Sixteen Hellenistic stelae from the central and upper Adriatic region have been examined minero-petrographically and isotopically in order to determine the provenance of their constituent materials. On stylistic and epigraphic grounds all the stelae date from the third to first century bc and have been related by archaeologists to Greek Delian workshops and/or to local Adriatic ateliers. Laboratory analyses showed a local provenance for the limestone stele (Mount Conero, Ancona), the prevailing use of Parian marble from Lakkoi (10 out of 15 stelae) and the minor exploitation of three other marbles (Lunense from Carrara, Proconnesian from the island of Marmara, and Lesbian from Moria). The results confirm contacts between the Adriatic and central Aegean areas in the Hellenistic period, indicating more than one possible origin for the marble stelae: they may have been imported as finished pieces from the Aegean-Attic region, and/or worked locally — imitating the ‘Greek style’ – from small blocks of marble imported from Greece. In addition, the results provide new evidence for the use of Italic marble from Carrara.

Cognitive complexity is defined here as the capacity for abstract thought, analogical reasoning, cognitive fluidity, innovative thought, complex goal-directed actions, flexibility in problem-solving, multi-tasking, task switching, response inhibition and planning over long distances or time. Some of these attributes are archaeologically recognizable in transformative technologies such as heat treatment of rocks and ochre, and the manufacture of compound adhesives and paints. Advanced executive functions of the brain are also required for remote capture during snaring, which is implied by circumstantial archaeological evidence. Some technologies seem good indicators of complex cognition and the emphasis here is on making the connection, but this does not mean that cognition necessarily drove innovation in the past any more than it does today. The recursive relationships between cognition, social behaviour and technology mean that change cannot be attributed to a single stimulus.

A phenomenon noted in early sedentary and semi-sedentary settlements in the southern Levant is the use of groundstone tools as ‘building material’ incorporated into structure walls. It is argued in this article that these artefacts should not be perceived merely as construction material, but rather they should be seen as having a symbolic purpose owing to the social and economic significance that groundstone tools acquired during the transition to agriculture and the growing importance of food processing. This assumed symbolic purpose may also originate from ritual contexts in which these artefacts processed foodstuffs and other substances, thereby becoming ‘positive’ symbols of prosperity and success. Such symbolic content may result from their economic significance interlaced with their association with specific persona and familial and personal heritage. It is suggested that the qualities of the tools lent an element of potency to these artefacts and probably led to their inclusion in structure walls. The linkage between persona, space and positive potency may have granted status or protection to the structures and also may have assisted in marking ownership of the property.

This article draws on the ethnography of South African Bantu speakers to model an archaeologically useful relationship between pollution beliefs and marriage. Typically, pollution beliefs intensify with more complex marital alliances, first with the increasing significance of relations between wives and their cattle-linked siblings, and then with a shift towards a preference for cousin marriage. The article applies the model to the Early Iron Age (ad 650–1050) record and concludes that Early Iron Age agriculturists practised non-kin marriage, but that a high bridewealth, and possibly hypogamous marriage, generated considerable structural tension in Early Iron Age society.

This article explores the potential of studying the social dimensions of old age and aged bodies in the past. Because old age is relative to life-expectancy figures, diet and lifestyle, calendric years are avoided when defining old age. Instead a composite approach is advocated that includes, for example, traces of wear and joint diseases to identify a threshold between adulthood and a period of seniority. The approach is applied to the Middle Neolithic burial ground Ajvide on the island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea. Eleven individuals (six men, five women, or 18 per cent of the 62 analysed burials) are regarded as ‘aged bodies’. At Ajvide a majority of these individuals are buried in graves that overlap earlier burials containing younger individuals of the same sex. It is argued that this pattern is due to eschatological ideas of ‘generational merging’ of bodies. This practice changes over time, which is suggested to be a part of the overall hybridization processes at the site.

This article addresses the relationship between southern African San myth and rock art. Three nineteenth-century | Xam San narratives, recorded verbatim, are shown to contain specifiable entities of meaning, here dubbed ‘nuggets’, that are easily misunderstood or missed entirely. Each performance of a myth developed or abbreviated the significances of these ‘nuggets’ as the narrator tailored the story to suit the social, political and economic circumstances of the moment. Similarly, San rock art contains painted ‘nuggets’ that, for the San, situated the panels in one way or another at the interface between existential realms. Each in its own way, certain tales and images both played a social role by emphasizing the functions of ritual specialists who were believed to move between realms as they healed the community of physical, economic and social ills, especially tension between affines.

In a densely packed, streetless village such as Neolithic Çatalhöyük in central Anatolia, it is argued in this article that variations in mudbrick recipes were used to mark social identity and autonomy through the performance of building. Geoarchaeological analysis of mudbricks established that cultural modifications were used to create social differences between neighbouring houses. Although mudbricks were ultimately invisible objects, hidden behind multiple layers of plaster, the processes of mudbrick manufacture and house construction were performed in the public domain allowing opportunities for individual expression. These results are situated within a larger practice of hiding and burying meaningful objects at Çatalhöyük, where unseen objects had as much power and affect as any object on display.

This article explores the potential contribution of a biographical, phenomenological and performative approach to the study of material images in the past through a particular study case: the warrior statues from the so-called ‘Castro culture’ in northwestern Iberia. The aim is to provide a different way of thinking, as opposed to the traditional conceptions that have prevailed in archaeological research, taking into account what material forms enable the construction of the social at a micro-scale level. To this end, the author analyses how these statues actively build their own meaning and sense in the socio-material contexts where they belong; and how, in this process, their materiality partakes in the creation and maintenance of indigenous identity and sociality.

This article addresses the problem of structural determinism in archaeological explanations of material culture change, specifically architecture. A discussion of Giddens' structuration theory emphasizes the duality of structure. The concept is updated by drawing on Gell's theory of agency in art and recent ideas on play, innovation, freedom and consensus prevalent in anthropology and archaeology. This approach shows that material culture is changed through structurally shaped innovation, such that agency is distributed across time, among groups regionally and among elites and commoners. The theoretical exposition develops a case study including discussion of an architectural grammar, ethnohistoric analogy and activity-area studies involving ceramic incense burners. The case study is the Classic–Postclassic transition (ad 750–1200) among the Maya of Petén, Guatemala. While earlier explanations of architectural change in this region focused on an in-migration event, the current investigation posits a Postclassic reconfiguration of Maya architecture, specifically changes in ‘C’-shaped stone benches, based on structurally shaped innovation and a distributed view of agency. The benches served as stages for more heterarchical ritual performances with the incense burners as opposed to the hierarchical ritual performances common in the Classic period. This account overcomes structural determinism by allowing for diversity and cultural specificity in our views of agency.