Flaked-tool technology can provide insights into social and cultural changes and interregional connections. This study of changing tool production covers the Upper Palaeolithic to the Late Neolithic in the Yakutia region of eastern Siberia. This region is home to the Palaeolithic Dyuktai complex, the Mesolithic Sumnagin complex and Neolithic traditions; it thus enables a better understanding of the material culture of these societies in Siberia and improves our knowledge of the complex migration processes towards the New World.

The engravings discovered on a slate rock face near the village of Gondershausen in the Hunsrück Mountains in 2010 represent the northernmost example of open-air Palaeolithic rock art in Europe, and the first in Germany. Analysis of the style and technique of the Hunsrück images reveals significant parallels with Palaeolithic cave art from other parts of Europe, most notably France. The oldest of the images at Gondershausen—three horses in particular—may be attributed to the Aurignacian or Gravettian. The survival of these Palaeolithic engravings through the Last Glacial Maximum is testimony to the unusual circumstances of their preservation.

The discovery of a Neolithic quarry and production site for basanite bifacial tools at Giv‘at Kipod in Israel has provided new insights into these socially significant artefacts. Geochemical analysis of material from the quarry distinguishes it from other basaltic rock sources in Israel, allowing stone tools from a variety of sites and dated contexts to be assigned a provenance. Results suggest that Giv‘at Kipod was an important production centre for over several millennia. It operated primarily on a local, regional level and independently of the parallel manufacture-and-distribution mechanisms of flint bifacials. While flint tools developed in response to the practical requirements of the transition to agriculture in the region, ground-stone bifacials appear to have been a product of economic changes and evolving social structures.

New investigations at the site of Monjukli Depe in southern Turkmenistan challenge traditional ideas regarding the distinction between the Neolithic and the Aeneolithic in this region. It had previously been argued that the former (the ‘Jeitun’ culture) represented an expansion of agricultural villages from Mesopotamia, while the latter (best known from the site of Anau) marked the incorporation of local Iranian elements. By integrating multi-scalar analyses of the layout, architectural design and patterning of different household activities at Monjukli Depe, a more nuanced interpretation of temporal and spatial variability of the site's successive occupations becomes possible. The new insights afforded by this approach show that the contrast between the Neolithic and Aeneolithic may not have been as clear-cut as has traditionally been believed.

Why did the early farming societies of south-east Europe ‘collapse’ and become apparently less complex at the end of the Neolithic? Stable isotope analysis of human bone collagen from Late Neolithic and Copper Age cemeteries in eastern Hungary provides new insights into this question by exploring dietary changes during this key transitional period. Results show that diet did not change significantly over time, and there was no evidence that individuals of different sex or social status were consuming privileged diets. The changes of this period appear to indicate a reorganisation of society, perhaps based around extended families, with greater dispersal across the landscape, but without reliance on dairying or the emergence of powerful leaders.

The high-quality organic preservation at Alpine lakeshore settlement sites allows us to go beyond simplistic reconstructions of farming in the Neolithic. The rich archaeological datasets from these sites may be further complemented by methods such as nitrogen isotope (δ15N) analysis of charred crop remains. At Hornstaad-Hörnle IA and Sipplingen, on the shore of Lake Constance in south-west Germany, this method has been used to provide a unique insight into strategies of cultivation such as manuring on both a spatial and temporal scale.

Excavations at Kavuşan Höyük (south-eastern Turkey) have revealed evidence of the use of turtles, tortoises and terrapins in post-Assyrian funerary practices. Of particular significance are the remains of the Euphrates soft-shelled turtle (Rafetus euphraticus), distinguished from other species of turtle by their quantity and treatment in the burial pit under investigation here. The unique finds from Kavuşan Höyük, coupled with archaeological and textual records, underline the economic and symbolic significance of these animals for communities in prehistoric and early historical Mesopotamia.

Despite being institutions of major social importance throughout the Roman world, taverns remain poorly understood archaeologically. The identification of one such possible tavern at the Iron Age and Roman site of Lattara in Mediterranean France is hence a discovery of special significance. Not only is the tavern the earliest of its kind in the region, it also serves as an invaluable indicator of the changing social and economic infrastructure of the settlement and its inhabitants following the Roman conquest of Mediterranean Gaul in the late second century BC.

The cave of Kayuko Naj Tunich is believed to have been the location of the accession ceremonies for the royal dynasty of the ancient Maya Uxbenká polity in southern Belize. Little is known, however, about the structures referred to as the Kayuko Mound Group that lie close to the cave. Excavations have now provided evidence for the date of this complex, and experimental research has estimated the labour costs involved in its construction. The results suggest that while both the mound group and the cave were involved in the celebration of royal accession, the former acted as a short-lived festival site in contrast to the enduring significance of Kayuko Naj Tunich.

The migration of individuals and populations was a powerful factor in the spread of diseases among early human societies. Analysis of human remains from Tell Masaikh in the Middle Euphrates Valley provides a striking example in what is probably the earliest case of hereditary anaemia. Skeletal changes were consistent with thalassaemia, an uncommon disease in the steppe areas of Syria. Genetic analyses of the remains confirmed the pathological assessment and also suggested that the individual was of Asian descent, from the Indian Peninsula. Such an ancestry could then explain this unusual occurrence of thalassaemia.

Traditional explanations of Rapa Nui history invoke environmental degradation and warfare to explain the ‘collapse’ of the island's social and economic structure. One element in these reconstructions are the stemmed obsidian points known as mata'a, which some have envisaged as spearheads produced in the context of endemic warfare. Morphometric analysis shows, however, that mata'a were not specifically designed for interpersonal violence but were general purpose tools that may have been used for peaceful tasks such as ritual scarification. This discovery provides further evidence against the theory of the violent collapse of Rapa Nui society.

Analysis of satellite imagery covering Egypt between 2002 and 2013 indicates a significant increase in looting and other damage to archaeological sites. Looting escalated dramatically from 2009 with the onset of the global economic crisis, and intensified still further with the Arab Spring in 2011. This was mirrored by an increased volume of Egyptian artefacts sold at auction, suggesting that looting is driven by external demand as well as by internal economic pressures. Satellite analysis can be used to predict the type and period of antiquities entering the market, thereby providing valuable intelligence for international policing of the illicit antiquities trade.

Many archaeological objects are recovered as fragments, and 3D modelling offers enormous potential for the analysis and reconstruction of large assemblages. In particular, structured light scanning provides an accurate record of individual artefacts and can facilitate the identification of joins through details of breakage surfaces and overall morphology. The creation of 3D digital models has the further advantage of enabling the records to be accessed and manipulated remotely, obviating the need for prolonged access to the original materials in museums or repositories. Here, the authors detail the use of structured light scanning to produce a corpus of 3D models based on a sample from a large assemblage of terracotta and limestone sculptural fragments from the Cypro-Archaic period (c. 750–475 BC) at Athienou-Malloura, Cyprus.

Recognising elements of a ‘modern’ mind or complex cognition in Stone Age archaeology is difficult and often disputed. A key question is whether, and in what way, the thinking of Homo sapiens differs from that of other species/sub-species of hominins. We argue that if the question of whether the modern mind is different from that of our ancestors or other members of the hominin family is to be fully explored, some focus should fall on technologies and behaviours unique to H. sapiens.

When the antiquities trade is discussed in archaeology it is often prefixed with the pejorative adjective ‘illicit’. ‘Archaeology without context’ is a rallying cry for the archaeological profession to mobilise its collective voice in order to petition against the sale of heritage where an object's history is opaque and very probably a result of destructive looting (Chippindale et al.2001; Brodie 2006). The vocal campaign of the last decade to ensure that high-profile sales and museum acquisitions of material without documented collection histories do not encourage or sanction looting (e.g. Renfrew 2000; Brodie et al. 2006) has had some success, although objects without findspots continue to surface on the market (e.g.