Monumental roads were constructed during the ninth to thirteenth centuries by the regional society centred on Chaco Canyon in the US Southwest. Here, the authors present new lidar and field documentation of parallel roads at the Gasco Site, which sits within a ritual landscape south of Chaco Canyon. Their findings reveal that the Gasco Road is substantially longer than previously believed and forms alignments between natural springs and towards the winter solstice sunrise over Mount Taylor, a mountain sacred among contemporary Indigenous peoples. These findings highlight the agency of landscapes and skyscapes in structuring ritual practices in ancient societies worldwide.

Cultural landscapes affiliated with the Indigenous Sámi of the northern boreal forests are laden with cognitive elements of social and religious significance. Here, the authors focus on trees bearing incised markings and use an archaeological and ethnohistoric interpretive framework to explore the significance of such trees in Sámi landscapes. Intensive forestry is destroying culturally modified trees at an alarming rate, and their significance as the bearers of culture and history is being stripped from forest landscapes. As a step towards understanding their importance, this work makes a plea for the documentation, interpretation and protection of the remaining trees.

Identification of the origins of maritime-traded porcelain, though key to unravelling ancient production and trade dynamics, remains challenging. The authors present a pioneering micro-provenance analysis of Dehua-style porcelain from the late-twelfth-century Nanhai I shipwreck, recovered from the South China Sea. By pinpointing the origins of porcelain subtypes, including those bearing ink inscriptions, this study provides greater nuance in understanding spatial patterns of production and the impact of buyer/seller choice in maritime trade. The findings further highlight the effectiveness of portable x-ray fluorescence as a high-precision provenancing analysis and offer insights into porcelain production timelines in south-east China.

The Medieval Wall System (MWS), constructed in the tenth–thirteenth centuries AD across parts of Mongolia, China and Russia, was one of several long walls built along ancient frontiers in Asia. Despite a growing body of literature about this network of walls and trenches, many questions still surround its construction and function. Here, the authors present results of archaeological investigations on the Mongolian Arc of the MWS, revealing new construction dates and insights into daily life. Rather than a regimented defence, the MWS, at least in parts, was a symbolic boundary that endured within the social landscape long after it was abandoned.

Bear baiting was a popular form of entertainment in Shakespearean England that was staged across the country but formalised in the Early Modern entertainment hub on Bankside, London. Here, the authors bring together zooarchaeological, stable isotope and archival evidence in the examination of faunal assemblages from nine archaeological sites on Bankside to elucidate characteristics indicative of bear baiting. In doing so, they present criteria for identifying bear-baiting assemblages in the archaeological record of England and beyond, even in the absence of associated documentary evidence.

Institutional food is renowned for being monotonous and unappetising, yet the accuracy of these prescribed diets is difficult to verify archaeologically. Desiccated plant remains from beneath the floorboards at Hyde Park Barracks in Sydney offer a rare insight into the culture of food at the Female Immigration Depot (1848–1887) and the Destitute Asylum (1862–1886). Here, the author reveals the wide range of unofficial plant foods accessed by inhabitants at these two institutions—representing resources sourced from across the British Empire—and the sometimes-illicit nature of their consumption, highlighting the importance of incorporating archaeological evidence into discussions of institutional life.