From the perspective of the present, the economic development of preceding periods can seem linear and inevitable, guided into being by those who benefitted most from increasing commercialisation. Yet this majoritarian narrative belies the importance of the individual and the everyday, of adaptation and creativity. Here, the author explores the potential of a minoritarian approach to entrepreneurship, in understanding medieval economic development. In tracing pottery-exchange networks as a representation of commercial development, they argue that the entrepreneurial actions of institutions and potters generate insights into economic development that challenge linear narratives, framing it as a patchwork of sociomaterial relations.

At Ollantaytambo, in the Cusco region of Peru, the Inka (c. AD 1400–1532) built an elaborate anthropogenic landscape to facilitate intensive agriculture. After the 1532 Spanish invasion of the region, this landscape was reshaped by the introduction of new plants and animals, colonial land-management practices and demographic transformations. Here, the author employs botanical data from a derelict Inka-era reservoir to evaluate the timing and character of colonial transformations to the local agroecology. These transformations, they argue, tended towards agricultural deintensification, but this process did not begin until decades after the Spanish invasion.

The tradition of beating bark to produce cloth probably emerged in South China before spreading to Island Southeast Asia with the Austronesian cultural expansion (5000–3500 BP). Type IV barkcloth beaters found on the island of Sulawesi mark a technological leap from mainland examples and the discovery of 16 such beaters at Buttu Batu pushes the local adoption of this type back to c. 2111–1933 BP. Combining archaeological examples with extensive ethnographic research, the authors document an early-twentieth-century diversification in the patterning of grooves on type IV beaters, revealing a unique innovation aimed at improving barkcloth quality in response to increasing competition.

Historical texts suggest that medieval Christianity condemned the consumption of horsemeat (hippophagy) yet also indicate that this practice persisted. Here, the authors review the contribution of horse to food refuse at 198 settlements across medieval Hungary, highlighting variability in food practices through time and space. Examination of these zooarchaeological assemblages indicates that hippophagy continued after the general conversion to Christianity in the eleventh century but substantially declined following the Mongol invasion (AD 1241–1242) and disappeared by the mid-sixteenth-century Ottoman occupation. Diachronic and geographic trends in this practice reveal ambiguity in food customs, reflecting complex (social, religious and ethnic) local identities.

Radiocarbon dates can offer important corollaries for historic events and processes, including territorial expansion and consolidation in early empires. Eighteen new radiocarbon dates from test excavations at Ak'awillay, near the Inca imperial capital of Cuzco, reveal new perspectives on interactions between the Incas and Xaquixaguana Valley groups. Rather than persisting as a regional centre, Ak'awillay declined well before early Inca expansion, remaining largely unoccupied until after an extensive empire had been established. This new chronology adds nuance to the growing understanding of local group interactions and how they contributed to Inca state development and imperial expansion.

The sacralisation of mountains played an important role in the expansion of the Inca Empire into the south-central Andes during the mid-second millennium AD. Here, the authors compare archaeological material from sacralised mountains in north-western Argentina, highlighting not just the shared attributes of high-altitude sites but also the diversity of ways in which Inca dominion over the mountains could be materialised. Focusing on Mount Inca Viejo, in the Argentine province of Salta, the authors further explore the characterisation of sacred mountains and the significance of mining and mineral acquisition as a motivator for Inca expansion.

The nature and extent of the Tiwanaku state expansion in the Andes during the second half of the first millennium AD continues to be debated. Here, the authors report on the recent discovery of an archaeological complex 215km south-east of Tiwanaku, where a large, modular building with an integrated, sunken courtyard strongly resembles a Tiwanaku terraced platform temple and demonstrates substantial state investment. Constructed, the authors argue, to directly control inter-regional traffic and trade between the highlands and the eastern valleys of Cochabamba, the complex represents a gateway node that effectively materialised the power and influence of the Tiwanaku state.

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 Egyptian antiquities collected by the Chinese diplomat Duanfang at the beginning of the twentieth century were largely overlooked by Chinese scholarship until the early twenty-first century, when interest in translating the inscriptions grew. Yet the collection provides a window not just into the cultural history of Egypt but of China as well. By revisiting the history of Duanfang’s collection, the author examines how its perception was shaped by Chinese antiquarianism and the evolving archaeological and political landscapes of twentieth-century China. In doing so, they reveal new insights into the agency of the replica in archaeological theory and practice.

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.