The last decades have seen a renewed interest in the study of argumentation in archaeology, particularly in response to the overproduction of weak and unreliable interpretations and explanations. Concurrently, recent appeals for scientific transparency and efficiency in the management of archaeological information in digital form have stressed the necessity of explicitly showing the processes followed. A growing body of literature has identified inference to the best explanation (IBE) as the most adequate way of interpreting archaeological data, although it has quietly existed for over a century. Despite this, the investigation of IBE-based models for recording archaeological reasoning remains a largely under-researched topic. The author concludes with a novel IBE-based model for recording archaeological argumentation.

Collyrium stamps, objects used to mark eye medicines, are more commonly found in Gaul than any other Roman province. Since they appear after Roman occupation, it is believed they evince a spread of Roman medicine, but this idea is not well-supported. Through a detailed study of the collyrium stamps it is apparent that the stamps took on other functions beyond marking remedies. They were used as amulets and votive offerings, signified by the fact that most are made of steatite and schist, almost all are green – a colour associated with eye care, and a number are decorated with magical symbols, and also by their context. Ultimately, the manner in which they were used demonstrates an adaptation of Roman material culture to fit the practices and beliefs based on earlier Iron Age traditions in the region.

The appearance of Beaker pottery in Britain and Ireland during the twenty-fifth century bc marks a significant archaeological horizon, being synchronous with the first metal artefacts. The adoption of arsenical copper, mostly from Ireland, was followed by that of tin-bronze around 2200 bc. However, whilst the copper mine of Ross Island in Ireland is securely dated to the Early Bronze Age, and further such mines in the UK have been dated to the Early and Middle Bronze Age, the evidence for the exploitation of tin ores, the other key ingredient to make bronze, has remained circumstantial. This article contains the detailed analyses of seven stone artefacts from securely dated contexts, using a combination of surface pXRF and microwear analysis. The results provide strong evidence that the tools were used in cassiterite processing. The combined analysis of these artefacts documents in detail the exploitation of Cornish tin during this early phase of metal use in Britain and Ireland.

Thirty-six shipwrecks dated to the fifth to tenth centuries AD have been discovered in the Theodosian (Byzantine) harbour of Istanbul, in the district of Yenikapı. Under the auspices of the ‘Istanbul University Yenikapı Shipwrecks Project’, carried out by Istanbul University's Department of Conservation of Marine Archaeological Objects, our team has undertaken the recording and dismantling of twenty-seven shipwrecks as well as conservation/restoration and reconstruction projects of thirty-one shipwrecks in total. Shipwrecks of various types and sizes have been exposed since 2005; the majority are still under study.

This article discusses the chronology and nature of the earliest Viking activity, based on a group of early burials from Norway containing Insular metalwork. By focusing on the geographical distribution of this material and applying the concept of locational and social knowledge, the importance of establishing cognitive landscapes to facilitate the Viking expansion is highlighted. It is argued that the first recorded Viking attacks were only possible after a phase in which Norse seafarers had acquired the necessarily level of a priori environmental knowledge needed to move in new seascapes and coastal environments. This interaction model opens the possibility that some of the early Insular finds from Norway may represent pre-Lindisfarne exploration voyages, carried out by seafarers along the sailing route of Nordvegr.

The historical constitution of the region's past is considered through the study of folklore, miscellaneous ‘lay’ sources, commercial histories and antiquarian accounts – all variously socially and economically sympathetic. Of broad relevance is the changing nature of reference/authority, the conceptualisation of landscape as waste/frontier and the role of ‘natives’. In this case of internal colonialism, parallels are drawn concerning the status of land and archaeological practice within the developing world today.

In 2010, the largest find of exquisite gilded silver brooches ever made in Scandinavia came to light during a metal detector survey in a small fort on Öland in the Baltic Sea. It consisted of five hoards buried in five different houses within the fort. The brooches were of the Dreiknopfbügelfbeln/radiate-headed and relief types. Three of the hoards also contained large quantities of beads and pendants, some quite exclusive and rare. In addition, the upper part of another relief brooch probably belonged to a sixth hoard ploughed up in the late nineteenth century. In 2011, Kalmar County Museum excavations at the site of these hoard finds also revealed the traces of a massacre. Though a connection between the deposition of the hoards and the massacre is plausible, several elements suggest that the deposits are ritual in character and unrelated to the attack on the fort. The regular placing of the hoards in the right corner inside the entrance of the houses suggests ritual acts, and the composition of the hoards demonstrates that the deposits are symbolic. We conclude that the hoards and the brooches are props belonging to the interior of the forts and to activities conducted inside them; they may have been worn by some women during rituals. Why these hoards were left in the Sandby fort is, however, no doubt related to its destruction.

By the time the Roman empire reached its greatest extent, in the early decades of the second century ad, wooden barrels were a key part of a trade network that supported a complex extended economy. These objects do not, however, routinely survive in the archaeological record and very few sites have yielded large, multi-phase, assemblages for study. Although relatively rare, individual finds and assemblages have been found sufficiently regularly to allow us to consider barrel production and use during the Roman period. These objects can have complex cultural biographies from their original production to their final deposition. Current and previous research at Vindolanda, a Roman fort in northern Britain at the edge of the Roman empire, provides a context for reflection on these objects and their biographies. Emphasis is given to whether this material demonstrates repeated, possibly habituated, practices of adaption and recycling.

The interior of Neolithic tombs in Europe is frequently decorated with carved and painted motifs. In Sardinia (Italy), 116 rock-cut tombs have their walls covered with bucrania (schematic depictions of cattle head and horns), which have long been interpreted as representations of a bull-like divinity. This article reviews similar examples of bucranium ‘art’ in the tombs of three traditional societies in South-East Asia, focusing on the agency of the motifs and their roles within social relationships between the living, the dead, and the spiritual world. From these ethnographic examples and the archaeological evidence in Sardinia, it is suggested that bucrania in Neolithic tombs were a specialized form of material culture that had multiple, cumulative effects and functions associated with social display, memory, reproduction, death, and protection.

The study proposed here, based on a representative sample (148 tombs), deals with the patterns of organization and the funerary customs in the necropolis of Pontecagnano, Salerno (over 6000 tombs dated from the ninth to the fourth century BC), during the Orientalizing period with special regard to the period between the last quarter of the eighth and the middle of the VII BC.

Through the analysis of the buried groups and of the spatial distribution it has been possible to highlight certain trends useful for the reconstruction of the social organization in its horizontal and vertical (gender, age, status, rank) and finally to propose an interpretation of certain social dynamics involving the community to which the cemetery belonged.

The resulting image is that of a society where social stratification has become permanent, and where inferior social status possibly implies exclusion from formal burial areas. The community seems to be dominated by strong kinship group loyalties, probably opposing different groups. An especially noteworthy feature is the dialectics, within the domain of funerary ideology, between male and female figures.

A central theoretical and methodological assumption of this study is that the relationship between social organization and its ‘reflection’ in funerary customs is a complex, mediated phenomenon, a perspective that has been especially outlined by certain currents of European Archaeology.

This paper considers the shift from the practice of collective burials to individual (or double) burials in western Europe at the end of the Neolithic/Copper Age, around 2500–2000 BC, through the lens of a particular mortuary site—the artificial cave of Bolores (Torres Vedras, Portugal). It suggests that the practices involved in making and using collective burials played an important role in this transformation towards increasing social differentiation. It explores how a focus on materiality at different scales, both temporal and spatial, might contribute new insights into geographically widespread and relatively co-synchronous social change.

In this article Childe's commitment to internationalism and, in particular, to the International Congress of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Sciences (CISPP) is analysed. Personal correspondence between Childe and Myres and, to a lesser extent, other archaeologists, is used as the basis to consider the different stages in Childe's involvement in the CISPP. After an overview of the emergence of international congresses, the article looks at the formation of an interest group that resulted in the creation of the CISPP. The challenges brought by Nazi Germany to the international scene, and to Childe's positioning in it, are also explored. The article then examines his role in the revival of the international congress during and after the Second World War and his lesser commitment from the third conference in 1950. Finally, some comments are made on the value of archives for the history of archaeology, on the lack of connection between Childe's internationalism and Marxism, and on the need to further investigate the relationship between Childe and Myres.

Heathlands are unique cultural landscapes that once existed across vast stretches of northern Europe. Their deep-time persistence has formed an intrinsic part of economic and cultural practices. Such a complex interaction requires interdisciplinary approaches, including archaeology, across multiple regions to fully grasp all its aspects. The authors of this article review how research has been conducted in prehistoric heathlands across six nations in north-western Europe and outline the heaths’ general characteristics. They discuss the major issues in that research, namely recurring narratives derived from history, an overall absence of consideration of the cultural aspects of heathlands, and a paucity of cross-regional initiatives. They suggest a series of theoretical and methodological approaches to improve this situation across expanded geographical and temporal scales.

This article suggests methods for recognising and recovering symbolic significance in archaeological material. It develops the idea that there are three principal (and overlapping) spheres of the human world. In the first, ‘artefacts’ have a practical purpose and function physically on their immediate surroundings. In the second sphere, ‘institutions’ have a social purpose and function to organise human relationships. In the third, ‘texts’ have a communicative purpose and function through symbolic significance. Application of the ‘elimination method’ starts by testing the first two spheres before undertaking an analysis of possible symbolic significance. The paper uses prehistoric fortifications and houses with sunken floors in Bohemia as examples.

The Iron Age in temperate Europe is characterized by the emergence of hillforts. While such sites can be highly variable, they also share many characteristics, implying cultural linkages across a wide geographical area. Yet, the interpretation of hillforts has increasingly seen significant divergence in theoretical approaches in different European countries. In particular, Iron Age studies in Britain have progressively distanced themselves from those pursued in continental Europe. This article attempts to address this issue by analysing the evidence from two of the best-known hillforts in Europe: Danebury in Wessex, southern England, and the Heuneburg in Baden-Württemberg, south-western Germany. The article highlights a number of key similarities and differences in the occupational sequences of these sites. While the differences indicate that the hillforts are the creation of very different Iron Age societies, the synergies are argued to be a consequence of communities evincing similar responses to similar problems, particularly those resulting from the social tensions that develop when transforming previously dispersed rural societies into increasingly centralized forms.

This article explores the proposition that the archaeological record of small, remote islands with scarce resources reflects the intensity of long-distance interaction in prehistory, taking as an example the Adriatic offshore islands. The best represented periods, the early Neolithic and the end of the Copper Age, correspond to the times of large-scale stylistic unity, the former, of the Mediterranean Impressed Wares, and the latter, of Bell Beakers. During those periods, radical innovations were introduced over vast areas of Europe, first, a new subsistence economy, and second, a different kind of social organization. In both cases, long-distance interaction would have played a crucial role.

The traditional explanation for the presence of Roman artefacts beyond the Roman Empire's frontiers is that these were objects of trade, but this view has been modified in two studies published around the same time. Although they both referred to areas north of the Rhine, each was based on different theoretical premises and presented a different explanation for the presence of Roman artefacts in these areas. One study, based on the concept of world systems theory, concluded that there were uninterrupted and mutually beneficial trade relations across the frontier. The other study was based on a linear culture-historical approach, and it concluded that there were no trade relations between the Empire and the ‘barbarians’, but that Roman artefacts were the result of specific historical events of brief duration. The present article analyses these apparently conflicting outcomes. It focuses on Roman artefacts from the Netherlands, specifically those from the modern province of Friesland, about 150 km north of the Rhine/the Limes.

Postmedieval protestant missionaries working in exotic locations used objects both as a marker of their own ‘civilisation’ in contrast to that of the local populations and as a means of engaging these communities with Christianity. European things were displayed and conspicuously used to encourage a consumer mindset and interest in capitalism, thought to be crucial steps on the path to full conversion. Excavations at a Presbyterian mission house on Tanna Island, Vanuatu, recovered a remarkable assemblage of nineteenth-century British-made transfer-printed ceramics for such a remote location. These objects reflect multiple, complex meanings including performance of a ‘civilised’ British identity, romanticized ideals of pastoral landscapes, and conceptions of death and rebirth in the afterlife. These meanings were complicated by the context of cross-cultural interactions that were necessary to the missionary project.