In Iberia, ditched enclosures appeared during the Copper Age (late fourth to third millennium bc). These sites are linked by their circular organization, communal labour investment, and complex temporality, but vary markedly in their distribution, function, and scale. Though archaeological attention has focused on ‘mega-sites’, an assessment of small-scale enclosures in marginal environments is key to understanding the social dynamics that facilitated their emergence. Here, the authors present results from Los Melgarejos (Getafe, Spain), the first Iberian Chalcolithic enclosure (3 ha) to be extensively documented, with all structures and seven per cent of the enclosure ditches excavated. Bioarchaeology, mortuary archaeology, isotope analyses (δ13Cco, δ13Cap, δ15N), and radiocarbon dating are employed to compare lived experiences of diet, stress, trauma, and funerary ritual at small- and large-scale enclosures. Comparisons with the mega-site of Marroquíes reveal similarities in lived experience and ritual practice, as well as regional differences in dietary isotopes, highlighting the utility of multiscalar comparisons for understanding prehistoric lifeways.

Debate regarding the continuity of Cypriot political forms from the Late Bronze Age to the Cypro-Archaic is persistent, resulting in a scholarly divide with few signs of resolution. This article reviews the historiography of political forms proposed for Cyprus as the essential context for this debate. It considers several major themes that emerge from the debate: the use of anthropological models for state formation, regionalism, social networks, and the nature of spatial power. The author views the debate as centred on two equally valid motivations: using related social science theory to enhance archaeological explanation and emphasizing Cypriot autonomy. These motivations need not be set in opposition but, together, illustrate the island's unique history and provide the basis for vibrant scholarship.

Despite a consensus that the Late Hallstatt ‘princely’ burials heralded the emergence of the earliest complex societies in the central Balkans, there is room for nuance. In this article, the ‘princely’ burial horizon is examined in light of the opposition between group-oriented and individualizing societies, while accepting that burials are as much an ideological statement as a reflection of social structure. On this theoretical basis, the author presents a study of two groups of ‘princely’ burials in North Macedonia and Bosnia in relation to contemporary and later burials, and with reference to settlement size in the Late Hallstatt and Classical–Hellenistic period. His analysis reveals that the inequality in burial assemblages of the Late Hallstatt ‘princely’ burial horizon decreases in the mortuary record of the fifth–fourth century bc, whereas the settlement size in the Classical–Early Hellenistic suggests emerging differentiation.

The mountain communities of late-first millennium bc Italy have been regarded as non-urban societies that reverted to city life mainly owing to Roman intervention. A growing body of archaeological evidence is uncovering the diversity of settlement forms and dynamics in the region's pre-Roman past, which included sites encompassing a range of functions and social agents. This article presents an in-depth, microscale analysis of one such site, Monte Vairano in Samnium, drawing on perspectives from comparative urbanism. Monte Vairano developed urban characteristics such as a complex socioeconomic profile and political cohesion, as well as potentially more unique features such as an apparently balanced distribution of wealth. These results can shed further light on the diversity of ancient urbanization and its sociopolitical implications in late-first millennium bc Italy and the Mediterranean.

Opus signinum is a lime mortar mix that includes crushed pottery as an aggregate. Because it is water-resistant, it was used to line hydraulic structures like pools and aqueducts. While there have been numerous recreations of Roman ‘concretes’ in the past, hydrophobic linings have received little attention, and all preliminary studies in these recreations have paid more attention to the dry components and the lime than to the hydric needs of the mortar. The experiment presented here was to gain a better understanding, with the help of traditional builders, of the process of mixing and applying hydrophobic linings and calculate the water consumption of individual samples. The data obtained contribute to assessing the water consumption needs on Roman construction sites, what associated logistics these volumes required, and what the technicalities of applying this specific type of lining were.

The presence of Roman material in early Anglo-Saxon graves in England is well documented, and recent excavations at Scremby in Lincolnshire have revealed a complete copper-alloy enamelled drinking cup in a sixth-century ad female burial. Not only is such a Roman vessel a very rare find, but also its inclusion in an early medieval grave makes it a unique example of the reuse of an antique object in a funerary context. This article presents a typological and metallurgical analysis of the cup and selected comparative examples from England and France are discussed. The context of deposition and the role the cup played as a burial container for animal fat are examined, as are the mechanisms that lay behind the cup's continued life several centuries after its manufacture.