This paper presents twelve new radiocarbon dates from copper mines at Monte Loreto in Liguria, northwest Italy, which indicate that extraction began around 3500 cal BC, making these the earliest copper mines to be discovered in Western Europe so far. The dates are placed in their regional context, with a discussion of results from Libiola and other sites associated with early copper mining.

The cities of Greece had their own calendars, so how did they all know when the god Apollo had returned from the northern realms and it was time to consult the oracle at Delphi? The authors show that the heliacal rising of the constellation Delphinus probably provided the annual marker, and that because of the mountains it appeared to rise a month later at Delphi than elsewhere, giving would-be visitors time to travel. The landscape of Delphi was itself instrumental in creating or enhancing the cosmology of Apollo.

Living at high altitude carries risks, so settlement there can be thought marginal. Its success or failure ought to be dependent on the environment and the climate. But recent fieldwork in the French Alps shows that exploitation was not coincident with climatic conditions: Mesolithic people found the hunting good; in the climatic optimum of the Roman period the high altitudes were said to be uninhabitable and apparently were; while in the Little Ice Age of the fourteenth century and later, the high Alps were at their busiest. The author hypothesises that social control and perception, rather than climate, were the determinant factors.

Late Pleistocene and early post-Pleistocene communities in East Asia experimented with pottery production and the domestication of plants and animals. What was the nature of the social organisation of these early small-scale societies? Some North American writers consider pottery making to be a ‘prestige technology’ sponsored by aggrandising individuals. However, examples from south of the Nanling Mountains and other areas have simple tool assemblages and site plans showing very little evidence of social differences. Judging from recent debates about social agency, there are more appropriate explanations for the earliest pottery making, which focus on the collective rather than the individual.

The Indonesian archipelago (Island Southeast Asia) now has the largest Muslim population in the world. How, when and why did Islam arrive? Archaeological investigations show that the conversion process was long and patchy with many forces at work.

The authors show how the Gandharan art of early first millennium Afghanistan used Greek and Roman motifs to give an international context to Buddhist sculpture and reduce tension at home and with the neighbours.

The author explores a changing core–periphery relationship in first millennium AD Peru, from the viewpoint of a small North Highlands village.

Comparing the source of a commodity with the social levels of the people amongst whom it is found can reveal important aspects of social structure. This case study of a Maya community, using archaeological and ethnographic data, shows that pine and pine charcoal was procured at a distance and distributed unevenly in settlements. The researchers deduce that this commodity was not freely available in the market place, but was subject to political control.

The author reviews the development of Islamic archaeology in Spain, Portugal and Morocco through its publications and fieldwork, identifying research themes such as ceramic studies, fortified settlement and landscape archaeology, irrigation and urban archaeology. Features excavated in Spain or Portugal can best be understood through ethno-archaeological studies of the Moroccan landscape and its living traditions.

How do prehistoric settlement patterns relate to competition for resources? The distribution of fortified and open sites provides one indication, but using an example from Fiji, the author shows that land holding recorded in historic times may also provide a fossil of earlier competition. Comparing the land parcels and the fortified sites with the ecological zones showed that it was the richer – but less reliable – lower parts of the Sigatoka valley that were most fought over, leaving a patchwork of small defended claims, while the upper areas supported larger, co-operative land units.

The flight of Muhammad and his companions from Mecca to Medina in AD 622 (the hijra) initiated one of the world’s great intellectual and cultural movements, which in a few centuries was to extend from China to the Atlantic. As western archaeologists, we have probably accorded relative neglect to the study of the material culture arising from Islam, although it clearly has much to offer for the understanding of all societies. To help redress the balance, Antiquity has invited a number of scholars active in the archaeology of Islamic culture to give us a taste of work in progress. This special series, which will feature in each issue in 2005, is introduced by its convenor, Andrew Petersen.

The author finds that cemeteries in early first millennium Japan reflect the associations of family with land. The burial parties of a core settlement could be seen to be referring to earlier burials in a dynastic or genealogical sequence, while a secondary settlement developed its burial ground in a disordered sequence. Thus Koji Mizoguchi shows that the differences between the haves and have-nots extended their having, or not having, a history.

What was the archaeological context of the rise of Islam in Arabia? The author uses new work from Eastern Arabia to show that the advent of Islam coincided with the decline of the Sasanian hegemony and one of Arabia’s least affluent periods in 3500 years of history.

Our knowledge of rural settlement in Jordan during the Islamic periods is strongly coloured by perceptions about the relationship between the ‘Desert’ and the ‘Sown’, between ‘nomad’ and ‘farmer’. This has affected interpretations regarding settlement pattern and economy. In addition, there have been methodological problems in collecting the data relevant to these interpretations. An alternative to this polarised model is suggested and used to interpret the settlement history of Khirbat Faris, more particularly its architecture.

We are privileged to offer a summary of the massive campaign of excavation and survey conducted by the author and his team from Japan in northern Egypt and the neighbouring coast of Sinai. Over the last few years they have excavated a large sector of al-Fustat (the early Islamic settlement on the outskirts of modern Cairo), mapped the early Christian monastery at Wadi al-Tur (sixth–twelfth century AD), recorded early Islamic rock inscriptions on Mt Naqus eighth–twentieth century AD), mapped the port and mosque at Raya (originating in the sixth–twelfth or thirteenth century AD) and investigated on a large scale the fourteenth–twentieth-century sequence at al-Kilani (al-Tur). Among the objects unearthed at al-Kilani were 4000 fragments of manuscripts. The work is throwing new light on early Islam, its development of social and commercial networks, and its relation with Christian, Coptic and Byzantine cultures.

Exploring the archaeological correlates of Islam in Bahrain, the author finds that ‘Islamic identity’ is no singular condition: communities are diverse, exhibiting a culture that is rich, multicultural and complex.

The author considers the prospects of Islamic archaeology in one of the most politically sensitive places in the world.

The social use of granaries in the medieval hinterland of Islamic Murcia is illuminated through ethnographic studies in modern Morocco.

The ‘desert castles’ are key structures of the early Islamic expansion. They resemble Roman forts – which may have provided models for those in Jordan. But the authors show that a well-researched example in Iraq is likely to have been a palace site before the area was Islamicised.

Samarra, built and abandoned during the ninth century, can claim to be the largest archaeological site in the world. Here, Alastair Northedge offers a brief account of what is known about it, and begins by placing it in the context of the world’s most famous historic cities.