In this article we outline some of the key characteristics of the social structure of the Climax Copper Age in the eastern Balkans and the contributions of the Varna cemetery to those developments. We continue by examining the implications of the new series of 21 AMS dates from the Oxford Radiocarbon Laboratory, which represent the first dates for the Varna Eneolithic cemetery on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast. Representing the first phase of the AMS dating project for the Varna I cemetery, these dates have been selected to provide a range of different grave locations, ranges of grave goods, and age/gender associations. We conclude by addressing the question of the unexpectedly early start of the cemetery, as well as its apparently short duration and relatively rapid demise.

In 1904, a Viking Age ship was found and excavated in Oseberg, on the west side of the Oslo Fjord, south of Oslo, Norway. The skeletal remnants of two females buried onboard were anthropologically examined during the inter-war years. Questions surrounding their identities have prompted much speculation, and many people like to believe that one of the women could be Queen Åsa, the grandmother of Norway's first king. When the skeletons were reburied in 1948, a few smaller pieces were held back and stored in the Anatomical Institute at the University of Oslo. Those fragments have now been radiocarbon dated at 1220±40 and 1230±40 BP. Their similar δ13 = −21.6‰/−21.0‰ indicates that they both were nourished by a diet consisting primarily of terrestrial food and only to a lesser degree by fish. To answer the question of whether the two women were related, Dr Tom Gilbert at the Panum Institute in Copenhagen managed to obtain a DNA profile from the younger of the two, which profile indicates that her sample falls into the haplogroup U7. This finding is interesting, as this haplogroup is nearly absent in modern Europeans but is common in Iranians. Perhaps this could mean that the young lady's ancestors came from the district around the Black Sea, as Snorri Sturlusson notes in his Saga. Unfortunately, the bones from the older woman were too contaminated to provide a clear profile. Because there is reason to fear that the reburied skeletal material will slowly disintegrate in the coffins, some scholars desired that the mound be reopened in order to save the remains and to determine whether it is possible to obtain another DNA profile before such an opportunity is lost.

Coin finds are used to inform discussion about coins in circulation and, hence, economic activity. This discussion often rests on the assumption that patterns in finds of accidentally lost coins mirror to a useful extent those of the coins in circulation at the time. Whenever possible, such assumptions should be tested. This study does this empirically with data from a known coinage. Conditional support was found for the assumption. There is also some evidence that coin size and denomination can affect the coin record but these variables did not add significantly to predictions about coins in circulation based only on the numbers of coins found. Some conditions and precautions are suggested when using the assumption and some uses of data based on accidentally lost coins are discussed.

The focus of this article is the use and abandonment of the rectangular timber buildings of the Irish early Neolithic, a period that corresponds roughly with the first half of the fourth millennium cal BC. While they do not represent the only remains of occupation at this time, the fact that they display a striking degree of homogeneity of size, shape and materials makes them an especially interesting part of settlement activity on the island. One particular feature of this patterning is the frequency with which early Neolithic timber buildings have been substantially or completely destroyed by fire. It will be argued below that this burning was deliberate and played an important role in the lifecycle – the creation, maintenance and destruction – of these buildings. To provide a context for this discussion, a more in-depth look will be taken at these distinctive buildings and at their form and function.

The mass grave found near Talheim in southern Germany dates to approximately 7000 years ago and contains the skeletal remains of 34 individuals from the Early Neolithic period, associated with what is known as the Linearbandkeramik culture. These individuals appear to have been the victims of a massacre, based on the presence of numerous lethal head wounds, several arrow wounds, and the placement of all of these individuals in the same burial pit. The burials are considered to likely represent members of the same community attacked and executed by another group. In this study we examine the remains from the mass grave at Talheim for information on migration and community structure using strontium isotope ratios in tooth enamel. In essence, strontium isotope ratios are signatures of different rock types. The food chain moves these atoms into the human skeleton from bedrock through water, soils, plants, and herbivores. Because human tooth enamel does not change after formation, it provides a stored signal of the strontium isotopes of the place of birth. If the strontium isotope ratio of the place of death is different, the individual under study must have moved from one geology to another during his or her lifetime. Isotopic provenancing shows that several of the individuals in the group at Talheim were born in a different geological location. We discuss the results of the analysis and its significance in terms of questions of migration and community structure in the Early Neolithic of prehistoric Europe.