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ABSTRACT This paper presents the results of the first archaeological investigation at Andhūr (DMa0610), an inland site in the Wādī Andhūr oasis, Dhofar, southern Oman. Excavations revealed a multi‐phase occupation dated to the second part of the first century BCE , centred on a two‐storey building constructed with the ‘sandwich’ masonry technique known from Sumhuram. Architectural and environmental evidence suggest that Andhūr served as a small Hadrami outpost strategically placed near permanent water sources and frankincense‐producing areas on the Nejd plateau. The recovery of edible marine shells points to regular contacts between the coast and the interior. Four inscriptions link Andhūr to wider South Arabian networks and reflect forms of exchange, of people and goods, extending beyond maritime trade. The site offers new insight into Hadrami inland strategies and their engagement with Dhofari populations, helping to define more clearly the complex system of cultural interactions that characterised Dhofar during the Late Iron Age.

Well-dated and well-preserved Later Stone Age sites are unfortunately scarce in West Africa. The few known ones exhibit significant typo-technical variability, reflecting diverse socio-cultural behaviors that remain poorly understood. The Ravin Blanc X (RBX) site in eastern Senegal provides new insights into this period. Excavations at one of the sectors of the site (RBX-1) have revealed a well-preserved Early Holocene occupation, featuring a quartz knapping workshop associated with a fireplace. This site is the latest known LSA occupation in the Falémé valley and bridges a critical gap in the region’s prehistoric sequence. The lithic industry at RBX-1 is dominated by a very homogeneous quartz, which was specifically selected for its high-quality knapping properties. Two main categories of sought blanks were produced: broad, thick, and rectilinear blanks, and elongated, thin and narrow blanks with an oblique distal termination forming a natural asymmetric point. The strong investment in blank standardization from the extraction stage significantly reduced the need for subsequent retouching, which was rarely observed in the RBX-1 lithic assemblage. Comparisons with other LSA sites in West Africa suggest that RBX-1 shares technological similarities with the sites of Fatandi V (Falémé valley, Senegal) and Damatoumou 1 (Ounjougou, Mali), possibly indicating a West African Late LSA Sahelo-Sudanian facies. In contrast, sites located in Guineo-Congolian forest contexts exhibit different knapping strategies and typological choices. The discovery of RBX-1 enhances our understanding of the LSA in West Africa by providing a rare, well-dated stratigraphic context (around 9100 calBP/7100 calBCE) which highlights the complexity of regional lithic traditions and raises new hypotheses about cultural transitions during the Pleistocene-Holocene shift.

Abstract At 2,814 m high, Mount Hermon (Jabal al-Shaykh) is a limestone barrier between the Mediterranean coast and the Syrian steppe. The travelers and scholars who have climbed the mountain since the nineteenth century have been seeking biblical souvenirs. Yet they discovered many pagan sanctuaries of the Roman period on their way. They collected Greek inscriptions also mentioning holy places and villages. These texts, with the results of archaeological missions, are a valuable source of information on the communities that were settled at high altitude, on the margins of Sidon, Damascus, and Caesarea Paneas during the first centuries of the Christian Era. This chapter takes all these data into account to put Mount Hermon back in the history of Hellenistic and Roman Syria.

• Identification of a canal located in the Rhône Delta between Arles and Fos-Sur-Mer. • Chrono-stratigraphical and palaeoenvironmental analyses of the ancient canal. • The canal was navigable during the Roman period. • A palaeochannel from the 1st millennium BCE existed before this Roman canal. The Marius Canal is considered the first significant Roman hydraulic infrastructure in Gaul. This navigable canal, constructed at the end of the 2nd century BCE, was located in the Rhône Delta in southern France, connecting the Rhône River to the Mediterranean Sea. In the period following the construction of the canal, the large port known as Fossae Marianae was built on the coast. Despite numerous references in ancient sources, the precise location of the canal has remained unknown for the last two millennia. However, recent geophysical surveys in the eastern Rhône Delta have revealed a linear anomaly, alongside the discovery of Roman artefacts, which may indicate the presence of a Roman canal. The objective of this study is to examine morphological, sedimentary and chronological attributes of this structure, postulated to be the Canal of Marius. Sedimentary cores extracted from the supposed canal and the banks are studied on a high-resolution scale using a detailed multi-proxy methodology (grain-size, carbonate content, organic matter, magnetic susceptibility) combined with twenty-one 14 C dates. The morphological analyses and palaeoenvironmental data are consistent with the hypothesis of a navigable canal operable during the Roman period, built in a complex area where an ancient lagoon was partly eroded by a palaeochannel of the Rhône dated to the 1st millennium BCE. However, further archaeological research is needed to definitely confirm that this is the canal known as the Marius Canal.

Abstract Widening and diversifying trade networks are often cited among the boom and bust of Bronze and Iron Age worlds. The great distances that goods could travel during these periods are exemplified here as the authors describe the spectroscopic identification of Baltic amber beads in an Iron Age cremation grave at Hama in Syria. Yet these beads are not unique in the Near Eastern record; as the authors show, comparable finds and references to amber or amber hues in contemporaneous texts illustrate the high social and economic value of resinous substances—a value based on perceptions of their distant origin.

Abstract Although the site was supposedly founded in the Hellenistic period (332–31 BC), excavations at Kom el-Nugus/Plinthine have revealed a large town from the seventh century BC. The recent discovery of a major New Kingdom (c. 1550–1069 BC) settlement at the site is contributing to re-evaluation of the ancient history of northern Egypt.