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Intentional cranial modification has a long history, being a ubiquitous practice in many cultures around the world for millennia. The crania excavated at the Hirota site on Tanegashima Island, Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan, has been previously noted to have a marked tendency toward a short head and a flattened occipital bone, which has been suggested to be the result of artificial cranial deformation. However, whether this deformation was intentional or caused by unintentional habits remains unclear. This study aimed to investigate the characteristics of the cranial shape of the Hirota site to c...

This paper takes a practice-based approach to the study of cultural identity, focusing on how raw material and technical choices involved in the production of quotidian tools served to both reproduce, and reflect a social group’s very way of being. We then consider the (dis)continuity of obsidian blade-making traditions from Middle–Late Bronze Age Malia (north-central Crete), i.e., before and after a period of island-wide destructions, and appearance of foreign elements believed to reflect the arrival of a population from the Greek mainland (Mycenaeans). Methodologically this invol...