This paper investigates the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in the northern Adriatic by testing theoretical models of Neolithization through a review of the available radiocarbon evidence. While our understanding of the spread of farming in Europe has improved significantly in recent years, especially due to an increasing body of ancient DNA evidence, this does not seem to be the case for the northern Adriatic. Here, not only is there a lack of ancient genetic material, but significant changes in landscape configuration caused by postglacial sea-level rise have affected archaeological visibility. Unresolved aspects of the transition include the scarcity of Late Mesolithic sites, the debated role of hunter-gatherers, and the swift establishment of a fully developed farming economy. In this paper, chronological data obtained from radiocarbon dating is used to argue for a ‘spectrum of possibilities’, with different dynamics in different subregions and different lines of evidence supporting distinct mechanisms of Neolithization, often with an equifinal outcome. It is shown that the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in the northern Adriatic occurred over the entirety of the sixth millennium BC, but also that different readings of the data suggest leapfrog colonization and frontier mobility occurring in different areas, or even in a single subregion. Online Supplementary MaterialSupplement 1

It has become increasingly clear that submerged landscapes can help address a range of archaeological questions from topics such as human migrations, coastal settlement in prehistory, and responses to sea level change. Our ability to approach such debates, however, is limited by our knowledge of paleogeographic developments at a human scale. This is still lacking for many regions, including the Northern Adriatic Sea, one of the largest submerged landmasses in Europe and a region very sensitive to landscape changes due to its fluvially-influenced geomorphological setting. In this study, we present palaeolandscape reconstructions for the Northern Adriatic between 9000 and 4000 cal BC, based on published sedimentary core data and unpublished high-resolution geophysical data. To achieve this, different depositional environments were identified and inundation models produced to characterise the palaeolandscape both from a spatial and temporal dimension. Different generations of barrier-backbarrier complexes are identified as well as lagoon, marsh, and delta environments developing during phases of stasis in sea level rise and rapidly drowned during periods of intense inundation. Our palaeolandscape reconstructions have direct archaeological implications for both the Mesolithic and Neolithic periods. The region's ancient coastal wetlands would have been extremely attractive to forager communities, but these societies would have had to respond to environmental changes linked to sea level rise. Likewise, when farming was spreading along the Northern Adriatic coastlines, major paleogeographic developments would have been occurring. We therefore demonstrate the importance of reconstructing submerged landscapes to our understanding of several key archaeological themes.

Detecting and mapping offshore platforms are critical tasks due to increasing and competing pressures on maritime space. This study addresses the need for a reliable technique to detect and map offshore platforms worldwide using radar images. Leveraging deep learning object detection algorithms, the study aims to identify and locate platforms in radar images while distinguishing them from other stationary objects in the sea. Building upon previous research, the proposed technique utilizes temporal images to isolate stationary objects and remove moving vessels, thereby enhancing platform detection accuracy. Furthermore, the study explores the use of Faster Region-based Convolutional Neural Network (R-CNN), a computationally efficient method for object detection, to streamline the detection process. By employing these advancements, this study contributes to the development of a comprehensive, fast, and automatic technique for detecting offshore platforms in radar images, with implications for safety, security, and environmental monitoring in maritime environments.

Neolithization is one of a handful of major social and economic processes that affected the entire Mediterranean, even if in quite different ways across different periods and regions. Everywhere, however, its impact was substantial, affecting also other parts of Europe and West Asia. It is therefore with good reason that the study of Neolithization has a long and distinguished track-record going back, at least, to the work of Childe, who first characterized Neolithization as a revolution (Childe 1925: 15). He would eventually go on to describe it more fully (Childe 1942: 48) as an ‘economic and scientific revolution’, even using the term ‘revolutionaries’ to refer to the people involved—whom we would now call ‘social actors’ (Gamble 2007: 10-26). In Childe’s understanding, migration and agriculture were the cornerstones of the Neolithic revolution, and these two phenomena have remained central to academic debates about Neolithization to this day.

The United Kingdom’s Maritime Heritage records hold vital information on heritage assets and archaeological contexts key to addressing current research priorities. These records stand alone, rarely connecting, demanding an arduous and time-consuming process of investigation and cross-referencing for synthesis to occur. Challenges intensify due to the qualities of this data; they stem partly from legacy information not initially intended for heritage recording purposes. Complications also arise from the varied methods of recording, storing, and disseminating this information deployed over time. However, archaeologists now possess Named Entity Recognition (NER) and Natural Language Processing (NLP) tools with the potential to organize and search such fragmented databases. This paper explores a method to enhance and enrich these datasets by employing Few Shot learning techniques to perform Multiclass Text Classification. The Welsh National Monuments Record (NMR), a glimpse into the U.K.’s maritime heritage, has been utilized to test these approaches.

Coastal, riverine, and lacustrine environments have played a central role in the development of human societies, yet locating and documenting this record of activity in littoral environments have proven difficult. Terrestrial survey methods reach their limit at the water's edge, whereas marine geophysical equipment often struggles in depths of less than 1 m. This "white ribbon" of missing data represents a persistent methodological gap but one that is rich in information. Recent work on Scottish crannogs, or artificial islands, has highlighted this predicament while also providing a test bed for practical solutions. This article presents the results of that work: a robust and repeatable workflow for high-resolution shallow-water photogrammetry, tested in challenging conditions and benchmarked against the GNSS-enabled accuracy of drone surveys. The approach combines stereophotogrammetry, using artificial scale bars for internal calibration, with ground control points to enable the integration of terrestrial and underwater data. This method is both accessible and efficient, offering a replicable framework for recording archaeological sites at the water's edge. Los entornos costeros, fluviales y lacustres han desempe & ntilde;ado un papel fundamental en el desarrollo de las sociedades humanas, pero localizar y documentar estos registros de actividad en los m & aacute;rgenes litorales sigue siendo un desaf & iacute;o. Los m & eacute;todos de prospecci & oacute;n terrestre alcanzan su l & iacute;mite en la orilla, mientras que los equipos geof & iacute;sicos marinos presentan dificultades en profundidades inferiores a un metro. Esta "franja blanca" de datos ausentes representa una brecha metodol & oacute;gica persistente, pero tambi & eacute;n rica en informaci & oacute;n. Los trabajos recientes sobre los crannogs escoceses, o islas artificiales, han puesto de relieve estas dificultades y, al mismo tiempo, han ofrecido un banco de pruebas para el desarrollo de soluciones pr & aacute;cticas. Este art & iacute;culo presenta los resultados de ese trabajo: un flujo de trabajo s & oacute;lido y reproducible para la fotogrametr & iacute;a de alta resoluci & oacute;n en aguas someras, probado en condiciones exigentes y contrastado con la precisi & oacute;n habilitada por GNSS de levantamientos con drones. El enfoque combina estereofotogrametr & iacute;a, mediante el uso de barras de escala artificiales para la calibraci & oacute;n interna, con puntos de control terrestre para permitir la integraci & oacute;n de datos terrestres y subacu & aacute;ticos. Este m & eacute;todo es accesible y eficiente, y ofrece un marco replicable para el registro de sitios arqueol & oacute;gicos en el l & iacute;mite entre tierra y agua.

Charting a path to a blue economy is imperative to avoid major the wider environment and society. The blue-ness of the future ocean economy and the associated health of the oceans and our planet will be determined by the pathways chosen, the strategies developed and decisions made now. Here, through bibliometric analysis, multidisciplinary literature review and data synthesis, we present prospective pathways that define different future ocean economies. The intention is to provoke interdisciplinary debate, exchange of ideas, further research and action towards shifting the ocean economy from grey to blue. We show that a business-as-usual pathway that sustains the current grey ocean economy will lead to accelerated violation of planetary boundaries and ultimately destruction of the natural capital on which the ocean economy and humanity depend; that a probable pathway, based on optimistic trends, which attempt to meet the conflicting increasing demand of populations globally and need to curb carbon emissions, is insufficient to meet decarbonisation and broader sustainability targets; and that a pathway to transition to a blue economy requires ambitious proactive strategies and immediate decisions, based on principles that aspire to the collaborative, fair and sustainable use of the ocean.

The rapid expansion of human activity in coastal and shelf seas provides impetus to investigate increased risks to ocean health and social-ecological resilience, but progress in understanding the role and relative importance of associated pressures is frustrated by a lack of a routinely available set of processed geospatial information. Here, we pool 337 standardised geospatial layers derived from 35 sources, including anthropogenic activities, ecological and geoscience assets and features, and met-ocean conditions for the exclusive economic zone surrounding the United Kingdom. Our compilation has undergone pre-processing: spatial interpolation, density estimation, data resampling and extraction, and harmonisation to populate ~10 km2 grids. We provide source version history, an open-access interactive portal, and the details of the spatial processes we used to create each layer, including data quality and uncertainties for layers generated by interpolation/density estimation. Our motivation is to provide reference information and spatio-temporal context, encourage the exploration and inclusion of any inter-dependencies between layers when determining system response, improve mechanistic understanding of observed patterns, and enable better parameterisation of models for those tasked with assessing the compound and cumulative effects of anthropogenic activity.

This research presents a workflow that integrates emerging machine learning methods with geospatial mapping techniques to improve the identification of shipwrecks in bathymetry data. By first refining the study area into high-potential units, machine learning algorithms can be applied more efficiently. This approach accelerates the process, reduces computational demands, and offers an adaptive method that can eventually be tailored to survey needs and different seabed environments. This paper contributes to the current discourse surrounding the discovery and management of underwater cultural heritage (UCH) in the context of global seabed mapping, developments in autonomous marine survey, and continued offshore development. Shipwrecks constitute a significant proportion of UCH sites that are increasingly likely to be discovered and impacted by these developments, and thus archaeologists need adequate tools for their rapid detection and monitoring to keep pace with the rate of data generation.The proposed workflow uses a raster extraction method as a filtering process to identify areas of seabed with high shipwreck potential, based on their topographic signature in three different visualisations of bathymetry (slope, curvature, and topographic position index). Using these results, several different machine learning algorithms were tested on their ability to identify both intact, visible shipwrecks (‘conspicuous’ wrecks) as well as smaller, possible wreck sites. These methods were tested over an area of 3,131 km2 from the south coast of England. Results show that the Raster Extraction method was able to filter out 96% of the test data, while still detecting 78% of the test shipwrecks (n=253). Machine learning models trained on different data visualisations (Hillshade, Shaded Relief, Curvature) and algorithms (Single Shot Detector, Faster R-CNN, and Mask R-CNN) had varied performances in terms of recall and precision.

This paper investigates the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in the northern Adriatic by testing theoretical models of Neolithization through a review ofthe available radiocarbon evidence. While our understanding of the spread of farming in Europe has improved significantly in recent years, especially due to an increasing body of ancient DNA evidence, this does not seem to be the case for the northern Adriatic. Here, not only is there a lack of ancient genetic material, but significant changes in landscape configuration caused by postglacial sea-level rise have affected archaeological visibility. Unresolved aspects of the transition include the scarcity of Late Mesolithic sites, the debated role of hunter-gatherers, and the swift establishment of a fully developed farming economy. In this paper, chronological data obtained from radiocarbon dating is used to argue for a s'pectrum ofpossibilities', with different dynamics in different subregions and different lines of evidence supporting distinct mechanisms of Neolithization, often with an equifinal outcome. It is shown that the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in the northern Adriatic occurred over the entirety of the sixth millennium Bc, but also that different readings of the data suggest leapfrog colonization and frontier mobility occurring in different areas, or even in a single subregion.

Crannogs, enigmatic artificial islands dotting the landscapes of Scotland and Ireland, have been subjects of intrigue and debate for centuries. These complex sites exhibit a remarkable time-depth of use, often revealing multiple phases or periods, coupled with a great diversity in their structural forms and settings. Moreover, the extensive yet fragmented early historiography of crannog research has left a lasting legacy on our modern understandings and interpretations of these sites. Adding to the complexity is the more recent discovery of Neolithic crannogs, which has pushed back the accepted date for these sites by over 3,000 years.In our pursuit to shed light on this newest piece of the enigma, we embarked on a systematic study, departing from the simple replication of existing databases. Instead, we focused on mining and extracting information from articles published in the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, which represent a substantial portion of early crannog research. While generating descriptive statistics is useful, true knowledge advancement comes from contextualising the data and the ideologies that shaped their generation. Our meticulous data mining and information extraction analysis allowed us to understand the historiography of Scottish crannogs in new ways. By analysing terminologies used through time, we identified inconsistencies, biases and even geographic discrepancies in site classifications. Through additional refinement of this database and subsequent fieldwork, we were able to identify new, previously unrecorded, sites and question the validity of some ‘known’ sites.To address ambiguities surrounding island origins and classification inconsistencies, we expanded our focus to include all ‘archaeological islands’. This broadened scope has deepened our understanding of site types and their differential visibility in the national heritage record. To avoid interpretative dissonance, future insights must be integrated with national datasets, ensuring that the archaeological record continues to foster innovation and accommodate expanding knowledge.

Purpose Socioeconomic aims and impacts are an explicit part of the UK City of Culture (UKCoC) application, bidding, delivery and evaluation stages. This article engages with existing debates on evaluating cities of culture and introduces perspectives from critical data studies to examine the collection and analysis of different data for the purposes of the CoC application and evaluation processes. Design/methodology/approach The meta-methodological concept of accompanying researcher is used to analyse the experiences of researchers based within a city bidding for UKCoC 2025 in dialogue with the evaluation reports from past UKCoC host cities. Findings Findings are analysed under three themes: defining data morsels; local histories and infrastructures of data generation and sharing; and resources, capacities and expertise for data generation and evaluation. The discussion examines data still to be generated and/or brought into relation; tensions around data and measurement; and how constructing an evaluation baseline is generative—creating new organisations, relationships and practices. Practical implications The conceptual and methodological approach and empirical findings will be relevant for academic, policymakers and practitioners engaging with cultural evaluation. Originality/value In focussing on the bidding stage in real time through the accompanying researcher position, this article presents original empirical insights into the process of creating a baseline for cities of culture evaluation. The conceptual originality of this article is in using critical data studies to explain strategies of data generation and analyse data relations and frictions.

UNESCO estimates that our planet's oceans and lakes are home to more than three million shipwrecks. Of these three million, the locations of only 10% are currently known. Apart from the historical and archaeological interest in finding wrecks, there are other reasons why we need to know their precise locations. While a shipwreck can provide an excellent habitat for marine life, acting as an artificial reef, shipwrecks are also potential sources of pollution, leaking fuel and corroding heavy metals. When a vessel runs aground on an iron-free environment, changes in the chemistry of the surrounding environment can occur, creating a discoloration called black reef. In this work, we examine the use of supervised deep learning methods for the detection of shipwrecks on coral reefs through the presence of this discoloration using satellite images. One of the main challenges is the limited number of known locations of black reefs, and therefore, the limited training dataset. Our results show that even with relatively limited data, the simple eight-layer, fully convolutional network has been trained efficiently using minimal computational resources and has identified and classified all investigated black reefs and consequently the presence of shipwrecks. Furthermore, it has proven to be a useful tool for monitoring the extent of discoloration and consequently the ecological impact on the reef by using time series imagery.

In this paper we present a three-stranded investigation of all ‘archaeological islands’ (including crannogs) across Scotland, with a particular focus on the Outer Hebrides. The first strand is a synthesis and critical review of the archaeological record relating to 582 ‘archaeological island’ sites. This research enabled us to characterise the nature of any previous work (including dating evidence) undertaken on each, and thus to establish the first ever open access, holistic, accurate dataset of these sites. The second strand is new underwater survey carried out at 30 archaeological islands across the southern Outer Hebrides. This enabled us to acquire further information about and dating evidence for these sites; notably, this included new evidence for Neolithic occupation on three, increasing the total of known Neolithic islets in the region to 11. The third strand involved a thorough re-assessment of a wide body of archaeological literature relating to early excavations and finds. This research identified potential Neolithic material culture on a further 15 archaeological islands across the rest of Scotland. We conclude by discussing the potentially very significant implications of this early material, considering the possibility that crannogs could have been constructed in the Neolithic beyond the Outer Hebrides.

Government and commercial forecasts indicate global ambitions for 2000 GW of installed offshore wind (OW) by 2050 to meet the targets of the Paris Agreement. Set against a current global installed capacity of 56 GW offshore wind, which has taken over 30 years to achieve, the challenge of installing 35 times that capacity in the coming 30 years is considerable. Aside from the issue of the necessary pace of OW installation, another challenge is scale: Where in the ocean could and should this new infrastructure be placed? This paper presents a spatial analysis approach for assessing the location of future offshore wind that collates and integrates, metocean, geoscience, ecological and anthropogenic features and intersects with engineering requirements. A new contribution to the field is made through calibration in relation to current ocean 'crowdedness', which leads to a suitability ranking of new sea regions. A case study is presented to illustrate the workflow and methodology of this approach based on the United Kingdom (UK)-Economic Exclusive Zone (EEZ). The UK has been selected as an exemplar due to its well-developed offshore wind sector, having the greatest installed capacity globally until the close of 2021, and as a region with ambitious and legislated offshore wind targets to meet net zero. The modelling and analysis quantify the need to eliminate the water depth barrier through floating OW technology, open up new sea regions and the associated port and grid infrastructure, as well as to assess the potential impact of increased utilisation of ocean space for OW.

Recent work on Drosophila oogenesis has begun to reveal how the first asymmetries in development arise and how these relate to the later events that localise the positional cues which define the embryonic axes. The Cadherin-dependent positioning of the oocyte creates an anterior-posterior polarity that is transmitted to the embryo through the localisation and localised translation of bicoid, oskar, and nanos mRNA. In contrast, dorsal-ventral polarity arises from the random migration of the nucleus to the anterior of the oocyte, where it determines where gurken mRNA is translated and localised. Gurken signalling then defines the embryonic dorsal-ventral axis by restricting pipe expression to the ventral follicle cells, where Pipe regulates the production of an unidentified cue that activates the Toll signalling pathway.

In preliterate contexts, diverse knowledge was accumulated, processed and communicated orally. Recent research demonstrates that observations of memorable events were transferred in this way for thousands of years sometimes. Much of this information was eventually written down to reach literate audiences, which commonly judge such ‘myths and legends’ to be cultural inventions rather than ancient memories. This study examines 15 ‘submergence stories’ from northwest European coasts and argues that they plausibly represent memories of postglacial sea‐level rise, which, in this region, was spatially and temporally variable owing to the interaction of sea‐level rise with glacial isostatic adjustment. This study combines culture history and knowledge of earth rheology to argue that memories of the effects of postglacial land submergence in northwest Europe have endured for 5000–15,000 years. This requires a longevity of memory, orally communicated, that is not unprecedented, yet surprises many. It also shows that scientists might benefit from trying to better understand oral traditions from cultures elsewhere in the world that may have preserved observations of memorable events.