Reccopolis, in central Iberia, is the only archaeologically identified town founded by Germanic newcomers on Roman soil during the challenging socio-political and environmental circumstances of the mid to late sixth century AD. Despite archaeological investigations, doubts have persisted concerning the nature and size of Reccopolis. Recent geomagnetic survey, however, has revealed a dense urban fabric, unexpected new royal palace buildings, an extramural suburb and one of the potentially earliest Islamic mosques in Iberia. Reccopolis now stands as an exceptional example of early medieval urbanism that challenges our perceptions of urban development in sixth-century Europe.

Prehistoric copper and bronze objects are found throughout Island Southeast Asia, many of which were manufactured in Mainland Southeast Asia and exchanged over vast distances. The contexts of initial metal use and production across this maritime region are poorly known and rarely dated—particularly in the islands east of Wallace's Line. The authors report on two recent finds of bronze Dong Son drums in Timor-Leste, which, with their incised decoration, are examined in the context of elaborately shaped socketed axes depicted in the island's rock art, discussing their role and significance for understanding exchange networks and practices including raiding, headhunting and ceremonial activities.

Excavations of pre-pottery levels at Gua Talimbue and Gua Sambagowala in Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia, have yielded nearly 4kg of baked-clay fragments, half of which exhibit intentional patterning. The fragments appear to derive from clay hearths. Here, the authors link the patterning on Early Holocene (c. 9900–8800 cal BP) fragments with the intention to enhance the appearance of the hearths’ rims. During the Mid/Late Holocene (c. 4500–2000 cal BP), patterning shifts to the interior surfaces. The effort and specialised skills required to impress patterns on these hearths is, to date, unique in the archaeology of pre-Neolithic Island Southeast Asia.

The discovery of a tenth-century AD high-status burial at Prague Castle in 1928 led to multiple identifications in the context of two world wars and the Cold War. Recognised variously as both a Viking and Slavonic warrior according to Nazi and Soviet ideologies, interpretation of the interred individual and associated material culture were also entangled with the story of the burial's excavator, the remains and commemorative monuments of two Czech Unknown Soldiers and the creation of the Czechoslovak state. This epic narrative reflects the circumstances of Czechoslovakia and Central Europe across the twentieth century.

Due to its association with the Prophet Moses, the Byzantine monastery of Mount Nebo (AD 491–640) was (and still is) a popular pilgrimage destination in the southern Levant. Although foreign monastics were probably attracted to the monastery, communal interment has obscured the diverse origins of the people buried here. The authors use biogeochemical and onomastic inquiry to examine a cosmopolitan monastic ‘mosaic’ of identity. Isotopic analyses of tooth enamel reveal the presence of a sizeable number (47 per cent) of non-local migrants buried at the site. Mosaic inscriptions provide further evidence for the ethnic diversity of the population.

Iron-production sites of the early historic period in Mainland Southeast Asia (fifth to fifteenth centuries AD) are rare. Recent excavations at the Tonle Bak site in central Cambodia now provide the first evidence for furnace technology, metallurgical characteristics of slag concentrations and evidence for the organisation of local smelting communities and ritual practices during the peak of the Angkorian Khmer Empire. The results demonstrate that the smelters were directly integrated with Angkorian state-exchange networks. They also raise questions about the use of ethnohistorical records for understanding the identity and organisation of these early metalworkers.

As the Inca Empire was predominantly agrarian, the integration of local farming communities into a corporate agricultural system constituted a great challenge for the imperial political economy. The authors thus analyse an unusual circular structure in the Altos de Arica region of northern Chile, which resembles an important building—called ‘sunturhuasi’—in the capital, Cusco. They explore this structure using three-dimensional modelling, identifying its probable use in astronomical observations and hence its clear connection with the Inca agricultural calendar, ultimately suggesting that it was central to an imperial built environment related to the political economy of maize production.

Rain-fed cultivation in drylands—especially in arid and hyper-arid areas—is often considered to play a minor role in human subsistence. Drawing upon the results of ethnoarchaeological research in North Africa, this paper reviews non-irrigated agricultural practices in the absence of anthropogenic water-harvesting structures, and presents a proposal for how such practices can be identified in the drylands of the past. An improved understanding of the long-term development of rain-fed cultivation augments our knowledge of past land-use strategies and can inform future models of sustainable agriculture in some of the world's driest regions.

The Viking Age in the West has long been perceived as a direct, colonising expansion of Scandinavian peoples, its causes most frequently sought within Scandinavia and linked together as concerted phenomena. This debate piece seeks to question these assumptions. Drawing on recent research that stresses the heterogeneity of Viking war-bands—and their early involvement in Francia and England—it proposes a ‘southern route’ through which Viking influence flowed towards the North Atlantic. The saga-attested early dominance of Norway over the Northern Isles is challenged, and attributed to a politicised re-writing of history four centuries later.

Archaeological investigations at Unisław in western Poland have revealed a previously unknown stronghold of the Teutonic Order—the first of its type discovered in Prussia. Comprising a timber-and-earth fortress erected on an older Slavic settlement, the complex functioned up to the AD 1320s, before being replaced by a masonry castle. This new evidence illuminates how such strongholds developed during the colonisation and formative years of the State of the Teutonic Order, and highlights the need for the reconsideration of assumptions concerning the associated architecture.

The warrior woman has long been part of the Viking image, with a pedigree that extends from the Valkyries of Old Norse prose and poetry to modern media entertainment. Until recently, however, actual Viking Age evidence for such individuals has been sparse. This article addresses research showing that the individual buried at Birka in an ‘archetypal’ high-status warrior grave—always assumed to be male since its excavation in 1878—is, in fact, biologically female. Publication, in 2017, of the genomic data led to unprecedented public debate about this individual. Here, the authors address in detail the interpretation of the burial, discussing source-critical issues and parallels.

Inscriptional evidence suggests that the Phnom Kulen plateau to the north-east of Angkor in Cambodia was the location of Mahendraparvata—an early Angkorian capital city and one of the first capitals of the Khmer Empire (ninth to fifteenth centuries AD). To date, however, archaeological evidence has been limited to a scatter of small and apparently isolated shrines. Here, the authors combine airborne laser scanning with ground-based survey to define an extended urban network dating from the ninth century AD, which they identify as Mahendraparvata. This research yields new and important insights into the emergence of Angkorian urban areas.

Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating of deposits at the Lakaton'i Anja rockshelter site in Madagascar extends the chronology of human activity on the island back to 4500 BP. These results have roused archaeological and palaeoecological interest in the implications of mid Holocene human colonisation of remote islands in the Indian Ocean. There is, however, evidence of extensive bioturbation at the site, reflected in over-dispersion and other characteristics of the OSL data. It is argued here that OSL ages on minor sedimentary components indicate a much younger chronology consistent with radiocarbon dates for human activity no earlier than the first millennium AD.

Intent on recording in situ ancient sculptures at risk of deterioration, nineteenth-century archaeologists were at the forefront of an ambitious campaign of plaster-casting. Today, these surrogates preserve details now lost from the originals, but evaluation of their accuracy is of vital importance. Some of the earliest such casts are those held by the British Museum. This article investigates the efficacy of three-dimensional imaging for determining the accuracy of these casts, assessing whether they preserve lost information and whether they can be employed as reliable surrogates for the originals.

Recent excavations in the historic centre of ancient Jerusalem have revealed evidence of an Abbasid (eighth- to tenth-century AD) marketplace. Refuse pits and cesspits have yielded an exceptionally well-preserved archaeobotanical assemblage—the first to be recovered from a Levantine marketplace, and the first in the region to be almost entirely preserved by mineralisation. Among several rare species identified is the earliest discovery of aubergine in the Levant. The assemblage includes staple and luxury food plants, medicinal herbs and plants used for industrial production, illuminating patterns of consumption, production, trade and the socioeconomic structure of Abbasid Jerusalem.

Coastal archaeology is vulnerable to climate change, making the development of new techniques for the rapid recovery of information from the most threatened sites essential. The authors report a systematic kayak survey of a Chesapeake Bay sub-estuary undertaken during the winter months, when low tides and reduced vegetation maximise the visibility of archaeological material. Locations in the vulnerable intertidal zone were targeted for survey. Data were collected for 24 archaeological sites, illuminating local settlement chronology. This technique could be used for the survey of endangered coastal archaeology in other regions of the world.

Despite more than three decades of feminist critique, archaeological scholarship remains predominantly focused on the exploration of patriarchal narratives and is, therefore, complicit in reinforcing structural inequalities. Questions must be asked of how the construction of archaeological knowledge affects representation and impacts upon our ‘archaeologies’. This article explores the relative absence of gendered approaches within archaeology through the lens of later medieval archaeology, with a micro-focus on castle studies in Britain and Ireland. Are there reasons for the silence in relation to gender in the archaeology of the later Middle Ages, and what lessons are there for bringing about a more inclusive archaeology?

Stone cist graves dating to the Bronze Age through to the late medieval period are well attested across Western Europe. In the Americas, such cist graves are found only on the island of Saba in the Dutch Caribbean. First starting in the colonial period, this funerary practice continues on Saba to the present day, representing a cultural continuity with rural seventeenth-century populations—probably settlers from the British Isles. This article discusses the recent excavation of several cist burials on Saba, their structural forms and their relevance for understanding cultural continuity in the Caribbean of the historical period.

Lipid residues identified in Grooved Ware pottery from Durrington Walls have been interpreted as evidence for large-scale feasting associated with the construction of Stonehenge, around 2500 BC. While a function related to food consumption is possible, other explanations may be equally plausible. An alternative interpretation not previously considered is that these residues may be related to a non-food use of animal resources, such as in the production of tallow. Such an interpretation would support the ‘greased sled’ theory for the transport of the megaliths for Stonehenge.