Marie-Louise Winbladh, Archaeology as a Weapon: Long-Lasting Legacies of Colonialism and Nationalism in Israel, Palestine, Cyprus, and Greece. (Wilmington: Vernon Press, 2025, xxii and 344pp., 88 b/w illustr., hbk, ISBN 979-8-8819-0273-5)

Sue Kelly, Unveiling Female Social Power in Early Egypt (c. 3080–2180 bce) (British Archaeological Reports S3189, 2024, 168pp., 48 b/w and colour figs, 20 tables, pbk, ISBN 9781407361734) - Volume 28 Issue 4

The EJA has always had a strong publishing profile in the Bronze Age, especially in northern and western Europe.Many editors (myself included!)have been northwest European prehistorians, and we have published some truly foundational work on the European Bronze Age.That being said, European archaeology is vastly more diverse than barrows, round houses, and even my beloved lithic daggers.Over the last decade, the editorial team has worked hard to cultivate authors and readers whose work and interests cover the spectrum of European-or, perhaps better, west Eurasian-archaeology and heritage of all periods.In that light, I consider this issue a spectacular success story.Of the five research articles collected, the furthest west discusses Middle Bronze Age Greece and two address the Lower and Middle Palaeolithic.These five articles are accompanied by two excellent and thoughtful reviews.The issue starts with Karahan and Arslan's analysis of open air lithic scatters dating to the Lower and Middle Palaeolithic at Biber Deresi in western coastal Anatolia.Due to complex local geomorphological conditions, a discontinuous topography of dense lithic scatters is visible as surface scatters in this region.Karahan and Arslan suggest that these lithic scatters represent areas of secondary deposition revealed by erosion.They identify a range of lithic types and reduction processes, including considerable evidence for retouching, which leads them to assign the assemblage primarily to the Acheulean, with some potential Middle Palaeolithic material also present.Given much lower sea levels at this time, Biber Deresi would not have been coastal, but part of a wider landscape connected to the present island of Lesvos, and a key geographical region linking Asia and Europe.Remaining in the Palaeolithic, but moving eastwards, Golovanova and colleagues reassess a considerable amount of material previously assigned to the Zagros Mousterian in order to develop a new overview of the Middle Palaeolithic in the broader Caucasus region.Through their reanalysis of historically and recently excavated lithic material, they identify three regional variants, with distinct technological developments and trajectories.They conclude that, although the Neanderthals who made this material were evidently in contact with others far beyond the region, they nevertheless developed and maintained a locally specific set of practices and technologies.Moving forward in time, Opri explores the emergence of spread of grog tempering in late sixth and early fifth millennium Romania.Layering data from microscopy, macroscopic analysis, and GIS modelling, Opri argues that the practice of grog tempering emerged in the Balkans and gradually spread north and east through interpersonal contact and social learning.The persistence of grog tempering over at least five centuries indicates, to him, both social continuity and the importance of local identities linked to the

This study employs neutron activation analysis (NAA) to examine pottery from Middle Bronze Age (MBA) (c. 2200–1700 bc) Mitrou in East Lokris, central Greece. The analysis of 112 samples from all ceramic phases reveals complex patterns of production and exchange at multiple scales. Limited production of tablewares is evident within the immediate coastscape, contrasting sharply with abundant imports of tableware from other communities (most prominently, central Euboea and Boeotia), revealing a highly interconnected central Greek world. The NAA results also reinforce previous petrographic analysis, emphasizing connections with the broader regional maritime sphere, including the Cyclades, Aegina, Crete, and the south-eastern Aegean. The results challenge previous perceptions of the central Greek MBA as isolated, provide new insights into MBA connectivity, and highlight the need for further analytical work at other central Greek sites.

Bartosz Kontny. 2023. The Archaeology of War: Studies on Weapons of Barbarian Europe in the Roman and Migration Periods (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 260p., 139 illustr., pbk, ISBN 978-2-503-60737-5) - Volume 27 Issue 4

Michael E. Smith. Urban Life in the Distant Past. The Prehistory of Energized Crowding (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023, 318pp., 93 b/w illustr., hbk, ISBN 978-1-009-24904-1 (e-book DOI: 10.1017/9781009249027) - Volume 27 Issue 3

The later career of British prehistorian Peggy Piggott, latterly Guido, is evaluated in this article, in a bid to further develop our understanding of women's participation in twentieth-century British archaeology. After WWII, when her husband Stuart Piggott was appointed to the Abercromby Chair in Edinburgh, she worked to assist his role. By the early 1950s, she had co-directed and published eight hillfort excavations, advancing our understanding of prehistoric architecture before the advent of radiocarbon dating. The authors consider Peggy Piggott's contribution as a fieldworker, promoting open-area excavation and influencing the next generation. We also consider her thinking, as an early advocate for continuity and Childe's diffusionism, in contrast to the invasionist views of Christopher Hawkes and Stuart Piggott. The authors reflect on the role her marriage played in enabling and restricting her career, her work in 1960s Italy, her expertise in ancient glass beads, and her activity in retirement.

Deer hunting was heavily ritualized in medieval Europe, as indicated by historical and archaeological evidence; it also emphasized social differentiation. The butchery of a deer carcass (‘unmaking’) was integral to the ritual and led to different body parts being destined for individuals of differing status. Archaeologically, the practice is particularly visible in high-status sites in Britain, but documentary and archaeological sources are consistent in pinpointing its earliest occurrence in twelfth-century France. In Italy, late medieval evidence for such ‘unmaking’ is present but is not supported by any known historical sources. Red and fallow deer were butchered in a formalized manner, whereas the data for roe deer are unclear. Although the Normans contributed to the diffusion of the ‘unmaking’ practice, in France it is also found outside the core area of Norman influence. The extensive spread of the practice demonstrates the connectedness of the medieval hunting culture in Europe.