ANTIQUITY has had a long tradition of publishing pieces on Stonehenge, represented in our cover design. Here we present an intriguing and thought-provoking paper, which draws an analogy with Madagascar to help explain the meaning of the enigmatic monument.

Reconstruction drawings intended to illustrate the realities of prehistoric life can be famously revealing of preconceptions in the minds of the modern illustrator and of the researcher who briefs the illustrator. But are the less interpretative drawings whose purpose is to record the material evidence more neutral in their look? Nineteenth-century technical illustrations of the Neanderthal skull are unintentionally revealing of attitude.

The application of van Gennep's Rites of Passage structure to iconography and mortuary contexts in the Late Moche period of Peru offers an original means of exploring prehistoric concepts of death.

Recent excavation of Scottish Iron Age Brochs and wheelhouses enables new discussion of the development, dating and economic interpretation of these impressive structures. Here, Gilmour & Cook assess the work at Dun Vulan, South Uist, in the Western Isles.

T.J. Dunbabin's book The western Greeks was published 50 years ago. In it he modelled the development of the Greek cities of Italy on the British Empire of the 1930s. Here Franco De Angelis explores the problem of faulty and distorting analogies.

The discovery of a perforated cave-bear femur from the Neanderthal levels at Divje Babe has been interpreted as the oldest musical instrument in Europe. Here we present the current discussion on the ‘flute’ and its implications for other similar bone finds from early prehistory.

Classical archaeologists gathered in Amsterdam at their quinquennial congress this summer. Some of the key papers contributed to the on-going theoretical and methodological debate between traditionalists and relativists, while other speakers presented new computer techniques and interesting findings.

Few chipped stone artefacts from prehistory were as technically complex as the flint daggers of Late Neolithic Denmark. Here Michael Stafford present a study that examines, through experimental archaeology, many aspects of dagger production.

The discovery of an ancient Chinese seal in an Oxfordshire garden three centuries ago still provokes interest. This note examines how the seal came to be published by Dr Robert Plot, and what it might have represented.

Going into a cave or shelter, one walks where one can stand upright or has to crouch less. That affects which zones objects are trampled on, which zones they may be kicked out of, which zones they may be kicked into. And those effects interact with the usual spatial order–with its activity zones and drop zones–that develops through occupation of the enclosed cave or shelter.

Paviland is the richest Early Upper Palaeolithic site in the British Isles and has produced Britain's only ceremonial burial (the ‘Red Lady’) of that age. Excavations in the 19th and early 20th centuries, combined with the action of the sea, have removed virtually all of the cave's sedimentary sequence. A new, definitive study of the site and its finds, together with over 40 radiocarbon dates, shows that Paviland currently holds the key to our understanding of the chronology of human activity and settlement from c. 30,000 to 21,000 years ago. The age of the ‘Red Lady’ is also finally resolved at c. 26,000 b.p.

To what extent was gender an important factor in plant domestication? How much of the domestication process can be considered as cultural rather than biological? Christine Hastorf considers these and many associated questions in this topical essay about plants and people.

The meat and milk of horses are highly valued food products, past and present. Horses were an especially valuable food resource in grassland habitats, which may explain their increased exploitation in the central Eurasian forest steppe during the late Eneolithic. It may also explain the emphasis on horses in final Upper Palaeolithic art.

Recent availability of declassified satellite images of landscapes and ancient cities in Turkey offer new and valuable material for archaeolgical research. Here David Kennedy explains the significance and use of some images in the Euphrates Valley.

A new study of Kamares ware, integrating stylistic and petrographic analysis, suggests that Protopalatial Knossos was a centre of ritual consumption rather than production, obtaining some of its specialized vessels for drinking and feasting ceremonies from production centres elsewhere in central Crete.

The recent study of Kis-Mohos Tó lake in Hungary reveals an important sequence of prehistoric landscape changes from the earliest land clearance to the early Middle Ages. The recognition of land degradation, through the application of new analytical methods, forms an important part of the discussion.

The estimation of past population levels continues to be an important aspect of archaeological research. Here Antonio Curet offers new formulae for estimating prehistoric populations in lowland South America and the Caribbean using data derived from houses and settlements.

The re-evaluation of artefacts sometimes reveals a long history of misinterpretation. Here Peter Woodman re-assesses stone tools from western Ireland which have important lessons for how our personal biases influence our interpretation of lithic assemblages.

In the Near East, the inherent dualism of clay as both symbol and instrument was a feature of its use from the inception of farming villages to the formation of cities, and the extensive record of its ‘changing face’ allows us to trace the continuous history of development between them.