Based on the identification of modern dung remains on the TT123 tomb wall, I propose to think of TT123 in new ways, looking for other possible realities besides those produced by the processes of recognition, identification and categorization that dominate the archaeological interpretive process. The idea is to seek to understand TT123 from new traditions and new knowledge to produce something new. The idea is not to ask what TT123 means, but to understand how it works within the different possible encounters in which it is inserted. More than offering just another point of view in relation to those with epistemic privilege, I will try to demonstrate that other realities are possible and that such alternative realities can have political and material consequences. An alternative reality is not reality, it is only a potential reality.

Archaeologists, like many other scholars in the Social Sciences and Humanities, are particularly concerned with the study of past and present subalterns. Yet the very concept of ‘the subaltern’ is elusive and rarely theorized in archaeological literature, or it is only mentioned in passing. This article engages with the work of Gramsci and Patricia Hill Collins to map a more comprehensive definition of subalternity, and to develop a methodology to chart the different ways in which subalternity is manifested and reproduced.

This paper focuses on the new approach studying variations in city size and the impact that the Silk Road had on the structure of cities, demonstrated through the study of economic aspects of the Bukhara oasis. We use archaeological data, compare the ancient economy to modern ones, use modern economic theory and methods to understand ancient society, and use what we have learned about the ancient economy to understand modern economies better. In sum, we explore the past through the present and the latter through the former. Our main finding is the generation of models able to answer to the city-size distribution in different territories, comparing them between the past and the present. This study first revealed that, through Zipf's Law, we found similarities between modern post-Industrial Revolution and medieval economics. Secondly, we also found that in ancient times the structure of the city was linked with the local economic demand. We have demonstrated this through the study of cities along the Silk Road.

This article seeks to approach the famous tenth-century account of the burial of a chieftain of the Rus, narrated by the Arab traveller Ibn Fadlan, in a new light. Placing focus on how gendered expectations have coloured the interpretation and subsequent archaeological use of this source, we argue that a new focus on the social agency of some of the central actors can open up alternative interpretations. Viewing the source in light of theories of human sacrifice in the Viking Age, we examine the promotion of culturally appropriate gendered roles, where women are often depicted as victims of male violence. In light of recent trends in theoretical approaches where gender is foregrounded, we perceive that a new focus on agency in such narratives can renew and rejuvenate important debates.

The life-histories of gold artefacts can provide rich insight into technology and culture, but so far the potential of this research approach has not been exploited in the south central Andes. Here we present the analysis of 34 gold and silver objects from the Middle Period cemetery of Casa Parroquial (San Pedro de Atacama, northern Chile), using pXRF, SEM-EDS, PIXE and digital microscopy. Chemical analyses detected variable compositions (2.4–73.1 per cent Ag and 0.2–3.4 per cent Cu) suggesting that artisans used both native gold and artificial gold-silver-copper alloys. Based on their manufacturing techniques, quality and designs, we identify two working styles, one technically more ‘careful’ than the other. Given their elemental and technological variety, together with the lack of local production evidence, we propose that these artefacts were imported as finished objects from Tiwanaku or Cochabamba and northwest Argentina. However, we identify a series of objects that were modified or reshaped as they entered a new cultural context, revealing complex life-histories. Modifications used relatively simple mechanical means: punching, cutting and folding, most likely made in multi-craft contexts by non-metallurgists from San Pedro.

In the Late Mesolithic graves of Yuzhniy Oleniy Ostrov, northwest Russia, large numbers of Eurasian elk (Alces alces) incisors have been found. These teeth, for the most part fashioned into portable pendants, seem to have formed decorative sets for the garments or accessories of the deceased. This article examines both the technologies associated with these artefacts and their uses, as well as reflecting on the sensorial experiences generated by them. Osteological analysis of a sample of 100 specimens indicates that all types of incisors were used for making the pendants. Traceological analysis indicates that the teeth were modified by scraping, grooving, grinding and retouching. Traces of wear consist of general wear and distinctive pits or pecks on the perimeters of the crowns. These traces indicate that the pendants were worn before their deposition in the graves, in such a way that they were in contact with both soft and solid materials. This pattern of pits or pecks has until now been unreported in the traceological literature. In experiments, a similar pattern emerged when pendants of fresh elk incisors were hung in rows and bunches and struck against one another. These strokes created a rattling sound. Thus, the elk incisors of Yuzhniy Oleniy Ostrov appear to provide insight into previously unattainable sonic experiences and activities of Mesolithic hunter-gatherers, as well as the early history of the instrument category of rattles.

Domestic architecture played a central role in the identity of later prehistoric communities, particularly in creating lasting bonds between the living and the dead. Acting as a conduit of memory and legacy for successive generations of inhabitants, roundhouses straddled the divide between house and memorial. The exceptionally well preserved Late Iron Age settlement at Broxmouth in southeast Scotland demonstrates the potential of biographical approaches in understanding the central role that roundhouses played in fashioning the identity of successive households, and the role of objects in constructing genealogical narratives.

This paper examines the debate over whether Acheulean handaxe shape results from the intentional imposition of a priorly held mental template upon the lithic material substrate or, alternatively, whether a knapper's intentions related to shape ‘emerge’ through the engagement (in action) of human agency and material affordances. We suggest that imposition of form and emergence of form are not mutually exclusive, and use Lave and Wenger's concept of ‘communities of practice’ to knit these opposed views together to explain the consolidation of homogenous handaxe shape at Boxgrove, c. 500,000 years ago. Here we propose that the consistency in handaxe shape found at sites like Boxgrove is a consequence of the emergent actions of individual knappers being simultaneously constrained by the imposition of social norms. Social norms are referred to in action and are negotiated, understood, and adhered to at the wider group level. Therefore, we propose that contextualizing Acheulean handaxe manufacture within its wider social context will show that handaxe shape was both imposed and emergent, not one or the other.

The interpretation of Late Iron Age burial mounds often focuses exclusively on the discovered contents, the social identity or role of the interred and the economic and political implications that can be extracted. This article considers the mound itself as a basis for archaeological interpretation, and attempts to place substantial late Iron Age burial mounds within the landscape they are made of. Within these burial mounds internal references to time, place and the transformations and imbued associations within the earth-sourced materials are purposeful and significant. This is illustrated via comparable examples from southern Norway, and to add contrast, cases from the Viking Age Isle of Man will be explored. This article will outline why the selected mounds should be seen as closely related to each other in the references they contain, and how the materials used can be seen as a purposeful link to the land itself.

A fragmentary large chlorite vessel of the Halil Rud valley civilization (Kerman, Iran, mid third millennium bc), found in unknown circumstances and recently recovered by the police forces of Iran, is discussed in the wider scenario of coeval animal iconographies of middle and southwest Asia. Beginning from the imagery carved in the two superimposed friezes of the reassembled fragments, we review the different theoretical approaches in interpretation of similar animal iconography. The figuration of the vessel is interpreted as a scene of the scavenging of bovine carcasses by three different animal actors: lions and birds of prey/vultures, but also hyenas—a subject previously unknown in the art of the reference regions. Following a review of the interrelations of these species in scavenging and with humans, particularly in the coeval context of domestic animal exploitation and developing urban settlement, we investigate the potential semantic implications of the iconography in terms of the symbolism and ideology in the social context.