Spatial organization is a central issue in Palaeolithic archaeology, since it reflects the behavioural capabilities of human groups. We present an analysis of the lithic spatial distribution in a Middle Palaeolithic site, the Abric Romaní. Discussion of these data provides some insights on the variability of settlement patterns among the Neanderthals.

The earliest Upper Palaeolithic industries of the Levant, which figure prominently in discussions of the spread of anatomically modern humans and the origins of the Upper Palaeolithic, are known from a small number of localities. Two sites in the Hatay region of Turkey have yielded initial Upper Palaeolithic assemblages similar to those found in the Levant. One of the sites, Üçaǧizlı’ cave, has also provided radiometric dates and faunal remains, both relatively rare for sites of this period.

Why were handaxes made and why was their shape symmetrical and regular? These and many other questions are considered here, in a paper tackling hominid social behaviour and sexual selection.

Landscape archaeology depends greatly on the nature of the underlying physical landscape, and an understanding of its formation processes and change. We are pleased to publish this contribution on the Holocene river valleys of Britain, which provides important guidance on the integration of archaeological and geomorphological evidence, in building models for assessing potential archaeological preservation and erosion.

The phenomenon of cattle-depositions in Central Europe (c. 3500-2200 BC) provides an opportunity to explore distinctions between sacrifice, burial and grave goods. Waggon models, sun-symbols and buried pairs of cattle suggest additional ideas about the religious beliefs and behaviour of Neolithic societies in central Europe.

Radiocarbon dating of unaccompanied skeletons discovered during the excavation of an Iron Age, Roman and Saxon settlement at Yarnton, Oxfordshire, unexpectedly revealed the presence of a middle Iron Age cemetery (3rd or 4th century cal BC). British Iron Age burials before the 1st century BC are usually found as individuals, often in pits on settlement sites, or are repersented by disarticulated human bone. This paper explores whether cemeteries were a more common part of Iron Age burial practice than hitherto believed, or whether the Yarnton burials were a highly unusual and localized phenomenon? It highlights the merits of obtaining radiocarbon determinations on otherwise undated burials.

Continued discussion of the timing and intensity of earliest human occupation of Europe takes little account of the wider patterning of mammalian dispersions between Africa and Eurasia as guide. Viewed as a palaeontological event, the maximum period of such movement appears to be of latest Pliocene age, while conditions during the Early Pleistocene seem to have been particularly unsuited to dispersions through the Levant.

Previously considered a Bronze Age lacuna, the Northwest Xinjiang region of China has new archaeological finds, showing significant relationships between it and Kazakhstan and Kirghizia. The new Bronze Age culture of Xinjiang shows close affiliation with the Andronovo culture.

In an editorial in 1897, the British Medical Journal (ii: 1112) reported on increase in the ‘disgusting habit’of chewing gum, prepared from rubber or plant resin flavoured with aniseed or peppermint. However, the use of masticants is a much more widespread and long-term behaviour with possible health implications for humans. Here, samples of Mesolithic date from Scandinavia are identified and discussed.

Since 1992, on-going excavations of the Early to Middle Jomon period Sannai Maruyama site (3500-2000 BC) have uncovered the large size and complexity of this prehistoric hunter-gatherer settlement.

Viet Nam has a long tradition of scholarly concern with its own past, born out of 900 years of resistance to Chinese political domination.

Ancestor worship has been a dominant religious form in ancient as well as modern China. It has shaped thought and behaviour for millennia, and has been used by élites as propaganda legitimizing their political positions. Ancestors can be created and modified, so the nature of the ancestral cult has changed through time. Using archaeological data from China, this article first enables an exploration of the earliest manifestations and the development of ancestor-worship ritual in the Neolithic period; secondly, demonstrates that lineage/tribal ancestors became state deities in the Shang dynasty (c. 1600-1100 BC); and, thirdly, investigates the process in modern history by which a legendary sage, the Yellow Emperor, was first transformed into the progenitor of the Han Chinese, and then into the common ancestor of all Chinese people.

In many countries of east Asia, archaeological knowledge is frequently used in the construction of ethnic histories, and the discipline of archaeology is often employed to emphasize ethnic and cultural identities (Fawcett 1995; Nelson 1995). It is thus important for archaeological research in this region to understand how archaeological knowledge is used in each country to establish national identity, to promote national solidarity, to delineate various ethnic groups and to proclaim ancestral territories, cultural antiquity and unbroken cultural and ethnic continuity.

The origins of Korean archaeological heritage management can be traced to 1916, when Japan's Resident-general Government in Korea (Chōsen Sōtokufu: 1910-1945) promulgated the first comprehensive laws of historical preservation called the ‘Regulations for the Preservation of Korea's Remains and Relics’. They reflected a combination of late Meiji and early Taishō era laws tailored to the Korean peninsula such as Lost and Stolen Antiquities (1909); Temples and Shrines Protection Laws (1911); the Preservation of Stone and Metal Inscriptions (1916); and most significantly, the establishment of an administrative apparatus, the Committee on the Investigation of Korean Antiquities (1916). The Chōsen Sōtokufu Museum laws governing art exhibitions and display were compiled from Imperial Museum laws (Tokyo National Museum 1976) dating from 1890-1907 (Chōsen Sōkufu 1924: 215-30).

Many authors have remarked that archaeology in East Asia is part of the discipline of history (Chang 1981: 148; Ikawa-Smith 1975: 15; Nelson 1995: 218; Olsen 1987: 282–3; Von Falkenhausen 1993). Furthermore, it is more ‘locally focussed’ (Barnes 1993: 40), with most of the practising archaeologists investigating archaeological remains within their own national boundaries. To paraphrase the famous statement by North American archaeologists, ‘American archaeology is anthropology or it is nothing’ (Willey & Phillips 1957: 2), into ‘East Asian archaeology is national history or it is nothing’ would be an overstatement, but it is not too far from the reality. The major goal of archaeology in East Asia is to enhance understanding of a nation's past, by increasing its temporal depth. In other words, construction of national identity is the prime business of archaeology in East Asia.

Sander Van Der Leeuw, in his recent plenary address at the 1998 Society for American Archaeology Meetings, suggested that archaeology as a discipline has moved its emphasis from site to settlement pattern, and now to the landscape. Though a landscape focus is not new, especially for the social sciences (Coones 1994; Cosgrove 1984; Glacken 1967; Jackson 1994}, the landscape approach in archaeology (Wagstaff 1987) is still in its infancy.

In early anthropology, environmental determinism was used to explain race, human demography, material culture, cultural variation and cultural change. As anthropological interpretation evolved, simplistic reductionist thinking was replaced with more complex socio-cultural explanations. Despite these theoretical advances,environmental determinism continues to be invoked to explain Andean prehistory.