Zhukaigou, a late prehistoric site in Inner Mongolia, stands in an important zone, the region where the steppe cultures meet the settled farming civilization of China. As elsewhere across the Asian steppes, that zone where each tradition meets its other is observed both from its archaeology and from such clues as we have to ancient perceptions of significant others.

Excavation of a Classic Kerma cemetery in Sudan revealed a number of burials segregated by age, throwing into question a presumed disregard for the burial of the young. Burial rites were varied according to the age of the deceased and show a remarkable concern for the ritual burial of infants and the stillborn

Recent results of radiocarbon analyses from sites in Ukraine suggest that a revision of the chronology of the Late mesolithic and early Neolithic is required. The subsequent Neolithic period up to the beginning of the Early Bronze Age (c.3000 cal BC) should be divided into two separate periods, the Neolithic and Neo-eneolithic.

Over the last few decades, much interest has centred on the use of spectrographic analyses of Bronze Age objects as a means of classification to produce groups for subsequent archaeological assessment. Separate research teams have used differing systems to classify their results, the most comprehensive work being that of the Stuttgart school, published in two volumes, SAM I and SAM 2 by Junghans, Sangmeister and Schroder (1960; 1968).

Over the past 10-20 years archaeologists have become familiar with the problems of potential ‘aberrations’ in the radiocarbon time-scale, arising from factors such as the varying rates of production of I4C in the upper atmosphere, or from the delayed cycling of ‘fossil’ carbon in the overall carbon reservoir. In some cases these aberrations can lead to dramatic ‘wiggles’ in the radiocarbon calibration curves, while in other cases (as, for example, during the Iron Age, around 700 BC) they can lead to substantial ‘plateaux’ during which measured radiocarbon dates show no detectable change over periods of several centuries (Pearson & Stuiver 1986; Stuiver & Pearson 1986).

Views of the Late Roman period in England have changed considerably in the past few years, with a tendency towards acceptance of a survival or resurgence of economic and political organization despite earlier decline. Traditional evidence provides some insights into the differential nature of these changes. Here it is argued that ‘environmental’ (in this case biological) evidence can provide unique insights into economic systems, and that bones and insects from late 4th-century AD Lincoln indicate continuity of complex systems into this period.

Detailed analysis of the animal bone assemblage at Gola Dhoro here throws light on the expansion of the Indus civilisation into Gujarat. A square fort, imposed on a settlement of livestock herders in the later third millennium BC, was shown to have contained people who introduced a broader diet of meat and seafood, and new ways of preparing it. These social and dietary changes were coincident with a surge in craft and trade.

This vitally important article sets out the obstacles and opportunities for the protection of archaeological sites and historic buildings in zones of armed conflict. Readers will not need to be told that modern munitions are devastating and sometimes wayward, nor that cultural heritage once destroyed cannot simply be rebuilt. The author makes a vivid case for the role of respect for the past in mitigating hostility and so winning the peace as well as aiding the victory, and guides us through the forest of players. Agencies so numerous, so obscure and so often ineffective might prompt the response ‘a plague on all your acronyms’. All the more important, then, that the author and his associates continue their campaign and are supported by everyone who believes that cultural property has a value that lies beyond sectional interests.

It is common knowledge that the West Indies were inhabited by three cultures at the time of European contact—the Island Caribs, the Tainos and the Ciboney – identified largely from the accounts of Spanish and French explorers and chroniclers. Is this knowledge accurate? This evaluation of evidence for the Guanahatabey (‘Ciboney’) of western Cuba and southwestern Haiti finds they did not survive until the time of European contact.

Here is a new application of infra-red photography with a digital camera to record rock art. The need to make full and accurate records of the images, without touching (and thus degrading) the rock, requires a method of remote mapping. Trials with digital IR reported here are very promising and especially useful for painted rock art.

The recent article on the Carthage Tophet infants by Schwartz et al. (2012) takes issue with our paper (Smith et al. 2011) that claims the Carthaginians practiced infant sacrifice. Both studies were carried out on the same sample of cremated infant remains excavated by the ASOR Punic project between 1975 and 1980 (Stager 1982). We examined the contents of 334 urns while Schwartz et al. (2012) examined the same sample plus an additional fourteen urns (N = 348). We differed, however, in our conclusions regarding the age distribution of the infants and the extent to which it supported or refuted claims that Tophet infants were sacrificed. This note explains why we think that Schwartz et al. (2012) erred in their age assessments and introduces additional evidence to show that the age distribution of the Tophet infants supports our contention of infant sacrifice.