anticipating those studied by Malinowski.

The authors describe the first recognition of briquetage in Europe and the subsequent appreciation of the great prehistoric salt industry. Central to Iron Age production was the site of Briquetage de la Seille, where broken salt containers survive in mounds 12 metres high and half a kilometre long. New techniques map the source of brine, the workshops and the boilers. Salt production here knew two boom periods: the eighth to sixth and the second to first centuries BC.

Prehistorians and early historic archaeologists often puzzle over seemingly random distributions of artefacts remote from settlements. Here is at least one possible explanation. Using ethnographic and archaeological evidence the author reveals how an early historic people of central Russia used trees in their religion, and describes some of the meanings that lay behind their rituals.

Recent research including 781 radiocarbon dates and the excavation of Ses Arenes de Baix, has allowed a new review of the sequence of megalithic burial practice on Menorca. Rock-cut tombs, dolmens, caves with entrance-works and the famous boat-shaped houses and tombs (navetes) are placed in overlapping chronological order. The authors suggest that, while aware of contemporary developments on the continent, the Bronze Age islanders absorbed immigrants and made their own local choices of memorial architecture.

Archaeological excavations in Kuwait have revealed the earliest remains anywhere of sea-going boats. The author explains these remains and the distribution of Ubaid pottery as evidence for a system of maritime exchange in the Arabian Neolithic driven by status and ceremony.