Scholars have long debated when the Neolithic began in China. Neolithisation, however, is a process rather than an event. It is more realistic to investigate the timing and nature of the socio-economic trajectory from mobile, microblade-using foragers to sedentary communities during the Palaeolithic–Neolithic transition in northern China. Here, the authors use artefacts from Shuidonggou locality 12 to demonstrate the socio-economic organisation of the site's inhabitants. They identify long-term site occupation by a large group exhibiting high levels of individual mobility. Comparative analyses with contemporaneous data indicate that the early stages of complex social organisation—a fundamental element of Neolithisation—emerged among microblade-using groups.

Fine-scale temporal processes, such as the synchronous deposition of organic materials, can be challenging to identify using 14C datasets. While some events, such as volcanic eruptions, leave clear evidence for synchronous deposition, synchroneity is more difficult to establish for other types of events. This has been a source of controversy regarding 14C dates associated with a hypothesized extraterrestrial impact at the Younger Dryas Boundary (YDB). To address this controversy, we first aggregate 14C measurements from Northern Hemisphere YDB sites. We also aggregate 14C measurements associated with a known synchronous event, the Laacher See volcanic eruption. We then use a Monte Carlo simulation to evaluate the magnitude of variability expected in a 14C dataset associated with a synchronous event. The simulation accounts for measurement error, calibration uncertainty, “old wood” effects, and laboratory measurement biases. The Laacher See 14C dataset is consistent with expectations of synchroneity generated by the simulation. However, the YDB 14C dataset is inconsistent with the simulated expectations for synchroneity. These results suggest that a central requirement of the Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis, synchronous global deposition of a YDB layer, is extremely unlikely, calling into question the Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis more generally.

Pollen, spores, phytoliths, and microscopic charcoal from a sedimentary column in Hall's Cave, south-central Texas, provide information for local and regional vegetation change during the last deglaciation and the Holocene in the context of broader regional and global climatic changes. The combination of paleoenvironmental proxy data from the cave indicates that between about 18,000 and 16,500 cal yr BP the cave area was dominated by an open plant community consisting of herbaceous vegetation, dominated by C3 grasses, and scattered trees, primarily Quercus and Pinus species. After about 16,500 cal yr BP, the arboreal component fluctuated, attaining a peak between 14,000 and 13,000 cal yr BP with relatively equal proportions of C3 and C4 grasses, including a sizable proportion of Panicoideae grasses. The Younger Dryas is marked by a conspicuous decrease in arboreal pollen with an apparent increase of C4 grasses toward its termination. Early Holocene recovery of arboreal vegetation is followed by a drying trend marked by the increasing dominance of C4 drought-tolerant Chloridoideae grasses. Increasing human use of the cave in middle to late Holocene times creates noise in the climatic significance of pollen, phytolith, and other proxies, a factor to consider when interpreting paleoenvironmental proxies in other cave sedimentary records.

The motivations of prehistoric hunter-gatherers for selecting particular lithic raw materials are often explained in rigidly functional or symbolic terms. By examining the exploitation of crystal quartz at two Terminal Pleistocene rockshelter sites (Ntloana Tšoana and Sehonghong) in Lesotho, southern Africa, the authors reveal that lithic reduction required a form of engagement unique to that material's specific properties. The preferential use of quartz crystals—irrespective of the availability of a wider range of raw materials—demonstrates agency and variability in the technological decisions.

A late Quaternary ichthyofauna from Homestead Cave, Utah, provides a new source of information on lake history in the Bonneville basin. The fish, represented by 11 freshwater species, were accumulated between ∼11,200 and ∼1000 14C yr B.P. by scavenging owls. The 87Sr/86Sr ratio of Lake Bonneville varied with its elevation; 87Sr/86Sr values of fish from the lowest stratum of the cave suggest they grew in a lake near the terminal Pleistocene Gilbert shoreline. In the lowest deposits, a decrease in fish size and an increase in species tolerant of higher salinities or temperatures suggest multiple die-offs associated with declining lake levels. An initial, catastrophic, post-Provo die-off occurred at 11,300–11,200 14C yr B.P. and was followed by at least one rebound or recolonization of fish populations, but fish were gone from Lake Bonneville sometime before ∼10,400 14C yr B.P. This evidence is inconsistent with previous inferences of a near desiccation of Lake Bonneville between 13,000 and 12,000 14C yr B.P. Peaks in Gila atraria frequencies in the upper strata suggest the Great Salt Lake had highstands at ∼3400 and ∼1000 14C yr B.P.

The Epipalaeolithic of the Levant witnessed important changes in subsistence behaviour, foreshadowing the transition to sedentism and cultivation, but much less is known of contemporary developments in the Middle Nile Valley. Here, Affad 23, a 16000-year-old settlement, on the margins of a resource-rich, multi-channel floodplain, offers exceptional insights. Unusually good preservation has left the remains of pits and postholes, indicating the construction of temporary shelters and specialised functional zones. The Affad 23 community successfully exploited a wide range of riverine resources, and created a highly organised seasonal camp adjacent to convenient, resource-rich hunting grounds. Surprisingly, they continued to exploit Levallois-like tools, rather than adopting the new technologies (e.g. microliths) that were then evolving in Upper Egypt.

The Jwalapuram Locality 9 rockshelter in southern India dates back to 35 000 years ago and it is emerging as one of the key sites for documenting human activity and behaviour in South Asia. The excavated assemblage includes a proliferation of lithic artefacts, beads, worked bone and fragments of a human cranium. The industry is microlithic in character, establishing Jwalapuram 9 as one of the oldest and most important sites of its kind in South Asia.

Excavations at a cave site on the island of Palawan in the Philippines show occupation from c. 11000 BP. A fine assemblage of tools and faunal remains shows the reliance of hunter-foragers switching from deer to pig. In 9500-9000 BP, a human cremation burial in a container was emplaced, the earliest yet known in the region.

The transition from Palaeoindian to Archaic societies in North America is often viewed as a linear progression over a brief but time-transgressive period. New evidence from the Wilson-Leonard site in Texas suggests social experimentation by Palaeoindians over a 2500-year period eventually resulted in Archaic societies. The process was neither short nor linear, and the evidence shows that different but contemporaneous lifeways existed in a variety of locales in the south-central US in the Early Holocene.