The Late Neolithic houses excavated at Drenovac, Serbia, rank amongst the best-preserved in Europe. In particular, the preservation of collapsed second-storey floors offers unique insights into household and social organisation. The site of Slatina-Turska česma, Drenovac, is located in the Middle Morava Valley of central Serbia (Figure 1). It is a deeply stratified site, with cultural deposits up to 6.5m thick, that spans two main periods of occupation (separated by a hiatus of approximately 700 years): the Early Neolithic Starčevo Culture (6100–5900 BC) and the Late Neolithic Vinča Culture (5300–4700/4500 BC). The site was first recorded in 1966, and the first large-scale excavations undertaken between 1968 and 1971 (Vetnić 1974: 125–39; Perić 2004). In 2004, the Archaeological Institute in Belgrade conducted further excavations to improve understanding of the site's chronology, stratigraphy, formation processes and occupation dynamics (Perić 2009; Perić & Perić 2014). Geomagnetic surveys were carried out in parallel with further excavations undertaken between 2008 and 2011 in cooperation with the Romano–Germanic Commission of the German Archaeological Institute (Perić et al. 2016) and, between 2012 and 2013, with the Viminacium Centre for New Technologies. An extensive geomagnetic survey here offers extraordinary insights into the layout and extent of the Late Neolithic settlement, and has enabled targeted excavations (Figure 1).

The volcanic Javaketi Range (Lesser Caucasus, Georgia) has recently aroused the interest of both geologists and archaeologists on account of its rich environmental and geological history, the prehistoric exploitation of its raw materials and the discovery of archaeological sites ranging from the Palaeolithic to the Historical Ages (Gogadze 1980; Kikodze 1983). In 2012 and 2014, two systematic surveys were conducted on Mount Chikiani (Koyundağ) with the aim of defining the areas from which obsidian was obtained during different prehistoric periods, and to characterise its sources (Biagi & Gratuze 2016). A longer season of archaeological prospection was carried out in 2016. Among the many important finds was the discovery of a large number of obsidian mining pits along the northern and north-eastern lower slopes of the volcano (Figure 1), as well as several obsidian workshops. During the 2016 season, research focused on the 2417m-high trachyrhyolitic dome—a source of high-quality obsidian—emerging from the plain around 300m north-east of Lake Paravani.

Despite archaeological interest in the study of the origins of public architecture in the Andes, there remain a number of gaps in our knowledge, especially in the area between the Chancay and Lurin Valleys on the central coast of Peru. This situation may, in part, result from how we have approached the study of the Formative period. In particular, the lack of intensive studies in several types of sites and valleys means that we have incomplete knowledge of wider settlement systems. As a result, we know very little about the existence of smaller settlements, only the great public centres. Nor do we understand how the unique occupational histories of each site and valley developed. This is despite the fact that investigations of the period began with middens and sites with modest architecture such as Bellavista or Ancón (Uhle 1906; Rosas 2007). Yet this shortcoming has not been an obstacle to formulating explanatory models, which have focused on the origin of early public architecture. The current dominant explanatory model for the emergence of architectural monumentality focuses on the concept of the concentration of power (e.g. Haas 1982; Trigger 1990). Our project at El Pacífico takes a different perspective, seeing these mounds as a palimpsest of social experiences and socially constructed places to preserve community memory and traditional patterns of life (Dillehay 1990; Tilley 1994; Rosenswig & Burger 2012; Flores 2014).

Archaeological work in the 1960s in the middle Nepeña Valley of coastal Peru (Figure 1) identified an artificial earthen mound or pyramid, approximately 15.5m high, with what was interpreted to be a crater dug into the top (Proulx 1968). This site has been variously known as Wanka, Huaca de Muro and El Bocón (PV31-55 in the Peruvian Ministry of Culture files). When viewed from a distance (Figure 2), the site resembles a volcanic cinder cone, such as the one in the Andahua Valley in southern Peru (Figure 3), and we have therefore named the site El Volcán. It should be noted, however, that there are no volcanoes in the vicinity of El Volcán to serve as models, nor indeed are any other examples of volcano-shaped structures known from Peru or elsewhere.

The site of Pire Mazar Balandar (or PMB001) is located near the village of Balandar in the Khorasan region of north-eastern Iran (33°09′37.64′′N, 59°29′52′′E; Figure 1). It consists of an outcrop of volcanic rock on a mountain peak (1532m asl) on the north-eastern side of the Binaloud range, above the city of Mashhad (Figure 2).

The archaeological site of Quebrada de Oro, southern Belize, is one of four ancient Maya settlement sites, mainly dating to the Classic period (AD 250–900), that are situated in the Bladen Branch drainage of the southern Maya Mountains proper. This remote location has long been taken to imply that the region was a political backwater, but the recent discovery of an ancient Maya causeway system associated with Quebrada de Oro—the first significant example to be documented in this area—sheds new light on this group of Maya sites (Figure 1).