A massacre took place inside the Sandby borg ringfort, southeast Sweden, at the end of the fifth century. The victims were not buried, but left where they died. In order to understand why the corpses were left unburied, and how they were perceived following the violent event, a theoretical framework is developed and integrated with the results of osteological analysis. I discuss the contemporary normative treatment of the dead, social response to death and postmortem agency with emphasis on intergroup conflict and ‘bad death’. The treatment of the dead in Sandby borg deviates from known contemporary practices. I am proposing that leaving the bodies unburied might be viewed as an aggressive social action. The corpses exerted postmortem agency to the benefit of the perpetrators, at the expense of the victims and their sympathizers. The gain for the perpetrators was likely political power through redrawing the victim's biographies, spatial memory and the social and territorial landscape. The denial of a proper death likely led to shame, hindering of regeneration and an eternal state of limbo.

In this paper, we discuss observations from fieldwork in northern Kenya whichrevealed solid evidence for a vital ongoing rock art tradition among warriors ofSamburu—lmurran. They make rock art during their lives as warriors, typicallybetween the ages of 15 and 30, when they live away from their villages, herdingcattle and thus representing a specific ‘community of practice’. Our findings revealthat Samburu rock art is made predominantly as a leisure occupation, whilecamping in shelters, as part of activities also involving the preparation of food.Typical images include domestic animals, humans (both men and women) andoccasionally wild animals such as elephants and rhinos. Each age-set and newgeneration of lmurran is inspired by previous artwork, but they also change thetradition slightly by adding new elements, such as the recent tradition of writingletters and names close to the images. We conclude that even though rock art assuch is not part of any ritual or ceremonial setting, it plays an important role as aninter-generational visual culture that transfers a common ongoing culturalengendered warrior identity through time.

This article discusses the relation between knowing, learning and teaching in relation to early Palaeolithic technologies. We begin by distinguishing between three kinds of knowl- edge: knowing how, knowing what and knowing that. We discuss the relation between these types of knowledge and different forms of learning and long-term memory systems. On the basis of this analysis, we present three types of teaching: (1) helping and correcting; (2) showing; and (3) explaining. We then use this theoretical framework to suggest what kinds of teaching are required for the pre-Oldowan, the Oldowan, the early Acheulean and the late Acheulean stone-knapping technologies. As a general introductory overview to this special section, the text concludes with a brief presentation of the papers included. 

Although it is sometimes suggested that modern-day chimpanzee nut-cracking behaviour is cognitively similar to early stone-tool-knapping behaviour, few systematic comparative studies have tested this assumption. Recently, two further techno-behaviours were reported that could both represent intermediary phases in hominin cognitive evolution pertaining to our ultimate technological astuteness. These behaviours are that of bearded capuchin monkeys pounding rocks and very early stone-tool knapping from Lomekwi 3. Here we use a multi-model approach to directly compare cognitive aspects required for 11 techno-behaviours, ranging from the simplest capuchin pounding behaviour to the most complex chimpanzee nut-cracking and Lomekwi 3 knapping behaviours. We demonstrate a marked difference in broad-spectrum cognitive requirements between capuchin pounding on the one hand and Lomekwian bipolar knapping on the other. Whereas the contrast is less pronounced between chimpanzee nut-cracking scenarios and basic passive-hammer knapping at Lomekwi 3, the escalation in cognitive requirement between nut cracking and bipolar knapping is a good indication that early hominin flaking techniques are cognitively more taxing than chimpanzee nut-cracking behaviour today.

Early depictions of anthropomorphs in rock art provide unique insights into life during the deep past. This includes human engagements with the environment, socio-cultural practices , gender and uses of material culture. In Australia, the Dynamic Figure rock paintings of Arnhem Land are recognized as the earliest style in the region where humans are explicitly depicted. Important questions, such as the nature and signicance of body adornment in rock art and society, can be explored, given the detailed nature of the human gurative art and the sheer number of scenes depicted. In this paper, we make a case for Dynamic Figure rock art having some of the earliest and most extensive depictions of complex an-thropomorph scenes found anywhere in the world.

This paper explores the complex story of a particular style of rock art in western Arnhem Land known as 'Painted Hands'. Using new evidence from recent fieldwork, we present a definition for their style, distribution and place in the stylistic chronologies of this region. We argue these motifs played an important cultural role in Aboriginal society during the period of European settlement in the region. We explore the complex messages embedded in the design features of the Painted Hands, arguing that they are more than simply hand stencils or markers of individuality. We suggest that these figures represent stylized and intensely encoded motifs with the power to communicate a high level of personal, clan and ceremonial identity at a time when all aspects of Aboriginal cultural identity were under threat.

In Europe, Scandinavia holds the largest concentration of rock art (i.e. petroglyphs), created c. 5000-first century BC, many of them showing figurative and seemingly narrative representations. In this paper, we will discuss possible narratological approaches applied to these images. We might reasonably distinguish between three levels of pictorial narrativity: representations of (i) single events, understood as the transition from one state of affairs to another, usually involving (groups of) agents interacting; (ii) stories, e.g. particular sequences of related events that are situated in the past and retold for e.g. ideological or religious purposes; and (iii) by implication, master-narratives deeply embedded in a culture, which provide and consolidate cosmological explanations and social structures. Some concrete examples of petroglyphs will be presented and analysed from narratological and iconographical perspectives. We will as a point of departure focus on (i), i.e. single events, though we shall also further consider the possibility of narrative interpretations according to (ii) and (iii).

Hoards have played a significant role in our narratives of the European Bronze Age, but their purpose and meaning have been the source of much debate. These debates have been positively impacted by studies that investigate the ways in which hoards are connected to specific landscape contexts. In this paper, we discuss the outcome of one such in-depth field study of 62 Bronze Age metalwork deposition locations from the Swedish province of Halland. By systematically analysing digital sources such as museum archives, church records and historical maps, we were able to establish the locations of a number of previously unlocated finds, which were then visited in the field. Through this combined archival work and fieldwork, we distinguished several patterns that allude to a connection between metalwork deposits, object types and specific places in the landscape. These patterns shed light on the landscape context of hoards in this region and illuminate how deposition patterns changed over time; we consider some factors that may help to explain these changes. The results emphasize the importance of landscape studies for understanding the role of selective deposition in European Bronze Age societies, and more broadly, the social implications of hoards in their context.