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The Words that Archaeologists Choose: A Maltese Case Study in Artifact Terminology, Corpus Linguistics and Discourse Analysis (2022)
Journal Article
Burkette, A., & Skeates, R. (2022). The Words that Archaeologists Choose: A Maltese Case Study in Artifact Terminology, Corpus Linguistics and Discourse Analysis. Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology, 35(1), 85-107. https://doi.org/10.1558/jma.23770

Writing is the means by which archaeological knowledge is produced, shared and negotiated, which is why, as part of a wider reflexive archaeology, writing within the discipline has come under scrutiny. When writing, archaeologists make choices about... Read More about The Words that Archaeologists Choose: A Maltese Case Study in Artifact Terminology, Corpus Linguistics and Discourse Analysis.

Characterising the pigment on a Mesolithic cranium from Corsica using ion beam analysis (2022)
Journal Article
Lambert, M., Courtaud, P., Le Bourdonnec, F., Lemasson, Q., Pichon, L., Leandri, F., …Skeates, R. (2022). Characterising the pigment on a Mesolithic cranium from Corsica using ion beam analysis. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms, 529, 24-28. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nimb.2022.08.003

Characterising thin mineral layers on heterogeneous media is a significant challenge in archaeometry. Nevertheless, obtaining such geochemical and mineralogical data can, in many cases, provide valuable information about the original raw-material pro... Read More about Characterising the pigment on a Mesolithic cranium from Corsica using ion beam analysis.

Caves, Senses, and Ritual Flows in the Iberian Iron Age: The Territory of Edeta (2022)
Journal Article
Machause López, S., & Skeates, R. (2022). Caves, Senses, and Ritual Flows in the Iberian Iron Age: The Territory of Edeta. Open Archaeology, 8(1), 1-29. https://doi.org/10.1515/opar-2022-0222

This article seeks to contribute to recent scholarship on ritual performances in caves, sensory archaeology and ritual journeys, and to stimulate fresh questions and debate about society, ritual, and mobility in the Iberian Iron Age. It uses an updat... Read More about Caves, Senses, and Ritual Flows in the Iberian Iron Age: The Territory of Edeta.

Ancient genomes reveal structural shifts after the arrival of Steppe-related ancestry in the Italian Peninsula (2021)
Journal Article
Saupe, T., Montinaro, F., Scaggion, C., Carrara, N., Kivisild, T., D’Atanasio, E., …Scheib, C. L. (2021). Ancient genomes reveal structural shifts after the arrival of Steppe-related ancestry in the Italian Peninsula. Current Biology, 31(12), 2576-2591. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2021.04.022

Across Europe, the genetics of the Chalcolithic/Bronze Age transition is increasingly characterized in terms of an influx of Steppe-related ancestry. The effect of this major shift on the genetic structure of populations in the Italian Peninsula rema... Read More about Ancient genomes reveal structural shifts after the arrival of Steppe-related ancestry in the Italian Peninsula.

Rethinking Collective Burial in Mediterranean Caves: Middle Bronze Age Grotta Regina Margherita, Central Italy (2021)
Journal Article
Skeates, R., Beckett, J., Mancini, D., Cavazzuti, C., Silvestri, L., Hamilton, W. D., …Angle, M. (2021). Rethinking Collective Burial in Mediterranean Caves: Middle Bronze Age Grotta Regina Margherita, Central Italy. Journal of Field Archaeology, 46(6), 382-398. https://doi.org/10.1080/00934690.2021.1917137

Drawing on the results of new multi-method research in Grotta Regina Margherita—the largest known Middle Bronze Age mortuary cave in west-central Italy (ca. 1650–1450 b.c.)—this article helps to replace the generic idea of “collective burial” with a... Read More about Rethinking Collective Burial in Mediterranean Caves: Middle Bronze Age Grotta Regina Margherita, Central Italy.

Emergence of human-adapted Salmonella enterica is linked to the Neolithization process (2020)
Journal Article
Key, F. M., Posth, C., Esquivel-Gomez, L. R., Hübler, R., Spyrou, M. A., Neumann, G. U., …Krause, J. (2020). Emergence of human-adapted Salmonella enterica is linked to the Neolithization process. Nature Ecology and Evolution, 4(3), 324-333. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-020-1106-9

It has been hypothesized that the Neolithic transition towards an agricultural and pastoralist economy facilitated the emergence of human-adapted pathogens. Here, we recovered eight Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica genomes from human skeletons of... Read More about Emergence of human-adapted Salmonella enterica is linked to the Neolithization process.

Genetic history from the Middle Neolithic to present on the Mediterranean island of Sardinia (2020)
Journal Article
Marcus, J. H., Posth, C., Ringbauer, H., Lai, L., Skeates, R., Sidore, C., …Novembre, J. (2020). Genetic history from the Middle Neolithic to present on the Mediterranean island of Sardinia. Nature Communications, 11(1), Article 939. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-14523-6

The island of Sardinia has been of particular interest to geneticists for decades. The current model for Sardinia’s genetic history describes the island as harboring a founder population that was established largely from the Neolithic peoples of sout... Read More about Genetic history from the Middle Neolithic to present on the Mediterranean island of Sardinia.

Mobile elites at Frattesina: flows of people in a Late Bronze Age ‘port of trade’ in northern Italy (2019)
Journal Article
Cavazzuti, C., Cardarelli, A., Quondam, F., Salzani, L., Ferrante, M., Nisi, S., …Skeates, R. (2019). Mobile elites at Frattesina: flows of people in a Late Bronze Age ‘port of trade’ in northern Italy. Antiquity, 93(369), 624-644. https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2019.59

Following a mid twelfth-century BC demographic crisis, Frattesina, in northern Italy, arose as a prominent hub linking continental Europe and the Mediterranean, as evidenced by the remarkable variety of exotic materials and commodities discovered at... Read More about Mobile elites at Frattesina: flows of people in a Late Bronze Age ‘port of trade’ in northern Italy.

Flows of people in villages and large centres in Bronze Age Italy through strontium and oxygen isotopes (2019)
Journal Article
Cavazzuti, C., Skeates, R., Millard, A., Nowell, G., Peterkin, J., Bernabò Brea, M., …Salzani, L. (2019). Flows of people in villages and large centres in Bronze Age Italy through strontium and oxygen isotopes. PLoS ONE, 14(1), Article e0209693. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0209693

This study investigates to what extent Bronze Age societies in Northern Italy were permeable accepting and integrating non-local individuals, as well as importing a wide range of raw materials, commodities, and ideas from networks spanning continenta... Read More about Flows of people in villages and large centres in Bronze Age Italy through strontium and oxygen isotopes.

Ernestine S. Elster , Eugenia Isetti , John Robb and Antonella Traverso , eds. The Archaeology of Grotta Scaloria: Ritual in Neolithic Southeast Italy (Monumenta Archaeologica 38. Los Angeles: The Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press. 2016, 446 pp., 230 figs, 121 tables, hbk, ISBN 978-938770-07-4) (2018)
Journal Article
Skeates, R. (2018). Ernestine S. Elster , Eugenia Isetti , John Robb and Antonella Traverso , eds. The Archaeology of Grotta Scaloria: Ritual in Neolithic Southeast Italy (Monumenta Archaeologica 38. Los Angeles: The Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press. 2016, 446 pp., 230 figs, 121 tables, hbk, ISBN 978-938770-07-4). European Journal of Archaeology, 21(1), 136-139. https://doi.org/10.1017/eaa.2018.78

Mobility and Place Making in Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene Italy (2017)
Journal Article
Skeates, R. (2017). Mobility and Place Making in Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene Italy. Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology, 30(2), 167-188. https://doi.org/10.1558/jmea.35404

This paper offers a revised overview and model of Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene hunter-gatherers in Italy, one that questions and extends existing materialist, evolutionary and ecological perspectives through an emphasis on the socio-cultural d... Read More about Mobility and Place Making in Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene Italy.

Towards an Archaeology of Everyday Aesthetics (2017)
Journal Article
Skeates, R. (2017). Towards an Archaeology of Everyday Aesthetics. Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 27(4), 607-616. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0959774317000622

The concept of aesthetics has long been marginalized in archaeology. It was originally formulated in the eighteenth century as part of an appreciation of Greek art and was fundamentally concerned with appreciating a quasi-universal idea of beauty; an... Read More about Towards an Archaeology of Everyday Aesthetics.