The Lowed/Middle Palaeolithic site at Red Barns, Portchester, on the outskirts of Portsmouth (SU 608063), was re-investigated in summer 1999. Three test-pits succeeded in relocating and exposing the artefact-bearing horizon first discovered in 1973 by J.C. Draper of Fareham and last seen in 1975 when a rescue excavation took place. This excavation produced a massive (in every sense) lithic collection including seven sediment samples, 8678 flint artefacts, 2058 flint nodules and a staggering 18,423 thermally fractured flint pieces (Gamble & ApSimon 1986). Recent study of the 1975 material (Wenban Smith et al. forthcoming) has demonstrated that the site is older than previously thought, dating to at least 200,000 BP and probably to nearer 400,000 BP, and that lithic technology at the site was dominated by the production of pointed plano-convex handaxes. Study of the organizational structure of the lithic production gave an insight into the patterning of Archaic hominid behaviour, with the site serving as a locale were handaxes were regularly made, but from which they were normally removed before being used and abandoned elsewhere.

Between 1989 and 1994, north coast fishermen Nelson Torna and Pedro Guerra salvaged approximately 195 well-preserved wooden artefacts, mostly of lignum vitcre, from recently disturbed marine sediments near their village of Punta Alegre, in Ciego de Avila, Cuba. They had collected the artefacts from a shallow lagoon, and from the shoreline near their village at a place known as Los Buchillones. The wooden artefacts include pins, eyed needles, hooks, fragments of dishes, handles for axes (including two that retained the stone tools), duhos or stools that served as badges of rank in Taino society, and zemis or male deity figures. In 1994, on an official Royal Ontario Museum visit to Cuba, then curator David Pendergast was shown these artefacts, and discussions began between Pendergast and Cuban archaeologists Dr Jorge Calvera and Lic. Juan Jardines concerning the possibility of launching an investigation of the contexts from which the artifacts had come. The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) thereby established a jointly directed and jointly funded project with the Ministerio de Ciencia, Tecnologia, y Medio Ambiente (CITMA) of the government of Cuba, and investigations began in 1997

The Preclassic community of Cuello, the earliest village site hitherto excavated in the Maya Lowlands, centred on Platform 34, a flat-topped eminence where investigations between 1975 and 1993 documented occupation from at least 1200 BC to c. AD 400 (Hammond 1991; Hammond et al. 1995). Between 1000 and 400 BC the locus was occupied by a courtyard which with successive rebuildings became both larger and more formally organized, domestic activities shifting to the margins and ritual, including ancestor veneration, becoming more important (Hammond & Gerhardt 1990). Around 400 BC the final Middle Preclassic structures on the north, west and south sides of the court were ceremoniously demolished, their faqades hacked off and their superstructures burned. The entire courtyard was filled with rubble prior to the construction of the broad, open Platform 34, which itself underwent successive enlargements over the ensuing seven centuries.

Wadi Faynan in southern Jordan has a remarkable archaeological landscape with the remains of a vast Romad/Byzantine settlement and field system, many later prehistoric sites and a Pre-Pottery Neolithic B village dating to c. 8700 radiocarbon years BP. Since 1996 we have been conducting survey and excavation within this Wadi, and especially at its confluence with Wadi Ghuwayr, to locate the precursor to the PPNB site and any earlier prehistoric activity. The most important site so far discovered has been called WF16 and is a well preserved Pre-Pottery Neolithic A settlement, dated to between 10,200 and 9400 radiocarbon years BP (FIGURE 1). Sites of this period are extremely rare in the Near East and of considerable importance for they lie right at the juncture between a hunting-gathering and farming lifestyle (Bar-Yosef & Belfer-Cohen 1989). WF16 is particularly well preserved for, unlike other PPNA settlements such as Jericho, it was not buried by a later PPNB settlement, this having been located approximately 100 m away in the lower reaches of Wadi Ghuwayr. Neither does there appear to be significant Natufian deposits at WF16 — it appears to be a pristine PPNA site and for that reason is of considerable significance.

A team of archaeologists organized by the Department of Archaeology at the University of Southampton (UK), in association with the Nevis Historical and Conservation Society, conducted a series of feasibility studies in 1999 to determine whether the prehistoric and historic social landscapes of the Caribbean could be researched from one island, as a case study, in advance of both rapid development and frightening natural destruction. On the tiny island of Nevis, one of the Leewards in the Eastern Caribbean, the airport expansion scheme recently destroyed one of the oldest standing English fortifications in the Caribbean (Figure 1) (Morris et al. 1999), while Hurricane Lenny removed sand and palm trees to reveal two new colonial forts just last year. Torrential rainfall, uncontrolled by centuries of sugar-cane production, erodes prehistoric sites daily (Figure 2). These sandy middens are prime landscaping resources for new golf courses or building materials for hotels and homes.

The unresolved questions about the beginning of the Neolithic period across Europe still abound (Whittle 1996). How did the phenomenon spread? What indeed was the phenomenon, and was it the same from region to region? Who were the principal actors involved and where did they come from? Were they permanently settled? What impact did they have on their environments? What use did they make of their various subsistence resources? How quickly were changes introduced and why?

Tell el-Amarna, the short-lived capital built by the pharaoh Akhenaten around 1350 BC, remains the largest ancient city in Egypt which is still above ground. Over the last century a succession of archaeological expeditions has revealed large areas of its plan. During 1999 the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, in connection with a temporary exhibition of Amarna art, commissioned a 1:400-scale model of a major part of the city, based on the survey which, in recent years, the Egypt Exploration Society has carried out. It was designed by Mallinson Architects, with advice from Bany Kemp, field director of the EES expedition to Amarna, and built by a Clapham firm of architectural modelmakers, Tetra (Andy Ingham Associates). The completed model measures 12 x 10 feet (3.7 x 3.0 metres).

The site of Sungir (alternatively Sounghir) lies east of the town of Vladimir, about 200 km northeast of Moscow. It is a large mid Upper Palaeolithic ('Eastern Gravettian' sensu lato) cultural accumulation on the left bank of the Kliazma river, of which some 1500 sq. m was excavated in several seasons between 1957 and 1964 (Bader 1965; 1967; 1978; 1998).The single burial (Grave 1/Sungir 1) was excavated in 1964. It is that ofan adult male in extended, supine position, with his head oriented to the northeast and hands placed over his pubis (Figure 1). The second grave was discovered in 1969 and contained two adolescents — one male (Sungir 2) and one (probably) female (Sungir 3) — both extended, supine and lying head to head (Figure 2). All three burials were covered in red ochre and Sungir 1 was possibly associated with fires in a manner intriguingly similar to the DVXVI male burialat Dolní Větonice, Moravia (Svoboda et al. 1996).