Museum collections represent a vast archive of archaeological objects and the excavations from which they were recovered. The research presented here stems from re-examination of spear-throwers excavated in the 1970s from Caleta Huelén 42, located on the Atacama Desert coast (northern Chile). Direct dates from two specimens, reported for the first time in this article, reveal that these are the oldest currently known examples of this technology in the Andes. Comparing the morphological and technological attributes of these artefacts with other known examples, the authors propose that spear-throwers and their use formed part of a shared tradition of land hunting.

The discovery of cleavers and Levallois lithics around the Goab playa in eastern Iran suggests that this region holds significant potential for the study of early human societies and for investigating new hominin dispersal routes to other parts of the world, such as Eastern Asia.

Use-wear analysis is rarely conducted for ground stone axes (GSAs) from West Africa. Here, the results of use-wear analysis of 50 GSAs from Akwanga and other parts of Central Nigeria are discussed, contributing to our understanding of their functional attributes.

Newly discovered open-air sites along the Dorps River in the arid Karoo (South Africa), a region with uneven archaeological coverage, demonstrate multiple visits to this favoured habitat in the late Holocene Later Stone Age (c. 3000–2000 BP).

Conservation of fragile and fragmented archaeological remains can be essential to their preservation and study. Here, the authors use the example of the approximately 75 000-year-old Shanidar Z Neanderthal to illustrate the importance of appropriate conservation from excavation to the laboratory, and of the detailed documentation of this process, for enabling anatomical and taphonomic research.

From 2022–2025, the Curaçao Cultural Landscape Project conducted archaeological and palaeoecological investigations of Rif Sint Marie and Jan Thiel, Curaçao, to reconstruct long-term landscape history. Results reveal a 5700-year settlement history, strategic adaptations enacted by diverse cultural groups and the legacy of past human activities within the contemporary landscape.

Large-scale field investigation in the Eastern Tianshan Mountains of Xinjiang identified 108 Palaeolithic/microlithic surface findspots. Pulei Cave reveals the first well-preserved spelean sediment record containing Upper Palaeolithic cultural remains in eastern Xinjiang, dating from c. 45–43 ka BP.

Changes in settlement patterns are often argued to reflect climatic change, which may make certain areas more or less hospitable depending on the adaptability of subsistence practices. This study models the impact of El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events on phases of occupation and abandonment over the past 4500 years at Pashimbi in the Ecuadorian Amazon. While earlier occupations and abandonments seem to correlate with climatic events, associations post-3000 BP are less clear, potentially indicating that populations adapted to wetter conditions and, the authors argue, that the El Niño-Southern Oscillation was not the main determinant in the decision to abandon settlements.

This study examines clay fragments found at Çemka Höyük, a Pre-Pottery Neolithic site in Mardin, Türkiye (tenth millennium BC). Analysis of mineral inclusions in the clay matrix indicates that these fragments may have been deliberately fired, representing an early example of ceramic technology in South-west Asia. The diversity of forms identified and their likely uses suggest, the authors argue, a formative phase in ceramic innovation during which the properties and potential applications of clay were explored by the local community and adopted and adapted within existing social and economic traditions in advance of widespread application in the seventh millennium BC.

Understanding how prehistoric human groups sustained themselves upon encountering novel island environments is crucial for modelling population movements in key world regions like Southeast Asia. Here, the authors present new radiocarbon dates and isotopic data for human and animal remains recovered from the Neolithic site of Xiying on Haitan Island, on the south-east China coast. The human remains are the earliest yet discovered on the island, their stable isotope ratios revealing a lifelong heavy reliance on marine foods despite the availability of a diversity of terrestrial resources, offering new insights into human adaptive flexibility in maritime environments.

Though mortuary practices seem largely archaeologically invisible in Iron Age Britain, the visible dead were subject to diverse treatment. Here, the authors report the results of a multi-strand analysis of two Iron Age skeletons buried in a stone cairn at Loch Borralie, north-west Scotland. Manipulation of one skeleton, including the possible removal of the brain, fashioning of long bones into ‘tools’ and reassembly for burial, suggests complex mortuary processing, while the east-coast origin of both individuals and their biological ties to Orkney reveal long-distance connections, expanding our understanding of funerary practice, mobility and connectivity in Iron Age Britain.

Although thousands of prehistoric standing stones have been recorded across Iberia, the lack of associated detailed contextual data allows ongoing debate about their possible functions. Following the chance discovery of a ‘diademated’ stela in 2018, excavations at Las Capellanías (Cañaveral de León, Huelva), in south-west Spain, led to the discovery of two more stelae and facilitated the compilation of vital contextual information. Here, the authors explore the association between these stelae, Bronze and Iron Age burials and an ancient routeway, revealing reuse, temporal persistence, geographical connectivity and cultural hybridisation in the widening networks of prehistoric Iberia.

High-resolution archaeometallurgical analysis of production debris offers a direct means of reconstructing ancient metalmaking traditions, yet remains underexplored relative to the study of finished artefacts. By integrating slag morphology, microstructure and compositional data from Late Bronze Age Taldysai, this study reconstructs, for the first time in Eurasian Steppe archaeology, a continuous 300-year tradition of copper-alloy production. The results reveal technological continuity alongside innovation, including advanced furnace designs, shared metallurgical knowledge and episodes of experimentation. The authors state that these findings position local semipastoralist communities not as peripheral adopters but as active innovators at the heart of Bronze Age Eurasian metallurgical developments.

Mortuary traditions offer a wealth of insights into the social landscapes of human communities. Here, the author examines anthropomorphic representations in the decorated tombs of Kyushu Island, Japan, dating from the Late Kofun period (sixth–seventh centuries AD). The consistently subordinate scale, strategic architectural placement and systematic anonymity of these figures suggest that they did not function as portraits of the dead but were likely symbolic agents embodying a collective rather than individual identity. By demonstrating that the human figure is not consistently the protagonist in these funerary contexts, this study reframes our understandings of Late Kofun deathways.

As a means for both the construction and communication of social identity in diverse human groups worldwide, objects of personal adornment can help to explain some prehistoric lifeways and beliefs. This study examines the materials and manufacture traces of whole and fragmentary pendants found in association with human burials at the Early Period (c. 4200 cal BC–cal AD 250) Ortiz site in south-western Puerto Rico. Using data from microscopy, elemental analysis and petrography, the authors propose that these pendants were a tangible manifestation of group identity, rooted in a sense of localised belonging, which persisted over almost a millennium.