The Prunus genus contains many of the most economically significant arboreal crops, cultivated globally, today. Despite the economic significance of these domesticated species, the pre-cultivation ranges, processes of domestication, and routes of prehistoric dispersal for all of the economically significant species remain unresolved. Among the European plums, even the taxonomic classification has been heavily debated over the past several decades. In this manuscript, we compile archaeobotanical evidence for the most prominent large-fruiting members of Prunus, including peach, apricot, almonds, sloes, and the main plum types. By mapping out the chronology and geographic distributions of these species, we are able to discuss aspects of their domestication and dispersal more clearly, as well as identify gaps in the data and unanswered questions. We suggest that a clearer understanding of these processes will say a lot about ancient peoples, as the cultivation of delayed return crops is an indicator of a strong concept of land tenure and the specialization of these cultivation strategies seems to be tied to urbanism and reliable markets. Likewise, the evolution of domestication traits in long-generation perennials, especially within Rosaceae, represents awareness of grafting and cloning practices.

Este trabajo analiza el papel de los suidos en la ritualidad protohistórica japonesa, tomando como base la aparición de una serie de restos óseos de estos animales en contextos rituales y/o con indicios de consumo ritual, especialmente en los periodos Jōmon (ca. 10,500-300 a.n.e.) y Yayoi (1,000-900 a.n.e.-250-300 d.n.e.),.             Pero antes de entrar de lleno en la problemática de estos ejemplares, es necesario realizar una retrospectiva del papel de dichos animales en el archipiélago japonés desde la Prehistoria, así como de la propia domesticación del cerdo en el continente asiático y su difusión por Asia Oriental hasta llegar a las islas japonesas. A este respecto, hay que tener en cuenta que existen tres ámbitos de estudio diferenciado en lo referente a los suidos en el archipiélago japonés: Hokkaidō, el archipiélago de las Ryūkyū y las islas de Kyūshū  Honshū y Shikoku.

The Bronze Age was a time of pivotal economic change when new long-distance trading networks became associated with a macro-regional division of labour and decentralised political complexity. These developments occurred against the background of a shifting mosaic of subsistence patterns, which included the east-west exchange of crops across Eurasia and (in some areas) greater use of secondary products. As Bronze Age economies became more specialised and diverse, it might be assumed that there was also an increased emphasis on the procurement and trade of fish and other marine resources. However, archaeological analyses of such resources are limited in contrast to land-based subsistence patterns and many questions remain. This essay aims to build a broad interpretive framework for analysing the role of marine resources in the Bronze Age. Our provisional results find that an increased emphasis on specialist systems of agropastoralism reduced the use of marine resources in many parts of Eurasia during this period. However, evidence from Japan and the eastern Mediterranean suggests that, at least in some regions, marine resources became commodities traded over long-distances by the late Bronze Age, though this requires further quantification. Island Southeast Asia displays a different pattern from other regions considered here in a greater continuity of marine resource use from the Neolithic into the historic era, perhaps due to a lower reliance on agropastoralism.