The excavations undertaken on the site of Dadan have recovered a very important bone assemblage (more than 167,696 remains), allowing us to reconstruct and better understand the subsistence strategies of the inhabitants in a central part of the al-‘Ula (AlUla) oasis for at least three thousand years. The city of Dadan was the capital of important Iron Age regional powers, the Dadan and later the Lihyan Kingdoms, which controlled the caravan routes across the oasis between the Levant and Mesopotamia and the south of the Arabian Peninsula, and later the Red Sea. Subsequently, the site of Dadan continued to be occupied in the Late Antique and Islamic periods. From these different chronological periods and excavation areas, the bone remains, representing meal leftovers, shows a clear dominance of caprine (sheep/goat) followed by the Arabian camel. Wild species, such as gazelle, oryx and hare, signs of hunting activities, are very rare, as also is birdlife. These domestic species are certainly the result of local breeding and underline the great autonomy of the inhabitants of the oasis. Only fish or seashell come from a more distant horizon, the Red Sea via the trade routes. The absence of pigs and the lack of chicken or cattle raise many questions, as does the small presence of camel in the area occupied/developed in the Late Antique.

Radiocarbon dating is one of the most useful and widely used chronometric techniques available for archaeologists and other paleo-scientists. Although generally used for answering specific research questions, radiocarbon dates from archaeological sites have become increasingly used to reconstruct population change at meso and macro temporal and spatial scales, and Bayesian modeling of locally and regionally available dates is facilitating interrogating the synchronicity, correlation, and interaction among various socioecological variables. Because the results of these meta-analyses largely depend on the available data, comprehensive compilations of radiocarbon dates and their associated information are critically important. Moreover, a thorough assessment of these compilations can reveal research spatiotemporal foci, trends, and biases, which should be considered when meta-analyses are attempted. In this review, based on the recently compiled Bolivian Radiocarbon Database, I provide a general assessment of the temporal, geographic, and thematic interests that have driven archaeological and paleoecological research in Bolivia over the last seven decades. Along with a detailed review of research in three broad geographical regions (Andean highlands, inter-Andean valleys, and tropical lowlands), I encourage researchers interested in meta-analysis to critically consider biases in data compilations by means of increased engagement with local experts and interdisciplinary collaboration.

“Orbital, the Box” provides an interactive tool with graphical user interface (GUI) for stimulating active, visual learning for understanding of astronomical climate forcing. This cross-platform tool can be run locally on a personal computer using a standard web browser environment with no need for plugins, thus maximising accessibility for students and teachers alike. The tool facilitates in the development of a holistic and quantitative understanding of astronomical climate forcing by allowing students to independently vary orbital parameters, after which they can instantaneously see the resulting effect upon the seasonal and latitudinal distribution of solar irradiance arriving at the top of the Earth’s atmosphere. Such an approach follows a classic controlled experimental design whereby one parameter can be changed while all others are kept constant. This experimental tool can be deployed as a virtual laboratory, including within a flipped classroom setting, to promote active learning of traditionally challenging concepts such as the roles of eccentricity and precession in astronomical climate forcing, and in particular their interaction with Kepler’s second law and the subsequent consequences for season length.

Paleolithic reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) played an important role for human populations in western and central Europe during much of the Paleolithic period. In southwestern France and in particular during the Magdalenian, reindeer frequently figures among the privileged prey of hunter-gatherer groups. However, and despite numerous attempts to reconstruct the migratory behavior of Paleolithic reindeer, there is no agreement on the degree of mobility of this prey. Modern ethological data indicate that reindeer herds adopt different mobility strategies depending on the type of habitat and the topography of the environment. Thus, our project (Emorph) aims to explore morphometric criteria (through metapodial bones and phalanges) in combination with cutting-edge methodologies like Machine Learning to identify the extent of reindeer migrations. Based initially on the study of modern caribou populations with distinct migratory behaviors, the results obtained could be applied to several Magdalenian assemblages from southwestern France in the future, with the goal of reconstructing the mobility of these tardiglacial reindeer.

Grassridge rock shelter is located in the high elevation grassland foothills of the Stormberg Mountains in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. This places Grassridge at an important biogeoclimatic intersection between the Drakensberg Mountains, the South African coastal zone, and the interior arid lands of southern Africa. First excavated in 1979, the approximately 1.5 m stratigraphic sequence was divided into two major occupational components: a 50–70 cm thick Later Stone Age component dating between 7–6 ka and an underlying 50–80 cm thick Middle Stone Age component dated to 36 ka at the base. Here we present a reanalysis of the Grassridge stratigraphic sequence that combines new optically stimulated luminescence and radiocarbon age estimates with sedimentological and microbotanical analyses to evaluate site formation processes and the palaeoenvironmental context of human occupations. Results indicate a complex history of geogenic, anthropogenic, and biogenic inputs to the depositional sequence that are interspersed with pulsed human occupation from 43–28 ka, 13.5–11.6 ka, and 7.3–6.8 ka. Microbotanical remains indicate a cooler, drier grassland environment in MIS 3 that transitions to a warmer, moister grassland environment dominated by summer rainfall in the middle of MIS 1. The pulsed occupational sequence identified at Grassridge is characteristic of the Pleistocene and Holocene record across the greater high elevation grassland region of South Africa, which, based on comparison with other currently available evidence, seems linked to a complex system of forager mobility entwined with rapidly fluctuating palaeoenvironments across the last glacial to interglacial transition.

More than fifty years ago, Anneke T. Clason published the first English-language archaeozoological study on Dutch faunal assemblages. Inspired by the anniversary of this landmark publication, this paper presents a status overview of Dutch archaeozoology organized in twelve themes (e.g. rituals, Mesolithic-Neolithic transition, medieval period). The paper also discusses the common methods applied in Dutch archaeozoology, and includes extensive supplementary material that summarizes data from gray literature in Dutch. Our aim is to provide a guide to archaeozoological questions pertaining to the Netherlands and open a window for researchers working outside the Netherlands to the highly active world of Dutch archaeozoology.

The medieval city of Qalhat was an important trade town along the sea routes in the Indian Ocean. The reasons for the decline of the city are unclear, as the archaeological evidence is inconclusive. Geological field work was conducted and a digital elevation model analysed to test the hypothesis that the city was destroyed by an earthquake. The study area is located along the passive continental margin of the Arabian Plate. The coast shows a set of Pleistocene marine terraces. These landforms are in indication of lithosphere uplift. Faulted terrace fill deposits and deviating fluvial streams indicate rather recent lithosphere deformation. Processes responsible for the deformation are seen as subduction related forebulge uplift, serpentinite diapirism as well as isostatic response to karstification of limestone. We conclude that earthquake activity along the most prominent structural element, the Qalhat Fault, is a plausible reason for the decline of the medieval city.

Hearths were constructed and used at Paleolithic cave and rockshelter sites in Africa, Europe and Asia as early as the late Lower Paleolithic period. The advantages of the use of fire have been widely researched for the last decades. However, only a few studies have focused on the possible negative impact of the use of fire within closed spaces, such as caves. One of the major negative fire products is smoke, which has an immediate, as well as long-term, effect on humans and may even prevent cave occupation after a short period. In this study we propose a basic air circulation model based on thermodynamics to represent smoke ventilation in caves. We employ this model to shed light on the relationship between smoke dispersal and cave structure, opening dimensions, hearth characteristics, and seasonal temperature fluctuations. We further show that hearth location was crucial in allowing humans to occupy prehistoric caves while using fire on a regular basis. We present preliminary insights from specific case studies, demonstrating the potential of understanding smoke ventilation in reconstructing the hearth season of use and location within the cave.

Compilations of previous studies provide researchers with a source of valuable secondary data for re-analysis, an access route to identify relevant literature and an opportunity to systematically evaluate the research which is conducted and published. Recently Suggitt et al. (2015 Veg Hist Archbot 24, 743–747) presented a valuable compilation of core records for England. Here we present an extended version of this English Sediment Core Meta-database which includes data for 100 additional cores and improves the consistency of presentation. Despite these additions there are clearly large gaps remaining. Maximising the value of such meta-databases requires a community effort and we hope that this contribution will be a first step towards achieving this.

The first spread of farming practices into Europe in the Neolithic period involves two distinct ‘streams’, respectively around the Mediterranean littoral and along the Danube corridor to central Europe. In this paper we explore variation in Neolithic animal use practices within and between these streams, focusing on the first region in which they are clearly distinct (and yet still in close proximity): the western Balkans. We employ rigorous and reproducible meta-analysis of all available zooarchaeological data from the region to test hypotheses (a) that each stream featured a coherent ‘package’ of herding and hunting practices in the earliest Neolithic, and (b) that these subsequently diverged in response to local conditions and changing cultural preferences. The results partially uphold these hypotheses, while underlining that Neolithisation was a complex and varied process. A coherent, stable, caprine-based ‘package’ is seen in the coastal stream, albeit with some diversification linked to expansion northwards and inland. Accounting for a severe, systematic bias in bone recovery methodology between streams, we show that sheep and goats also played a major role across the continental stream in the earliest Neolithic (c.6100–5800 BC). This was followed by a geographically staggered transition over c.500 years to an economy focused on cattle, with significant levels of hunting in some areas – a pattern we interpret in terms of gradual adaptation to local conditions, perhaps mediated by varying degrees of cultural conservatism. Subsequent westward expansion carried with it elements of this new pattern, which persisted through the middle and late Neolithic.