The concealed shoe is, possibly by design, shrouded in mystery. All that is known for certain on this subject is that a large number of shoes, usually old and damaged, were concealed in various, unconventional locations within buildings throughout England, and that this practice was particularly popular during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Other than these few facts, all other information on the subject is speculation. With no contemporaneous written sources on the practice of concealing shoes, this article will utilize the archaeological evidence in order to ascertain the motivations behind the act of concealment. An analysis of two case studies of concealed shoe caches from North Yorkshire, with a particular focus on their locations and conditions, will hopefully prove invaluable in the investigation into this unusual practice, together with an examination of the relevant folk beliefs and superstitions of the period. It will also be questioned where the concealed shoe stands in relation to our everyday classificatory systems. As a marginal, mutable object, the concealed shoe boasts a highly complex biography, calling into question the pertinence of such categories as valuable/rubbish, and particular attention will be given to the shoes’ numerous recontextualizations, from practical footwear, to apotropaic device, to archaeological artefact; transitions which I have dubbed ‘ritual recycling’.

This article proposes a framework for investigating the cognitive implications of controlled fire use by Middle Pleistocene humans. By identifying the simplest strategies they could have used to control fire, given the constraints individuals had to overcome, we can establish a behavioural basis for making inferences about cognition. Accessing, maintaining and benefiting from fire involved a range of behaviours that imply future-directed planning, response inhibition and group-level cooperation. I argue that we can infer human cognitive abilities such as an extended working memory, episodic memories, collective intentionality and intersubjective communication from these fire-related behaviours.

This article explores the potential contribution of a biographical, phenomenological and performative approach to the study of material images in the past through a particular study case: the warrior statues from the so-called ‘Castro culture’ in northwestern Iberia. The aim is to provide a different way of thinking, as opposed to the traditional conceptions that have prevailed in archaeological research, taking into account what material forms enable the construction of the social at a micro-scale level. To this end, the author analyses how these statues actively build their own meaning and sense in the socio-material contexts where they belong; and how, in this process, their materiality partakes in the creation and maintenance of indigenous identity and sociality.

This study expands perceptions of ritual behaviour in the British Iron Age, which conventionally focus on the deposition and burial of objects. Classification of animal bones as special deposits in Iron Age Britain, and interpretation of the ritual activities they may represent, has tended to concentrate on the significance of their burial location and composition and/or the cultural perception of the particular animal species deposited. Other than for consumption and sacrifice, little consideration has been given to the complex, dynamic histories (biographies) and cultural significance of animal remains in the period between death and burial. Detailed examination of the taphonomic and pre-depositional histories of animal deposits, are one means by which it is possible to explore the activities that occurred above ground in the past. Zooarchaeological investigations of a group of cattle and horse skulls from Battlesbury Bowl, Hampshire, provide an excellent example of a ‘special deposit’ where it was the objects themselves, as much as their species, location or structured burial that held special significance for the Iron Age community. By taking a biographical approach, we can create detailed narratives of archaeological animal bones and their treatment, thereby expanding the view of activities that fall under the ‘ritual’ umbrella.

At Umm el-Marra in western Syria, a sequence of Bronze Age ritual installations facilitates the investigation of how Syrian elites employed memory, ancestor veneration, and animal (and perhaps human) sacrifice to reinforce their position, and how others used countermemory to contest it. Relevant data derive from an Early Bronze Age complex of elite tombs and animal interments and a Middle Bronze Age monumental platform and shaft containing animal and human bodies deposited ritually. Analysis of the spatial landscape, with patterns of access or inaccessibility, facilitates additional insights, as does the consideration of the intentionality or lack of it in ancient references to the past.

This article addresses the problem of structural determinism in archaeological explanations of material culture change, specifically architecture. A discussion of Giddens' structuration theory emphasizes the duality of structure. The concept is updated by drawing on Gell's theory of agency in art and recent ideas on play, innovation, freedom and consensus prevalent in anthropology and archaeology. This approach shows that material culture is changed through structurally shaped innovation, such that agency is distributed across time, among groups regionally and among elites and commoners. The theoretical exposition develops a case study including discussion of an architectural grammar, ethnohistoric analogy and activity-area studies involving ceramic incense burners. The case study is the Classic–Postclassic transition (ad 750–1200) among the Maya of Petén, Guatemala. While earlier explanations of architectural change in this region focused on an in-migration event, the current investigation posits a Postclassic reconfiguration of Maya architecture, specifically changes in ‘C’-shaped stone benches, based on structurally shaped innovation and a distributed view of agency. The benches served as stages for more heterarchical ritual performances with the incense burners as opposed to the hierarchical ritual performances common in the Classic period. This account overcomes structural determinism by allowing for diversity and cultural specificity in our views of agency.

Building on recent criticisms of Romanization, this contribution formulates a systematic critique of the concept of Egyptianization and suggests a different theoretical approach to cultural process in New Kingdom Nubia that benefits from the insights of ‘cultural entanglement’. This approach emphasizes multidirectional and interactive perspectives that allow for a variety of acculturative outcomes rather than one-sided assimilation. A useful epistemological framework for its application in archaeology is illustrated through two case studies, focusing respectively on representations of Egyptianized Nubians in Egyptian art and Lower Nubian burial customs. The outcomes of the case studies argue for a provocative re-reading of cultural process in New Kingdom Lower Nubia, and may help to clarify the general picture of Nubian history by explaining why and how Nubian traits re-appeared in the Napatan-Meroitic Kingdom of Kush. Finally, the article considers some broader methodological and theoretical issues relating to cultural mixture in the archaeological record.