Many archaeological objects are recovered as fragments, and 3D modelling offers enormous potential for the analysis and reconstruction of large assemblages. In particular, structured light scanning provides an accurate record of individual artefacts and can facilitate the identification of joins through details of breakage surfaces and overall morphology. The creation of 3D digital models has the further advantage of enabling the records to be accessed and manipulated remotely, obviating the need for prolonged access to the original materials in museums or repositories. Here, the authors detail the use of structured light scanning to produce a corpus of 3D models based on a sample from a large assemblage of terracotta and limestone sculptural fragments from the Cypro-Archaic period (c. 750–475 BC) at Athienou-Malloura, Cyprus.

This paper focuses on evidence from firewood remains from a Napoleonic camp located at Étaples (in the north of France), inhabited between 1803 and 1805. The combination of archaeological and relevant historical records indicates that wood resources, stockpiled for lighting and heating by the soldiers, may have originated from two distinct areas: the army's official forest and also the area around the camp, indicating possible difficulties in wood supply at the end of its occupation. This study, therefore, uses archaeological charcoal to reinforce military historical sources in understanding firewood economy and the harsh everyday life of the Napoleonic soldier at the beginning of the nineteenth century.

How should we identify, protect and preserve contemporary heritage? Five years ago, comparisons in an Antiquity paper between the ‘simulations of scenes’ drawn on the wall of 6 Denmark Street by John Lydon, during Sex Pistols rehearsals in the 1970s, and the Palaeolithic cave art of Lascaux provoked a strong response. Less contentious was the recent listing of the building, bringing its punk artworks under statutory protection. In this follow-up to their earlier article, the authors review the initial reaction from the media, the public and the artist himself, and consider how attitudes may have shifted. They also offer a novel, ‘punk’-informed approach to the management of cultural heritage.

The discovery of an unusual early medieval plough coulter in a well-dated Anglo-Saxon settlement context in Kent suggests that continentally derived technology was in use in this powerful kingdom centuries before heavy ploughs were first depicted in Late Saxon manuscripts. The substantial investment required to manufacture the coulter, the significant damage and wear that it sustained during use and the circumstances of its ultimate ritual deposition are explored. Investigative conservation, high-resolution recording and metallographic analysis illuminate the form, function and use-life of the coulter. An examination of the deposition contexts of plough-irons in early medieval northern Europe sheds important new light on the ritual actions of plough symbolism in an age of religious hybridity and transformation.

Widespread violence and military conflicts dominate many historical accounts of the Early Middle Ages in Europe, but archaeological evidence to corroborate such a picture has hitherto been scarce. Analysis of human remains from the Bohemian stronghold of Budeč offers a unique insight into one such event: a wave of violence that probably followed the removal of Duke Wenceslas from power by his brother Boleslav I in AD 935. A mass grave near the hillfort holds mainly male burials that show numerous injuries sustained from sword blows, testifying to the human cost of this disturbance and demonstrating the structure and reality of early medieval violence.

Analogies are an important tool of archaeological reasoning. The Kalahari San are frequently depicted in introductory texts as archetypal, mobile hunter-gatherers, and they have influenced approaches to archaeological, genetic and linguistic research. But is this analogy fundamentally flawed? Recent arguments have linked the San populations of southern Africa with the late Pleistocene Later Stone Age (c. 44 kya) at Border Cave, South Africa. The authors argue that these and other claims for the Pleistocene antiquity of modern-day cultures arise from a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of cultural and archaeological taxonomies, and that they are a misuse of analogical reasoning.

Recognising elements of a ‘modern’ mind or complex cognition in Stone Age archaeology is difficult and often disputed. A key question is whether, and in what way, the thinking of Homo sapiens differs from that of other species/sub-species of hominins. We argue that if the question of whether the modern mind is different from that of our ancestors or other members of the hominin family is to be fully explored, some focus should fall on technologies and behaviours unique to H. sapiens.

Since the establishment of the Portable Antiquities Scheme, the systematic reporting of metal-detected finds in England and Wales has increased our knowledge of distribution patterns and complemented the evidence from assemblages uncovered by conventional excavation. The large number of Roman metal small finds documented, particularly brooches, now allows for a quantitative comparison between those recovered through excavation and those discovered by metal-detecting. This study shows that certain artefact morphologies are more easily detected than others, resulting in differential rates of representation in the archaeological record. It is suggested that similar biases can be seen in artefacts from other periods. This has important consequences for anyone wishing to use metal-detected material in synthetic studies.

Post-colonial tensions remain fresh among Indigenous communities in Mexico and Guatemala. The survival of local Maya heritage narratives in the face of conflicting belief systems, the increased commodification of antiquities and the decline of traditional ways of life is increasingly difficult. At Santiago Atitlán in the Guatemalan highlands, and at Tahcabo in the state of Yucatán, Mexico, individuals have sought to preserve traditional narratives through ontological constructs and by enacting hybridity. These studies demonstrate how collaborative archaeology and ethnoarchaeology highlight the perspectives of Indigenous communities and contribute towards greater multi-vocality.

Future scientists seeking evidence of the Anthropocene on a planetary scale will find a series of structurally similar deposits dating to within the same few thousand years at multiple locations around the world. It will be evident that they were produced by a global human drive to exploit the Earth's mineral wealth. The impact and the evidence left by this phenomenon in the ‘Gold Rush’ region of Victoria, Australia are particularly clear. Using a multi-scalar approach, the authors examine the extent and significance of changes resulting from water management and mining processes, which, in some cases, resulted in the creation of new landscapes far beyond the mining district.

Accurate, efficient and clear recording is a key aim of archaeological field studies, but one not always achieved. Errors occur and information is not always properly recorded. Left unresolved, these errors create confusion, delay analysis and result in the loss of data, thereby causing misinterpretation of the past. To mitigate these outcomes, quick response (QR) codes were used to record the rock art of Telperion Shelter in Mpumalanga Province, eastern South Africa. The QR codes were used to store important contextual information. This increased the rate of field recording, reduced the amount of field errors, provided a cost effective alternative to conventional field records and enhanced data presentation. Such a tool is useful to archaeologists working in the field, and for those presenting heritage-based information to a specialist, student or amateur audience in a variety of formats, including scientific publications. We demonstrate the tool's potential by presenting an overview and critique of our use of QR codes at Telperion Shelter.

When the antiquities trade is discussed in archaeology it is often prefixed with the pejorative adjective ‘illicit’. ‘Archaeology without context’ is a rallying cry for the archaeological profession to mobilise its collective voice in order to petition against the sale of heritage where an object's history is opaque and very probably a result of destructive looting (Chippindale et al.2001; Brodie 2006). The vocal campaign of the last decade to ensure that high-profile sales and museum acquisitions of material without documented collection histories do not encourage or sanction looting (e.g. Renfrew 2000; Brodie et al. 2006) has had some success, although objects without findspots continue to surface on the market (e.g.

Photogrammetry provides an accessible, cost-effective means of creating a high-resolution, digital 3D record of archaeological artefacts. The methodology has been widely adopted, but a number of issues remain, especially in relation to model variability, and to misalignments that result in gaps in the models generated. Two new approaches are presented here that have been shown to increase standardisation during data capture and processing routines. This ensures that models are seamless and quantitatively accurate.

The Black Death swept across Europe and Asia in the fourteenth century, killing millions and devastating communities. Recent re-evaluations of source data, the discovery of new plague cemeteries and advances in genotyping have caused scholars to reconsider the extent of the devastation and to revise estimated mortality rates upwards. But what was the true impact of this catastrophic episode? Systematic test-pitting can reveal changes in medieval demography that can be both quantified and mapped at a range of scales. Comparing the relative amounts of high medieval (copious) to late medieval (much scarcer) pottery suggests that the pottery-using population across eastern England was around 45% lower in the centuries after the Black Death than before, and such comparison identifies exactly where this contraction was the most and least severely felt.