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Ceramic technology makes an abrupt appearance in the New World Arctic at circa 2800 cal BP. While there is general consensus that the ultimate source of these Alaskan pottery traditions lay in continental NE Asia, the motivations for the adoption of pottery in Alaska have remained unclear. Through organic residue analysis we investigated the function of Norton pottery in Southwest Alaska, and the extent to which its function changed in later periods under the increasing northern influence of Thule culture in the region (from ca. 1000 cal BP). Our results show clear evidence of aquatic resource processing in all pottery vessels. Regional variability due to environmental and ecological differences are apparent in the pottery. The majority of Norton pottery was from inland riverine locations and the function of this early pottery was to process anadromous fish, with only limited evidence of other resources. After 1000 cal BP more sites appear on the coast, and while pottery technology changes dramatically at this time, this is not as clear in pottery function which remains aimed at local abundant aquatic resources. We hypothesize that pottery was adopted into Alaska as part of a riverine adaptation and suggest that targeted human exploitation of large riverine systems may have facilitated its expansion into Southwest Alaska. Furthermore, we suggest that this pattern might extend back into Siberia where Alaskan pottery originates. This work was supported by the University of Groningen, Faculty of Arts, the Arts and Humanities Research Council ( AH/L0069×/1 ), and the European Research Council ( ERC-2015-AdG No 695539 ).

The Mackay archive (now part of the larger manuscript collection of Alan H. Gardiner) kept at the Griffith Institute, University of Oxford, comprises excavation reports, photographs, and personal correspondence of Ernest Mackay, the British archaeologist who worked in the Theban necropolis from 1913–1916 on behalf of Robert Mond. Mackay’s notes fill in the gaps in the history of the exploration of Theban tombs, as well as add some additional information on the obscure years of the First World War in the Theban necropolis. The archive also sheds some light on the hitherto unknown beginning of the archaeological career of Dorothy Mackay. [Formula: see text]

In 1906, the workers levelling the archaeological site of Tell Basta uncovered a group of objects known as the first hoard of Tell Basta. Soon after this discovery, the Service des Antiquités carried out a small-scale excavation during which a small deposit was uncovered along with a second hoard and the remains of a Graeco-Egyptian bath. Unfortunately, the exact locations of the discoveries made in 1906 were not recorded, and published descriptions concerning their context are still a matter of controversy. Recently the author of this paper discovered a letter with previously unknown photographs, which are discussed in this paper and shed new light on the context of the discoveries made at Tell Basta in 1906. [Formula: see text]

Located in ancient Lycia at the southwest corner of Asia Minor, excavations at the important port city of Patara shed new light on the city’s relations with Ptolemaic Egypt. The most significant finds concerning Patara’s connection with the Ptolemaic Dynasty have emerged from ongoing fieldwork at the Tepecik settlement, located on a natural hill just east of the ancient inner harbour. During excavations conducted there in 2019, an ancient dump of pottery was identified in the İ-20 trench. The focus of this study concerns a unique stamped Egyptian amphora found in this dump. The stamp records the name Ptolemaios alongside a regnal year, thus indicating that the amphora represents royal production during the third century BC. In this study, I suggest that the name on the stamp should be attributed to King Ptolemy III Euergetes (246–222 BC) and explore the likely implications of royal production. [Formula: see text]

The area of the North Saqqara plateau south of the causeway of King Unas became one of the most prominent necropolis sites of Memphis during the New Kingdom. It is where the archaeological expedition of the Faculty of Archaeology, Cairo University discovered dozens of temple-shaped tombs dating to the Ramesside Period. Recently, the expedition led by Ola El-Aguizy uncovered the tomb of Iurokhy (Urhiya), an army general during the early reign of Ramesses II. This paper focuses on the unusual finds discovered in one of the tomb’s chapels. These comprise an intact secondary burial in a wooden coffin along with wooden shabtis. This paper proposes to identify the individual buried in the chapel as a member of the personnel that serviced the mortuary cult of Iurokhy. Further objects deposited in the chapel shed light on the continued use of the chapel as a space of burial and commemoration. [Formula: see text]

This study of the Contendings between the Body and the Head presents a new edition and the first English translation of the Turin tablet CGT 58004. Closer analysis of the manuscript suggests a more precise date of the text and facilitates engagement with issues raised, but not expanded upon, by other scholars relating to its composition. Evidence will be considered as to firstly, whether the text was written by a student and secondly, whether the Contendings are extracted from a lengthier, no longer extant, composition. Lastly, it will be argued that an as yet unattested pedagogical method, that of abridgement, was being employed. [Formula: see text]

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