The Middle East generally (Bar-Yosef 1994) and Iran specifically (VahdatiNasab et al. 2013) have become a focus for the study ofhuman migration between South-west Asia and Central and Eastern Asia duringthe Pleistocene (Asgari Khaneghah et al. 2005; Biglari& Shidrang 2006; Heydari Guran 2012). In Iran, studies of thePalaeolithic have concentrated on the Zagros and Alborz areas, but recentwork in the sub-montane areas, desert margins and lowland plains have alsorevealed interesting results regarding the activities of hunter-gatherersocieties (Biglari et al. 2000; Dashtizadeh 2009; VahdatiNasab et al. 2009, 2010, 2013; Darabi et al. 2012).

The Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA; c. 9600–8500 cal BC)period in the Levant provides the earliest confirmed evidence for plantcultivation anywhere in the world, marking a significant escalation in thehuman management of plants towards fully fledged agricultural foodproduction. Until now, the majority of PPNA sites have been documented inthe Jordan Valley, the Wadi Araba and farther north along the UpperEuphrates (e.g. Mureybet, Jerf el-Ahmar, Djade). By contrast, few PPNA siteshave so far been reported from the semi-arid to arid eastern part of theLevantine interior. Among these is El Aoui Safa (Coqueugniot & Anderson1996) and sporadic flint scatters elsewhere in the Harra.Recent fieldwork in the Qa’ Shubayqa area in the Harra hasproduced the first evidence for a more substantial settlement site in thisregion.

Despite ongoing fieldwork focusing on the Palaeolithic and Mesolithicperiods of the Aegean, the eastern part of this region, especially westernTurkey, remains almost entirely unexplored in terms of early prehistory.There is virtually no evidence from this area that can contribute to broaderresearch themes such as the dispersal of early hominins, the distribution ofEarly Holocene foragers and early forager-farmer interactions. The primaryaim of the Karaburun Archaeological Survey Project is to address thissituation by collecting data from the eastern side of the Aegean Sea,thereby contributing to the currently debated issues of Aegean and EasternMediterranean prehistory.

It is understandable, perhaps inevitable, that archaeologists should be attracted to ideas of memory and of the ‘past in the past’. But other disciplines—anthropology, history, philosophy, sociology and beyond—also demonstrate a similar fascination. This wider attention has been diagnosed as symptomatic of late modernity. If so, what is the relevance and utility of memory for studies of the pre-modern past? In this NBC, we consider books that directly or indirectly explore this theme.

In southern Africa, Middle Stone Age sites with long sequences have been thefocus of intense international and interdisciplinary research over the pastdecade (cf. Wadley 2015). Two techno-complexes of the Middle Stone Age—theStill Bay and Howiesons Poort—have been associated with many technologicaland behavioural innovations of Homo sapiens. The classicmodel argues that these two techno-complexes are temporally separated‘horizons’ with homogenous material culture (Jacobs et al.2008), reflecting demographic pulses and supporting large subcontinentalnetworks. This model was developed on the basis of evidence from southernAfrican sites regarded as centres of subcontinental developments.

The archaeological site of Al-Ashoosh is a third-millennium BC settlementlocated in the Rub al-Khali Desert (or Empty Quarter), 70km south of Dubaiin the United Arab Emirates (UAE) (Figure 1). This site provides anexcellent example of the type of occupation of the inland deserts of theOman peninsula during the period following the Holocene Climatic Optimum.Between November 2015 and May 2016, the Dubai Municipality and the SaniseraArchaeology Institute conducted excavations at the site of Al-Ashoosh. Thissite was discovered during two seasons of survey in 2002–2003. This surveywork, undertaken by the Dubai Municipality and the Department of Antiquitiesof Jordan, identified 33 archaeological sites ranging in date fromprehistory to the late Islamic period. In 2006–2007, more-detailedarchaeological investigations of the area of Al-Ashoosh were conducted,including survey, excavation and geological sampling (Casana et al. 2009; Herrmann 2012; Contreras & Carcacer 2016).

The books considered in this instalment of NBC raise questions about how we represent the past through words and images. In particular, five of the seven are either explicitly or implicitly biographical, exploring a diverse spectrum of lives from twentieth-century archaeologists to a governor of Roman Britain. Further, with the exception of the first book presented here, all of these titles are written and packaged for a readership extending beyond the professional archaeologist, and they provide the opportunity to consider not only how archaeological narratives are constructed but also how these are communicated.

Digital media and learning initiatives for virtual collaborativeenvironments are contributing to the definition of new (sub-)disciplines inarchaeological and heritage sciences. New nomenclature and terminology isemerging such as cyber archaeology, cyber archaeometry, virtual worlds andaugmented and immersive realities; and all of them are related to museumsand cultural heritage—tangible, intangible or natural (Forte 2010; Liritzis et al. 2015).

The Zohreh Prehistoric Project (ZPP), a long-term archaeological researchprogramme focused on the river valley south of the modern city of Behbahanin Khuzestan Province, was launched in April 2015 (Figure 1). The valley,which lies in close proximity to the northern coast of the Persian Gulf, wassurveyed extensively during the early 1970s by Hans Nissen from the OrientalInstitute of the University of Chicago (Nissen & Redman 1971; Dittmann1984, 1986). The ZPP aims to develop full-coverage archaeological survey ofthe valley, focusing on the human landscape over time, mostly in relation tosettlement hierarchy and dynamics, modes of production and the emergence ofregional centres at the end of the fifth and beginning of the fourthmillennia BC. The focal point for the project is the principal site of theZohreh Valley, known as Tol-e Chega Sofla (39RN1Q22108; thesite was previously registered as Chogha Sofla, BZ.71 (Dittmann 1984: 110).We have changed this to reflect its local name. The digital reference is theunique Iranian archaeology map registration number.