Between 1937 and 1940, a team of Mexican archaeologists led by Alfonso Caso excavated at Monte Negro, a defensible mountaintop settlement in western Oaxaca. Their foundational insights into the Late Formative period (ca. 300–100 BC) were later augmented by surveys and excavations in other valleys of western Oaxaca, which revealed the emergence of contemporaneous hilltop centers. Archaeological research at Monte Negro resumed in the early 2000s with total station mapping and intensive surface collections, followed in 2023–2024 by the first excavations outside of the monumental core. In this article, we present the first complete site map along with GIS analyses, which offer new ideas about Monte Negro’s settlement layout including possible neighborhood divisions and the social functions of ceremonial plazas. We also publish the site’s first accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon dates, which confirm that Monte Negro’s relatively brief occupation was in the final centuries BC. In addition, we report the discovery of two nearby sites, including a set of walls likely dating to the Late Postclassic. With further analysis of the most recent excavations forthcoming, the findings presented here refine understanding of Monte Negro’s chronology, social organization, regional role, and enduring cultural significance.

This case study presents the early stages of a deep mapping initiative in Charleston, South Carolina (USA). A foundational landscape for exploring the socioeconomic and political structures in the United States from the late 17th century to the present, the evidence for Charleston’s history is held in a variety of repositories, local and state agencies, and information curated by local communities and organizations. This rich resource mosaic creates an environment rich in information but complicated by varying levels of accessibility. The “Spatial History of Charleston” (SHOC) is a long-term mapping initiative that collates historical information about the Charleston area within a spatial and temporal framework. Within this endeavor lie interconnected issues related to scale, access, ownership, agency, and agenda. Employing a community-centered approach, SHOC seeks to navigate concerns about access, agency, ownership, and agenda, establishing a platform that increases access to data about and by communities, thereby democratizing information and facilitating integration and synthesis.

Cruz de la Boca (CDB) is a major Epiclassic hilltop center in northern Mesoamerica, located in the transitional zone between sedentary and mobile lifeways. Fieldwork in 2001–2002 by an INAH Zacatecas team mapped architecture, construction techniques, and surface materials in the site’s nuclear zone. Systematic pedestrian survey, total station mapping, remote sensing, and GIS documented more than 15 hectares of monumental and domestic architecture. In a region where only a few hilltop centers—such as Alta Vista, La Quemada, and La Ferrería—have been mapped to comparable standards, this article places Cruz de la Boca among the best-documented sites on the northern frontier. We highlight sunken patio compounds and smaller, hut-like Loma San Gabriel (LSG)-type foundations on outer benches, treating their spatial relations as a form of social stratigraphy. Topography, architecture, and controlled excavation of a looting pit provide stratigraphic, funerary, ceramic, and lithic data situating CDB within the Alta Vista phase (ca. a.d. 600–900). We argue that CDB refocuses the Loma San Gabriel problem by showing how lighter-built peripheral residences related spatially and socially to a Chalchihuites-style monumental core.

Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is a critical intervention that greatly reduces the risk of HIV transmission, yet limited access to prescribing providers continues to constrain uptake in the United States. This study examines how geographic access to PrEP providers changed between 2020 and 2023 and identifies areas with limited access, referred to as PrEP deserts. Using the Integrated two-step floating catchment area method, this study finds that despite widespread gains in PrEP access, five states experienced increases in the total population living in PrEP deserts. Additionally, more than 5 million residents in states designated as priority jurisdictions under the Ending the HIV epidemic initiative gained geographic access to PrEP providers between 2020 and 2023. However, improvements were uneven: in some states, communities of colour experienced declining access and remain disproportionately represented in PrEP deserts. These findings highlight persistent geographic and demographic disparities in HIV prevention infrastructure despite recent federal efforts to expand PrEP availability.

Malaria remains one of the critical public health threats, particularly in endemic sub-Saharan countries like Malawi. Although malaria prevalence has declined over the years, the disease continues to pose a notable public health burden, contributing to high levels of morbidity and mortality. This study mapped malaria risk in Nsanje District, southern Malawi. Environmental variables (temperature, rainfall, elevation, slope, and proximity to rivers) were used to model malaria hazard, while socio-economic factors (proximity to health facilities and roads, and population density) defined vulnerability. Land use and land cover derived from Sentinel-2 using the random trees classifier in ArcGIS Pro were used to delineate elements at risk. The analytical hierarchy process and weighted overlay analysis were applied to generate hazard, vulnerability, and risk maps. Additionally, sensitivity analysis was conducted to determine the most influential factors. Results show that temperature and rainfall contributed more within the model to malaria hazard, with 20.4% and 35.1% of the area classified as high- and very high-hazard zones, respectively. Vulnerability was mainly affected by proximity to health facilities and population density, while 43.1% of the district was categorized as high risk and 40.5% as moderate risk. Overall, malaria hazard contributed most to the total risk, followed by vulnerability. The findings of this study are essential for understanding the complex dynamics of malaria transmission, which are influenced by a combination of environmental, climatic, and socio-economic factors. The study recommends enhancing healthcare accessibility and developing early warning systems, including malaria risk maps, to support targeted prevention and control efforts. Future studies should integrate long-term climate projections and real-time, high-frequency environmental and epidemiological data to enhance malaria risk modelling.

Much work on the archaeology of nautical mobility across the Mediterranean Sea draws on calculations of land visibility that were formulated in 1901 and that have received relatively little critical evaluation. Here, the authors trace the use of this map in archaeology, providing a critique of 2D coastal visibility analyses and presenting a new analysis to quantify coastal visibility in angular terms. The resulting multidimensional visibility datasets (available as online supplementary material) form the basis for an updated coastal visibility map for the Mediterranean Sea, offering a platform for the exploration of more nuanced questions about seafaring and navigation.

Traditional narratives of the origin of Andover Theological Seminary and theological education more broadly in the United States focus upon the theological and intellectual justifications for the creation of this first form of graduate education in the United States. Such narratives, however, obscure the political motivations behind Andover’s founding. Jedidiah Morse, one of the primary architects of Andover, designed the school to support his religious, nationalistic, and imperialistic ambitions for the young nation. Morse drew upon his knowledge and experience as a geographer and his antagonism toward democracy to construct a new educational institution with the capacity to support the United States through the production of clergy. This article draws upon Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and the spatial humanities to help understand both the establishment and political influence of Andover Theological Seminary. In so doing, it contends that Andover was far more than a theologically focused institution. Instead, it sought to shape the nation through a network of educated clergy committed to settling the North American geography and beyond. Andover was established as part of an evangelical infrastructure designed to undergird the co-constructed projects of religious nationalism and imperialism in the first half of the nineteenth century.

In recent years, mobile GIS systems have become essential tools for the real-time management and recording of archaeological data, particularly in archaeological survey projects. This article explores their potential for the real-time digital management of archaeological excavations and presents a practical application. One of the main limitations to the use of mobile GIS applications in archaeological excavation has been that global navigation satellite system receivers embedded in mobile devices do not provide the necessary accuracy for detailed stratigraphic documentation. The free and open-source mobile GIS application QField offers a possible solution to this problem. Because of the Bluetooth connection with external differential global navigation satellite system receivers, QField achieves the high accuracy required by stratigraphic excavation workflows. At the same time, because it shares the core libraries of QGIS, QField supports the development of a real-time excavation GIS environment, in which each stratigraphic unit is uniquely encoded and becomes the focus of the digital data acquisition process.

This article uses digital Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to visualize changing crop choice over time in nineteenth-century equatorial eastern Africa. It maps the locations of crops mentioned in early imperial sources, using contemporary cartographic representations of the region as a base. This enables a novel visualization of changing agricultural potential and vulnerability to climate variability over time. The maps contextualize the growth of commercial and political centers, a series of famines during years and seasons of below average rainfall, and the well-known environmental challenges of the early colonial period.

This study analyzes over a century of plant community change on the Colorado Plateau (CP) using repeat photography (1910–2016) and various GIS (Geographic Information Systems) data. We examined 338 repeat photo pairs across three dominant vegetation communities: CP Blackbrush-Mormon-tea Shrubland (CP Blackbrush), Inter-Mountain Basins Semi-Desert Grassland and Big Sagebrush Shrubland (IM grasslands) and CP Pinyon-Juniper Woodland/Shrubland (PJ Woodland). Vegetation changes, including plant counts, plant size, patch shifts, patch size and live plant cover, were evaluated against photo pair time span and spatial covariates, including climate, topography, soil characteristics and land-use history using logistic regression. Responses varied significantly by community type, driven by interacting factors such as time since domestic grazing cessation, climate conditions, and geomorphic setting. CP Blackbrush and IM grasslands showed recovery with longer time since grazing cessation, with increases in plant numbers, patch size, and cover. PJ Woodlands showed mixed, context dependent responses. All communities exhibited increased growth on alluvial landforms, likely from deeper soils and better water availability. Human disturbances lead to a higher probability of patch shifts in CP Blackbrush and IM grasslands. These findings underscore utility of long-term datasets for understanding dryland ecosystem dynamics and highlight how land-use history, climate and geomorphology can inform conservation efforts on dryland ecosystems.

During the Second World War, Allied-occupied Italy became the setting for a wide range of intimate encounters between local women and the occupiers, especially American soldiers. These relationships – ranging from romantic and consensual to transactional and coercive – reflected complex interactions with perceived ‘otherness’ and exposed tensions around race, gender, and power. US authorities, concerned about its social, cultural, and political implications, monitored ‘fraternisation’ closely. This article explores these dynamics by examining US Army marriage regulations and oral history interviews with Italian women who married American soldiers. Women’s experiences – shaped by region, class, and individual circumstance – represent a spectrum ranging from disillusionment to long-term partnership. These narratives offer a complex portrait of gender relations under occupation, revealing how military policy also intersected with and shaped the everyday lives of women during occupation.

A 103 km2 aerial lidar survey of Dzibanche/Kaanu’l, Mexico, reveals the city’s settlement to be more populous and well-organized than previously thought. The sprawling settlement incorporated the early center of Ichkabal in a network of smaller peri-urban civic-ceremonial nodes. The density and complexity of the Kaanu’l settlement is consistent with its extraordinary political reach as a multiregional hegemonic state. The city and settlement grew to their maximum extent during the Early Classic period until AD 630. The lidar-derived data show that Dzibanche may have had the largest monumental zone and highest population density in the Maya Lowlands at that time. The Early Classic layout was unaltered by later construction, allowing us to document a well-developed system of causeways connecting an urban center and peripheral plaza groups with surrounding settlements and agricultural fields. The spatial organization and interconnectedness of this Early Classic settlement suggests a greater level of urban planning for optimal flow of goods and people across urban and peri-urban zones than previously thought.

This article presents an innovative workflow for the acquisition and storage of archaeological data. The system is based on open-source software to enhance method replication and media accessibility. QGIS software is used as the central platform, connected to a spatial database developed in PostgreSQL and managed with the SQL and Python programming languages. The aim is to achieve an efficient, flexible, and reproducible digital method for data collection and management that can be applied to surface archaeological surveys. During the implementation and development of the method, we have recorded over 4,600 archaeological remains in two different structures with traces of Upper Paleolithic activity in the Lower Gallery of La Garma (Cantabria, Spain). After 18 months of continuous work, the results obtained demonstrate the usefulness and versatility of this procedure, which can be adapted to each context and to the specific needs of each researcher. Our goal is not simply to systematize archaeological documentation, as traditionally proposed, but to establish a simple and robust method for data collection and preservation, accessible to any user. Its fully open-source approach aims to promote a model that is nurtured by the use and contributions of the research community.

Cystic echinococcosis (CE) is a significant zoonotic helminthic disease with considerable public health and economic impact in endemic regions. We aimed to analyse the climatic and environmental factors affecting the human CE cases in North Khorasan Province, northeast Iran. Using a geographic information system, we map the addresses of 316 hospitalised CE patients from 2012 to 2022 and examined the influence of climatic variables, altitude, and land cover on CE case distribution. Data were analysed using logistic regression models. Most patients were female (58.9%) and aged 21–60 years (67.4%), with liver involvement being the most common (57.3%). The multivariate model identified urban settings, irrigated and dry farms, soil temperature, and humidity as the most important geoclimatic determinants, respectively. In contrast, gardens, moderate and excellent rangelands, minimum, maximum, and mean air temperatures, and rainfall were only found to be significant factors in univariate models. High-risk areas for CE include urban and suburban regions, surrounding fields, and pastures where stray dogs and wild canids roam, livestock husbandries are present, and residents consume unsanitised vegetables. Additionally, areas with lower soil and weather temperatures and higher humidity conditions that may enhance the survival of E. granulosus eggs dispersed by canids were identified as high-risk zones. Health managers can use these findings to prioritise control programs and allocate limited resources to these areas, ultimately reducing the future incidence of CE.

At the end of the last glaciation aeolian processes promoted the development of the European Sand Belt, generating one of the largest areas of cold-climate dune fields in the world. Specific processes that led to the development and stabilization of these dunes remain poorly understood because there have been limited attempts to reconstruct the Belt’s past aeolian environments. New paleoenvironmental information can now be provided through an assessment of residual dune ridges (RDRs), landforms that are characteristic of wet dune systems. We recently identified almost 2,000 RDRs within the Kampinos Forest dune field (central Poland) and examined them through detailed morphometric analysis. That search showed that the development of the RDRs was driven by seasonally increased fluvial runoff and, in the longer term, by climate amelioration—apparently during the Bølling–Allerød interstadial. The high density of dunes protected ridges from deflation, so was crucial towards RDR preservation. The study proved that the RDRs can exist for more than 10 ka years, thus they can be used as environmental proxies. Additionally, they can be used as an indicator of past flood-event frequency and magnitude, as well as act as repositories of information on past-dune transformation.