Archaeologists are increasingly integrating the analysis of ancient DNA into cemetery studies; however, while such efforts highlight relatedness and descent, biological kinship forms only one aspect of social organisation in human societies. Here, the authors demonstrate this using the Tamir necropolis in Mongolia (100 BC–AD 100) as a case study. Employing a pipeline that combines linear discriminant analysis, machine-learning classifiers and cultural phylogenetics, they interrogate the cultural and social dynamics that structured the cemetery, disentangling the influence of genetic relatedness, social status and cultural tradition and offering a powerful framework for the investigation of social organisation in ancient populations.

Until recent decades, the monastery of Lios Mòr (Lismore) in Argyll, Scotland, established by Saint Mo Luóc in the sixth century, was attested only via historical references and local traditions. Community-led investigations have now revealed an early medieval cemetery, sophisticated craftworking of international importance and early structures around the island’s parish church. These discoveries underscore the site’s status as a high-ranking ecclesiastical centre of the Insular north-west and elucidate its significance and integral role within the early Christian networks of Dál Riata, offering insights into the material traces of early medieval monasticism in northern Britain in the first millennium AD.

Stretching for 1.5km and consisting of approximately 5200 precisely aligned holes, Monte Sierpe in southern Peru is a remarkable construction that likely dates to at least the Late Intermediate Period (AD 1000–1400) and saw continued use by the Inca (AD 1400–1532). Yet its function remains uncertain. Here, the authors report on new analyses of drone imagery and sediment samples that reveal numerical patterns in layout, potential parallels with Inca knotted-string records and the presence of crops and wild plants. All this, the authors argue, suggests that Monte Sierpe functioned as a local, Indigenous system of accounting and exchange.

Founded in 228/227 BCE, the Carthaginian city of Qart Hadasht in southern Spain became the principal Punic political centre and military port in the western Mediterranean. Its defensive architecture featured a robust casemate wall composed of an outer sandstone face and inner mudbrick walls. Here, the authors present the geoarchaeological analysis of the earthen materials used in the construction of this wall. The results reveal differences in composition and provenance between mudbricks and mud mortars, with the former sourced across distances of 7–8km, highlighting the detailed knowledge of hinterland resources and complex political organisation involved in the wall’s construction.

The large mound of Herlaugshaugen, on the island of Leka off the coast of Norway, has long been associated with the legendary storeroom (and burial place) of Herlaug, a pre-Viking king of the region Namdalen. Excavations at the site in 2023 recovered iron clinker nails and wooden fragments, identifying one of the earliest ship burials in Scandinavia. Here, the authors detail these findings and explore the significance of Herlaugshaugen in expanding our understanding of the region and its maritime connections in the seventh and eighth centuries AD, arguing that Leka may have been a node in a much wider network.

Hundreds of large stone vessels can be found dispersed across the Xieng Khouang Plateau in northern Laos. Despite nearly a century of research, their purpose remains uncertain.

Here, the authors report on the excavation of the exceptionally large Jar 1 at Site 75, which contains a collective mortuary assemblage of secondary interments. The disarticulated remains of at least 37 individuals hint at the jars’ function within a complex funerary sequence, with direct radiocarbon dating indicating a prolonged period of mortuary activity c. cal AD 890–1160, which was a time of increasing regional interaction and mobility in Southeast Asia.

The Polychrome Expansion marks the widespread dispersal of an emblematic ceramic style across much of Amazonia during a period of broad social transformation. Yet the timing and constituent routes for this dispersal are poorly understood, in part due to a lack of dating at many sites. Here, the authors apply computational methods to model the expansion via existing radiocarbon dates, critically examining issues of timing, travel and trade/conflict. The results, they argue, call for a reinterpretation of the Polychrome Expansion as a long-lasting and gradual process that advanced from secondary rivers and spread along main channels, eventually impacting colonial history.

Shipwrecks provide invaluable insights into human society and trade. Their unique preservation conditions also mean that they can serve as exceptional biobanks, recording traces of organisms carried aboard or arriving post wreck. Yet only limited research has explored the genetic potential of onboard sediments. Here, the authors present environmental and metagenomic analyses of sediments contained in a large amphora from the 150-year-old Yangzi Estuary II shipwreck. Weaving the results with historic texts, they reconstruct part of the history of the wrecked vessel, elucidating cargo-packing techniques, its likely season and port of sailing, and its ultimate submersion within the estuarine environment.

The deep evolutionary relationship between humans and intestinal parasites offers opportunities for the reconstruction of diet and living conditions in archaeological populations. Here, the authors identify eggs preserved in sediment adhering to the surface of the sacrum in Muslim burials from the Southern Necropolis at Deraheib (upper reaches of Wadi al-Allaqi, Sudan, ninth–eleventh centuries AD). Species-level identification is suggested based on egg morphology and religious taboos, revealing a high prevalence of infection by Taenia saginata, the beef tapeworm, and contributing to our understanding of diet, subsistence, climate and health in the medieval Nubian Desert.

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.

Classic period (c. AD 300–810) governance in the Southern Maya Lowlands was characterised by a system of divine kingship with paramount rulers. What constituted ideal governing systems, however, changed over time with greater emphasis placed on power-sharing by the Postclassic period (c. AD 1000–1521). Here, the authors document a colonnaded open hall at Ucanal, Guatemala, and explore its potential role as a council house and stage for civic engagement. It was constructed during the Terminal Classic period (c. AD 810–950/1000) in the wake of major political upheaval and provides early evidence for a turn toward more collective governing in Peten, Guatemala.

While absolute dating has become the archaeological gold standard, typology can provide context beyond time frames. Here, the authors demonstrate this with the chronological assessment of iron helmets from the underwater site of Piedras de la Barbada, near Benicarló (eastern Spain). Marine concretions helped preserve fabric linings in several helmets, permitting direct radiocarbon dating of the assemblage to the late fourteenth or early fifteenth centuries AD. Typological and iconographic comparisons agree, identifying the helmets as regionally produced, light-infantry equipment that pre-dates the fifteenth-century standardisation of European plate armour systems, corresponding with a period of maritime insecurity along the Valencian coast.

Debates concerning the roles of sensory perceptions and responses in past societies are increasingly gaining traction in the archaeological discipline, but European medieval archaeology has only recently begun to engage with them. Moving beyond previous approaches in medieval studies that focused on the five physical senses, this article investigates material culture through the conceptual lens of sensory regimes. Drawing on case studies from the sixth to seventeenth centuries and examining diverse archaeological evidence—including artefacts, burial practices and urban environments—the author argues that material culture can facilitate or oppose social, political and religious regimes through sensory practices.

Despite repeated calls for action from various sources, peatland archaeological sites continue to deteriorate; the passive strategy of preservation in situ is failing. Here, the authors consider four challenges to peatland preservation—physical degradation, mapping and monitoring of sites, communication, and policy frameworks—with climate change ultimately causing further problems. Drawing on positive policy developments in England, they argue that advocacy for peatland archaeology needs to be louder and clearer: archaeology must become an integral consideration in all climate-change mitigation and land-use planning, rather than an afterthought, if the fragile heritage of European peatlands is to be preserved.

Maya glyphic texts from the Classic period (250–900 CE) typically chronicle the exploits of historical or divine characters; everyday or functional records are rare. Here, the authors offer a reconstruction and transcription of a ‘microtext’ painted on an interior wall of Structure 10K-2 at the site of Xultun, Guatemala. The text records a unique astronomical formula that concludes with a name, attributing the work to an individual named Sak Tahn Waax (‘White-chested Fox’). To date, this is the only known example of a Classic Maya mathematician directly credited for their work, attesting to the value of its intellectual authorship.

The analysis of archaeological trace residues is offering expanding insights into various aspects of human (pre)history, including developments in medical knowledge. Here, the authors present results from the analysis of two medical instruments (scissors and tweezers) found in a Ming Dynasty (c. 1368–1644 CE) tomb in Jiangyin, China. While the form and composition of the instruments themselves indicate developed understandings of tool production and use, novel application of stimulated Raman scattering microscopy reveals probable traces of aconitine, likely providing direct evidence for the use of this highly toxic substance, possibly administered as a topical anaesthetic, in ancient Chinese surgery.

Despite descriptions in tenth-century-AD written accounts, direct evidence for early brass production in China is scarce. The discovery of crucibles and a furnace dating to the ninth–tenth centuries in Guangzhou, southern China, is therefore a key find. Analysis of metal residues found within these crucibles, presented here, confirms the end-to-end processing of raw materials and production of brass via cementation. The authors argue that this find provides a new perspective on the transmission of brass-making knowledge and technology, highlighting the potential roles of institutionalised industry and maritime routes in the emergence of localised brass production in medieval southern China.

Global biodiversity is decreasing at an alarming rate, and Britain is now one of the most nature-depleted countries on the planet. This matters to archaeologists as it places limitations on our personal experience of ‘nature’ and damages the collective archaeological imagination, diluting our capacity to envisage the richness and diversity of the past worlds we seek to understand. Here, the author argues that we must learn, from contemporary biodiversity projects, animate Indigenous worldviews and enmeshed human-nonhuman ecosystems, to rewild our minds—for the sake of the past worlds we study and the future worlds that our narratives help shape.

Diet and material culture are interlinked, and examination of organic residues in ceramic vessels permits the simultaneous study of both; exemplified here in the analysis of early-medieval pottery from England and Denmark for biomarkers indicative of fish processing, a possible dietary indicator of Scandinavian migration during the Viking Age (c. AD 793–1066). While almost a quarter of sampled Danish pots were used to cook fish, diagnostic aquatic markers were securely identified in only 13 of 298 English vessels. Geographic homogeneity and temporal persistence in processing terrestrial animal fats instead suggest that Scandinavian settlers pragmatically conformed to Anglo-Saxon culinary traditions.

In colonial settings, missionary construction projects often dramatically transformed local architectural styles and settlement patterns. The relatively young age of these activities means that colonial chronologies are often based on documentary evidence or artefact typologies rather than chronometric determinations. Here, the author explores the use of uranium-thorium dating for coral blocks from a series of missionary-style buildings with unknown construction dates in the Mangareva Islands, French Polynesia. Although some samples reveal years/decades of inbuilt age that may reflect methods of material acquisition, the dates provide new information on the construction activities of a population of Polynesian Catholic converts.