The volcanic Javaketi Range (Lesser Caucasus, Georgia) has recently aroused the interest of both geologists and archaeologists on account of its rich environmental and geological history, the prehistoric exploitation of its raw materials and the discovery of archaeological sites ranging from the Palaeolithic to the Historical Ages (Gogadze 1980; Kikodze 1983). In 2012 and 2014, two systematic surveys were conducted on Mount Chikiani (Koyundağ) with the aim of defining the areas from which obsidian was obtained during different prehistoric periods, and to characterise its sources (Biagi & Gratuze 2016). A longer season of archaeological prospection was carried out in 2016. Among the many important finds was the discovery of a large number of obsidian mining pits along the northern and north-eastern lower slopes of the volcano (Figure 1), as well as several obsidian workshops. During the 2016 season, research focused on the 2417m-high trachyrhyolitic dome—a source of high-quality obsidian—emerging from the plain around 300m north-east of Lake Paravani.

The Central Belize Archaeological Survey (CBAS) was initiated in 2005 as a sub-project of the Belize Valley Archaeological Reconnaissance project (BVAR; directed by Jaime Awe) to investigate the prehistoric Maya cemetery site of Caves Branch Rockshelter. Subsequently, we began to survey other nearby cave and rockshelter sites (Hardy 2009) and to excavate the monumental civic-ceremonial centre of Deep Valley (Jordan 2008). CBAS became an independent project in 2009, with an increasing focus on sites in the neighbouring Roaring Creek Valley (Figure 1). This slight geographic shift was in part intended to expand bioarchaeological investigations to include dark zone cave contexts identified during the late 1990s by BVAR's Western Belize Regional Cave Project. In the area around these caves, we identified two large, previously unreported civic-ceremonial centres and a network of raised roads (sacbeob) connecting them and other sites. Our survey and excavations at Tipan Chen Uitz (Figure 2) have yielded evidence that it was a regional capital with ties to powerful foreign polities, as attested by the discovery of multiple carved stone monuments (Figure 3; see Andres et al. 2014; Helmke & Andres 2015; Andres et al. in press in Antiquity). We have also continued our investigations of mortuary rockshelters, including Sapodilla Rockshelter in the Caves Branch Valley.

The EARMEDCASTILE project, based at the University of the Basque Country, has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme, Marie Sklodowska-Curie Action (grant agreement 656540); http://earmedcastile.blogspot.com).

Despite archaeological interest in the study of the origins of public architecture in the Andes, there remain a number of gaps in our knowledge, especially in the area between the Chancay and Lurin Valleys on the central coast of Peru. This situation may, in part, result from how we have approached the study of the Formative period. In particular, the lack of intensive studies in several types of sites and valleys means that we have incomplete knowledge of wider settlement systems. As a result, we know very little about the existence of smaller settlements, only the great public centres. Nor do we understand how the unique occupational histories of each site and valley developed. This is despite the fact that investigations of the period began with middens and sites with modest architecture such as Bellavista or Ancón (Uhle 1906; Rosas 2007). Yet this shortcoming has not been an obstacle to formulating explanatory models, which have focused on the origin of early public architecture. The current dominant explanatory model for the emergence of architectural monumentality focuses on the concept of the concentration of power (e.g. Haas 1982; Trigger 1990). Our project at El Pacífico takes a different perspective, seeing these mounds as a palimpsest of social experiences and socially constructed places to preserve community memory and traditional patterns of life (Dillehay 1990; Tilley 1994; Rosenswig & Burger 2012; Flores 2014).

Archaeological excavations of urban sites in the Mediterranean have a long history, but only recently are geoarchaeology-based landscape studies beginning to provide insight into the complex and dynamic relationships between cities and their hinterlands. Such studies are becoming increasingly important as archaeologists seek to understand how cities sustained themselves, demonstrating resilience to both external shocks and long-term environmental changes, and, conversely, how cities contributed to their own demise through the over-exploitation of environmental resources (Barthel & Isendahl 2013; Butzer et al. 2013; Kintigh et al. 2014; Nelson et al. 2016).

Archaeological work in the 1960s in the middle Nepeña Valley of coastal Peru (Figure 1) identified an artificial earthen mound or pyramid, approximately 15.5m high, with what was interpreted to be a crater dug into the top (Proulx 1968). This site has been variously known as Wanka, Huaca de Muro and El Bocón (PV31-55 in the Peruvian Ministry of Culture files). When viewed from a distance (Figure 2), the site resembles a volcanic cinder cone, such as the one in the Andahua Valley in southern Peru (Figure 3), and we have therefore named the site El Volcán. It should be noted, however, that there are no volcanoes in the vicinity of El Volcán to serve as models, nor indeed are any other examples of volcano-shaped structures known from Peru or elsewhere.

After the Portuguese discovered the Cape Verde Islands in AD 1456 they divided its main island, Santiago, into two governing captaincies. The founding settlement in the south-west, Cidade Velha, soon became the Islands’ capital and a thriving trade centre; in contrast, that in the east, Alcatrazes, only lasted as an official seat from 1484–1516 and is held to have ‘failed’ (see Richter 2015).

The site of Pire Mazar Balandar (or PMB001) is located near the village of Balandar in the Khorasan region of north-eastern Iran (33°09′37.64′′N, 59°29′52′′E; Figure 1). It consists of an outcrop of volcanic rock on a mountain peak (1532m asl) on the north-eastern side of the Binaloud range, above the city of Mashhad (Figure 2).

The archaeological site of Quebrada de Oro, southern Belize, is one of four ancient Maya settlement sites, mainly dating to the Classic period (AD 250–900), that are situated in the Bladen Branch drainage of the southern Maya Mountains proper. This remote location has long been taken to imply that the region was a political backwater, but the recent discovery of an ancient Maya causeway system associated with Quebrada de Oro—the first significant example to be documented in this area—sheds new light on this group of Maya sites (Figure 1).

Plant foods are closely connected to cultural, social and economic aspects of human societies, both past and present. Food-preparation techniques and the etiquette of consumption involve complex interactions of natural resources and human cultures. During European prehistory, these changes included the shift to sedentism, the cultivation and domestication of plants, food storage, the production and exchange of alcoholic beverages and luxury foodstuffs, and the continuous adaptation of established culinary practices to newcomers in fields and gardens.