Various factors have contributed to conceptualizing the altiplano as an “extreme” and hostile upland environment, where niche lifeways such as camelid herding are part of the limited human presence. Consequently, Andean herders are often portrayed as merely exploiting the ostensibly self-sustaining altiplano pastures and peatlands. This viewpoint is reinforced by the low visibility of material culture associated with and derived from pastoralist lifeways. To revisit this essentialist and ecologically inclined perspective, we argue that pastoral practices in Andean bofedales (high Andean peatlands) involve active and significant water and vegetation management interventions. These interventions, driven by collective labor, not only enhance but also expand peatland resources for livestock. To support this argument, we present findings from Surire, Mulluri, and Parcohaylla (Chile), where ethnographic research was integrated with archaeological surveys and geospatial methods. These approaches allowed us to characterize active and abandoned hydraulic installations and evaluate their role in shaping pastoral landscapes. We offer a reimagined perspective on bofedales, framing them as cultural landscapes shaped by collective pastoral labor through hydraulic management practices. These landscapes sustain livelihoods, promote social cohesion, and are deeply embedded with Aymara cosmopraxis , reflecting the relational dynamics of humans, animals, and the environment in co-nurturing practices.

Cyprus remains one of the most enduringly divided countries in the world, its landscapes, histories, and cultural heritage fractured by conflict and divided by a UN-enforced buffer zone since 1974. Two archaeological projects and their engagement with communities from the Republic of Cyprus are explored here through a posthumanist lens. Posthumanism can function as an analytical mechanism through which archaeologists and community practitioners can move away from definitions of community archaeology that require hierarchical metrics of more/less, while also blurring disciplinary lines. Cyprus’s rich history and complex contemporary contexts provide a testing ground for these theoretical re-framings and their practical applications.

This study examines the production of miniature pottery vessels in pre-Roman northern Apulia, with a focus on the acquisition of skills in pottery craft. Analyzing 21 vessels from the site of Ascoli Satriano, we assess manufacturing techniques and classify skill levels by employing an eight-attribute scoring methodology that evaluates skills in forming, firing, and decorating pottery. Three levels of skill among producers—ranging from low to high capacity—are revealed by key attributes, including forming technique, vessel symmetry, rim evenness, and the ability to reproduce established vessel forms, which reflect the training, professional identity, and possibly age of the producers. The entanglement of miniatures and their makers not only highlights technological knowledge, learning environments, and the gradual acquisition of skills but also highlights the social embeddedness of pottery production within local communities.

The largest mound in Scandinavia is the 6th-century Raknehaugen, present-day Norway. Although usually associated with power and hierarchy, an alternative interpretation relates Raknehaugen to climatic crisis and widespread crop failure. This paper explores the latter hypothesis with reference to recent work on joint ritual action, solidarity and group identity, and the archaeology of emotions. I introduce the archaeology of emotions to long-standing debates on the turmoil of 6th-century Scandinavia, and explore the bodily aspects of monument construction as a way to approach the social and political dimensions of group emotions.

The Overland Telegraph system linked Australia to nascent global information and communication networks. Its arrival marked a key milestone in what we call Australia’s ‘telegraph time’—a fifty-year period from 1854–1904 when telegraphic systems were a significant driver of changes in economic, political and cultural activities. This British colonial infrastructure also marked the beginnings of the displacement of First Nations people along the route. In this paper, we explore how a multi-method and cybernetic, or complex systems, approach to the study of large-scale systems like telegraphy can make these histories and heritage more legible and meaningful today. We combine industrial, historical and indigenous archaeologies, systems engineering, cultural anthropology, photography, and critical theory to research the Overland Telegraph Line (OTL) and, in so doing, better reveal the socio-technical scale and impact of the OTL as a circulatory infrastructure. Our multi-disciplinary study of the ‘flows’ of the OTL—the material, the archival, the decommissioning, the repurposing, and the corridors of connection that remain—make visible its workings and highlight its enduring impacts. This multi-methods approach case study provides a model for archaeology generally, but especially the archaeology of linear features, such as pathways, journeyscapes, Songlines and linear infrastructure.

Studies of human-animal interaction in zooarchaeology have historically emphasized a disjuncture between “wild” and “domestic.” This emphasis reflects an ingrained nature-culture dualism which has been increasingly critiqued by BIPOC scholars and archaeologists situated within posthumanist and object-oriented approaches. In this article, we bridge social zooarchaeology’s move away from Western ontology-epistemology with efforts in Indigenous archaeology to engage with the traditional knowledge and worldviews of Indigenous communities. Drawing on oral histories and personal narratives shared by Picuris Pueblo tribal members we develop a “gifting” approach to human-avian relationships grounded in the principles of care, reciprocity, and respect. We use this gifting framework to interpret avian faunal materials from the pueblo dating between 1300 and 1800 CE. These oral historical and material sources indicate that over time ancestral Picuris people co-created an intensive agricultural landscape through care-based interactions with plant and animal species, particularly turkeys.

The narrative that attributes the Inca road system solely to state administrative purposes is simplistic. This paper challenges that perspective, emphasizing the significant role of local populations in shaping these networks. By introducing the concepts of “trace” and “route,” it reveals how roads reflect both short-term adjustments and the long-term construction of territorial dynamics. The analysis argues against viewing road networks as solely driven by centralized state policies, urging a more nuanced understanding of the complex and ongoing negotiations involving various actors. The paper contends that the oversimplification of road networks as products of centralized decisions neglects the dynamic role of local communities in their establishment, maintenance, and use. The paper concludes by advocating for a systemic approach to studying road networks, acknowledging the multifaceted factors influencing their development and emphasizing the role of local communities in constructing the cultural landscape and territory over time.

Relationships between landscape and motifs have featured in ‘rock art’ research worldwide. Yet there has been comparatively little exploration of rock art’s significance in constructing maritime lifeways. This paper uses a dataset of 3183 images from 65 island and coastal rock art sites in Yanyuwa Sea Country in northern Australia’s Gulf of Carpentaria to investigate how marine-centric concepts linked to rock art are applied to inscribe a seascape. To do this, we integrate a formal, style-based spatial analysis with knowledge shared by the Yanyuwa community over a 45+ year period. Yanyuwa understandings demonstrate how maritime imagery is implicated in a web of connections involving kinship, ceremony, spiritual beings, and the ancestral realm. Integrating western scientific and Indigenous approaches to rock art interpretation highlights how characterizing maritime-themed motifs goes beyond a consideration of iconographic content. This archaeological engagement with Yanyuwa rock art provides a framework for how deeper interpretations of Indigenous seascapes can be realised.

This paper focuses on the contemporary archaeology of a former working-class neighbourhood in Oulu, Finland, and traces the changes that took place in the lifestyle of the community in the 40-year postwar era from 1947 to 1987. We examine specifically how the sometimes-conflicting material processes of the welfare state and capitalism manifest in the materials, and in the lives of working-class Finns at the time. It is important to put class experience as a focal point of contemporary archaeological research, and trace political histories and their concrete influence in peoples’ everyday lives. Archaeology can reveal the disconnect between the everyday and the larger systemic processes.

Cattle were introduced to the Caribbean and subsequently to the mainland during early European colonization, significantly impacting both European settlers and Indigenous communities. This research utilizes zooarchaeological analysis of cattle remains to explore how cattle processing and butchering techniques reflect the rise of extractive economic systems characteristic of early capitalism in the Spanish colonies. This study examines the pivotal role cattle played in the economic and cultural dynamics of the Spanish colonies, particularly in Antigua Guatemala and the Mission Los Santos Ángeles de Guevavi, Nogales, Arizona. By using these two distinct colonial sites as illustrations, the study shows how extractive colonialist practices and emergent capitalist values of aggregation and efficiency were incorporated in the bodies of colonial cattle, facilitating the transformation of local economies and social structures.