Two notable reconstructions of Neanderthal individuals are analysed in this perceptive study of the role of visual reconstructions in archaeological debate. The author concludes that such images are more than popular by-products of academic discussion, and play a crucial role in the construction of archaeological arguments.

Since 1980 intensive archaeological investigations have been carried out at several early sites, occupied from late preceramic through early ceramic times (4150–2950b.p.), in the Casma Valley, Peru. Preliminary results document increasing societal complexity over time as reflected in the exponential growth of monumental architecture, the acquisition of irrigation agriculture, the rise of two complex polities within the valley and the separation of religious and secular power within the ruling élite.

The discovery of a colossal ‘statue group’ in the cliffs at Deir el-Bahri sheds new light on the ways in which pharaonic Egyptians experienced the dynamism of their physical environment, and made appeal to it in validation of royal legitimacy; suggests re-interpretation of the symbolic function of the memorial temple of Queen Hatshepsut; and defines a previously unrecognized tradition in rupestral architecture, spatially distributed from the Arabah to the Sudan.

Methodologies for learning about the past are currently at issue within archaeology. This paper considers learning from the standpoint of a ‘radical’ archaeology. One strand of a radical archaeology's approach to learning–a Marxist strand–is discussed, and its main methodological challenge identified. This challenge is the development of middle-range frameworks for recognizing what Binford and others term ‘ambiguity’ – unexpected variation in the archaeological record from which fresh insights about the past can be produced. Concepts and ideas for constructing appropriate middle-ranges for a radical archaeology are discussed.

The excavation of Kilu Cave and the discovery of a Pleistocene prehistory for the Solomon Islands have already been reported in ANTIQUITY by Wickler & Spriggs (62: 703–6). Residue analysis of stone artefacts from the site now provides the earliest direct evidence for the prehistoric use of root vegetables, in the form of starch grains and crystalline raphides identifiable to genus. The direct microscopic identification of starch grains opens new avenues for the study of the plant component of human diets in the distant past.

Despite the city's long and illustrious history, little is known about the urban origins of Venice from the archaeological record. Recent excavations at the church of San Lorenzo have produced radiocarbon dates that give direct evidence for human occupation in the late 6th and 7th centuries AD, lending support to the tradition of settlement by refugees from the Lombard occupation of the mainland.

A Late Iron Age chieftain's burial recently excavated at St Albans is the most elaborate so far known from Britain. The complex of funerary chamber, mound and enclosure also presents evidence for complicated rituals. It is provisionally interpreted as the tomb of a client king who died in the years immediately following the Roman invasion of AD 43.

Work last summer in the Ukok Plateau of western Siberia has made a significant contribution to the establishment of a chronology for this forbidding region. This note reports some of the more important discoveries.

The preparation of an archive of all 20th-century excavations at Stonehenge and the re-analysis of these records has been commissioned by English Heritage. This note reviews the development of ideas on the phased construction of the monument and reveals the potential for the publication of a full account of the excavations.

This note reports the initial results of a joint multidisciplinary project between the University of Sheffield and the Musée d'Art et d'Archéologie in Antananarivo, which has concentrated on the investigation of the social and economic significance of the tombs that are an outstanding landscape feature in an area of southern Madagascar.

Four separate finds of human skeletal remains from the Norfolk Fens have been 14C-dated to the Early Bronze Age. It is suggested that they are a facet of the far more extensive deposition of bodies and artefacts in wet places.

Work in 1992 has significantly added to understanding of this important Maya site in the Middle Formative or Preclassic period (1000–450 BC). The known settled area now extends to 1.62 sq. km. One of the 14 burials was associated with rich grave-goods, suggesting that it was of a leading member of the Cuello community in the 5th century BC.

Earlier fieldwork by the University of Manchester (see ANTIQUITY 64:51–8) identified the important early medieval port of Quentovic. This note reports on the final two seasons of work, which clarified the phasing and extent of this major wic settlement, and on the radiocarbon dates from key features.

The Archaeological Site Index to Radiocarbon Dates for Great Britain and Ireland, pioneered by the Council for British Archaeology in 1971, is now being prepared as a fully computerized database. This note describes the genesis and format of this invaluable new tool.