The authors discuss results of long-term Dutch field projects in three regions in Italy and review case studies taken from these study areas in the light of indigenous developments in early Italian centralization and urbanization. By looking at regional developments in the domains of economy, religious and funerary practice as well as that of social relationships, they arrive at the conclusion that material culture was actively used in indigenous contexts. There is a consequent need for re-definition of centralization and urbanization, which in the Italian context are often seen as non-indigenous achievements. Comparative regional research, as suggested by the authors' case studies on the Sibaritide, the Brindisino and the Pontine region, will reveal both general trends concerning the concepts discussed and regional idiosyncrasies depending on regional traditions, histories and the regional landscape. To this end, a new project was launched, known as the Regional Pathways to Complexity project, that is introduced to the reader at the end of this paper.

This paper seeks to explore how prayer and praying practice are reflected in archaeological sources. Apart from objects directly involved in the personal act of praying, such as rosaries and praying books, churches and religious foundations played a major role in the medieval system of intercession. At death, an individual's corpse and burial primarily reflect the social act of representation during the funeral. The position of the arms, which have incorrectly been used as a chronological tool in Scandinavia, may indicate an evolution from a more collective act of prayer up to the eleventh century AD to a more individual way of praying in the late and post-medieval periods.

Most people are used to forgetting the past quite quickly and are inclined to consider the recent situation as normal and forever valid. Comparisons of the East and the West often neglect the depth of the historical development between 1945 and 1990. Descriptions of East German situations and occurrences from the forties to the sixties often unconsciously suggest a comparison with the present-day Federal Republic.

The procurement and use of salt in Anatolia has received limited scholarly attention despite its abundance in the region. This study synthesizes geological, archaeological, ethnoarchaeological, and textual data to assess the role of salt within the socioeconomic setting of the third and early second millennia bc (c. 3000–1730 bc) in Anatolia. The easy accessibility of rock salt and saltpans ranks salt lower among the strategically controlled materials of the era. The author argues that the early non-state Anatolian communities’ strategy for obtaining and distributing this salt was community-driven. Unlike societies in Mesopotamia and Europe, for which the production and distribution of salt contributed significantly to their political economy, salt never became a prestige good, nor did it contribute to the accumulation of wealth in Bronze Age Anatolia.

The Late Iron Age has traditionally been portrayed as an age of swords, Celtic-patterned shields, and bronze cauldrons, a time of warfare, banquets, and raids, mostly starring male warriors. But what do we know about the rest of the population, especially women? Is it possible, based on the same data, to uncover an alternative narrative that includes women? This article focuses on the northern Meseta of Iberia, an area with a long research tradition, in which women are almost invisible in accounts of the Iron Age. Drawing on a range of archaeological and textual evidence, this study brings the roles of women to the forefront, offering a critique of traditional research discourses and a discussion on how Iron Age societies worked from a gender-inclusive perspective.

AMS radiocarbon dating has been widely applied in Palaeolithic art research and its value has been proven over the past three decades. Yet it still suffers from issues that need to be discussed and analysed to improve future sampling strategies and strengthen the interpretation of the results. This study presents new AMS dates for the parietal art in Cueva de Las Chimeneas in northern Spain, describes the quality of the samples, and discusses their reliability. The joint assessment of the dates and its comparison with previously obtained dates as well as stratified and dated portable art makes it possible to put forward a hypothesis about the time of creation of the cave's parietal art and the degree of synchrony or diachrony in its production. Consequently, it is proposed that the cave art at Las Chimeneas was created in the lower Magdalenian, between 19,000 and 17,500 cal bp.

In the present paper an attempt is made to use the palaeodemographic variables to explain a particular cultural situation in two Neolithic cultures in central Europe: the Linienbandkeramik culture and the Corded-Ware culture. The ecological-cultural approach has been applied to that study. The demographic situation has been estimated using the coefficient of potential reproduction (Rpot) and the parameter from the death table – the expected life span at the age of twenty. Populations of the Linienbandkeramik culture show very similar but low variables of these indices which correspond with their economic system, highly inefficient in the natural and cultural environment of temperate Europe. On the contrary palaeodemographic variables of the Corded-Ware culture populations present considerable differences – from the highest values among those using a husbandry mode of production (Odra-Vistula region) to the lowest for groups with dominant agricultural occupations (Saxony, Thuringia).