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Between 3rd and 7th of July an archaeological survey was conducted with funding from the Arctic 5 (Arctic Centre) network under the auspices of the MARISA (Monuments At Risk In the Swedish Arctic) project in the Jokkmokk region. Seven areas were visited, the status of known sites was assessed, and new sites were recorded.

Present-day people from England and Wales harbour more ancestry derived from Early European Farmers (EEF) than people of the Early Bronze Age¹. To understand this, we generated genome-wide data from 793 individuals, increasing data from the Middle to Late Bronze and Iron Age in Britain by 12-fold, and Western and Central Europe by 3.5-fold. Between 1000 and 875 BC, EEF ancestry increased in southern Britain (England and Wales) but not northern Britain (Scotland) due to incorporation of migrants who arrived at this time and over previous centuries, and who were genetically most similar to ancient individuals from France. These migrants contributed about half the ancestry of Iron Age people of England and Wales, thereby creating a plausible vector for the spread of early Celtic languages into Britain. These patterns are part of a broader trend of EEF ancestry becoming more similar across central and western Europe in the Middle to Late Bronze Age, coincident with archaeological evidence of intensified cultural exchange^2-6. There was comparatively less gene flow from continental Europe during the Iron Age, and Britain's independent genetic trajectory is also reflected in the rise of the allele conferring lactase persistence to ~50% by this time compared to ~7% in central Europe where it rose rapidly in frequency only a millennium later. This suggests that dairy products were used in qualitatively different ways in Britain and in central Europe over this period.

Understanding socioeconomic inequality is fundamental for studies of societal development in European prehistory. This article presents dietary (δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N) isotope values for human and animal bone collagen from Early Neolithic Osłonki 1 in north-central Poland (c. 4600–4100 cal BC). A new series of AMS radiocarbon determinations show that, of individuals interred at the same time, those with copper artefacts exhibit significantly higher δ¹³C values than those without. The authors’ results suggest a link between high-status goods and intra-community differences in diet and/or preferential access to the agropastoral landscape.

Yasinovatka is one of around 30 number of prehistoric cemetery sites of hunter-fisher-foragers located along the Dnieper River in southern Ukraine. Dating to c. 5540 - 4930 cal BC, the skeletal remains at Yasinovatka suggest that around sixty-eight individuals were interred at the cemetery, during three broad phases of interment: A-type burials (c. 5540-4930 cal BC), Ƃ1 pit burials (c. 5550-4750 cal BC), and Ƃ2 pit burials (c. 4980-4460 cal BC). The burials are characterized, in part, by the inclusion of a number of Mariupol-type plates of boar tusk, in addition to deer tooth pendants, Unio shells, knife-like flint blades, Cyprinidae teeth, sherds of Neolithic pottery, and significant deposits of ochre in the later burial pits. Here we analyse δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N values for 50 human bone collagen samples from the site.  The majority of the isotope results show a hunter-fisher-forager population reliant predominantly on freshwater aquatic proteins, which is in keeping with previous dietary isotope studies in the area. Two individuals however have δ¹⁵N values that are clearly depleted when compared to the main population; these reflect dietary protein intakes based on plant and animal terrestrial resources rather than the predominant focus on aquatic resources. Notably, the δ¹³C values of these anomalous individuals are not enriched compared to the fauna samples analysed from the region; this supports the possibility that they were incomers to the area, potentially from a nearby agrarian population.

This paper outlines the results of twenty-eight years of collaborations between the authors and colleaguesin Kiev, initiated when the first author began PhD research at Sheffield University under the supervision of the late Professor Marek Zvelebil in 1992. From the outset of this doctoral research Professor Dmitri Telegin, to whom this paper is dedicated, and Dr. Inna Potekhina, were fundamental not only to the success of the original research programme, but in terms of the considerable generosity, insight and friendship that was extended to the lead author as he navigated his way through the earlier Holocene parts of Ukrainian prehistory. The current study is as much a result of the work of the currentauthors as it is of collaboration and collegiality ofthese colleagues. 

The topics considered throughout this paper focus around the key observations and themes that have been developed since the research began. It also aims to highlight those areas where inconsistencies occur, and whereclarification is deemed warranted due to the activities of researchers who have failed to fully appreciate the nuances of Ukrainian prehistory and multi-disciplinary research agendas. It is apparent that, in light of arecent «gold rush» to claim ownership of the materials available in Ukraine, at prehistoric sites of all periods, there is clearly a need for a considered and careful approach to the data generated from dietary isotope and related studies. Furthermore, our research since the early 1990s has shown that misidentification of fragmentary or isolated bone in both primary and secondary contexts can lead to erroneous interpretations and occasional «flights of fancy». This paper will outline a number of the issues identified, and also explore issues around data use and representation in an attempt to offer some balance to discussions of prehistoric diet and chronology in Ukraine.

Barcın Höyük is one of the oldest Neolithic settlement sites in northwest Anatolia, with early layers of occupation radiocarbon dated to ca.6600 cal BC. The Neolithic phase at the site (ca.6600 – 6200 cal BC) has seven layers of occupation, and shows a number of affinities, in terms of structure and zooarchaeological remains, with contemporary sites in the coastal area near Istanbul (Özdoğan, 2013). The available zooarchaeological evidence suggests a diet of terrestrial fauna, with some inclusion from freshwater aquatic species. This study investigates the nature of human diet at Barcın Höyük through carbon and nitrogen analysis of human and animal bone collagen, and examines whether there is any isotopic evidence for a shift in diet after the re-organisation of the site at ca.6200 cal BC. Here we present 75 human and faunal analyses from the Neolithic layers at Barcın Höyük. Two new radiocarbon dates on human skeletons are also included in the study. 

This paper highlights key characteristics of memorialisation processeslinked to dying and death. The study demonstrates that, inall periods, the mnemonic triggers engendered by multi-sensoryexperiences surrounding the treatment of the dead serve as fundamentalelements of the memorialisation processes which generatelasting impacts on the living through people’s engagement‘in a collective social act’. Roles attributed to the dead are ‘activeand powerful’, and the links between the living and the dead areimbued with myriad meanings, articulated through a variety ofactivities. These resonate across time and exist in many aspects ofcontemporary practice. We could argue that dying itself is notsimply a social process, and in reality, it is an inherently, and onoccasion an aggressively, anti-social act that is negotiated and‘normalised’ by the social conventions that society has developedto cope with dying and death. With a focus on the British context,this study explores the ways in which society has dealt with thetroublesome and anti-social aspect of death, and dying, througha consideration of past social praxis. It considers the ways in whicha broadening of contemporary societies understanding of thevariety of approaches to death, burial, bereavement and mourningin a deep time perspective can offer legitimate and authorisedoptions for future practice at a time when there a crisis in availableburial space is occurring in England (e.g).