Four miniature terracotta masks found in the Roman city of Jerash in Jordan shed light on its theater district in the second century A.D. Excavators from the University of Jordan unearthed the masks in a doorway of a structure. The four-inch-tall artifacts depict a bearded Hercules, two horned and goateed faces—likely satyrs—and a curly-haired man who researchers believe is a slave. Such masks were common offerings to Dionysus, the god of theater, and were collected as souvenirs. The masks, whose designs are unique to this location, were probably produced locally. They may have hung on the wall of the structure in whose doorway they were found, which United Arab Emirates University archaeologist Saad Twaissi believes could be a temple dedicated to Dionysus, based on its architectural decorations and proximity to Jerash’s northern theater. The finds challenge previous assumptions that this area was used for industry or dumping refuse and was marginal to Jerash’s center. “Now we can understand the plan of the city better and the relationship between its northern and southern halves,” says Twaissi.

An archaeological team excavating a necropolis at the site of Sagalassos in southwest Turkey uncovered an unusual and very eerie tomb. The burial held the cremated remains of an adult male who lived between A.D. 100 and 150 and whose interment was given special treatment. Normally, after an individual was cremated, the remaining bones, ash, and debris were placed in an urn and deposited in another location. However, in this case, the pyre was immediately sealed with bricks and covered with a thick layer of lime. Additionally, a bronze coin and more than 40 nails had been scattered around the human remains. Researchers believe the nails were placed in the burial as charms to ward off evil forces and to affix the deceased’s spirit to the ground. The bricks and lime covering the grave may have been an additional precaution to ensure the dead could not rise and harm the living. “None of these practices has been observed in any other burials excavated at Sagalassos,” says archaeologist Johan Claeys of KU Leuven. “It can only be explained as a deliberate attempt to impact the fate of the deceased.”

New research has shown that human figures painted in red on a rock art panel in central Montana depict individuals engaged in a life-or-death encounter during an especially fraught historical moment. Archaeologists had previously thought the scene showed a figure carrying a shield and possibly an atlatl, or spear thrower, hunting an animal. New analysis carried out by a team including archaeologist Larry Loendorf of Sacred Sites Research shows that it actually depicts an archer fleeing from a shield-bearing warrior.

Dating of the pigment and the minerals under and on top of the painting reveals that it was created during the Late Archaic period, around A.D. 240 to 425, a time when a people archaeologists call the Avonlea culture first introduced the bow and arrow to the northern Plains. “We think the Avonlea were intruders,” says Loendorf. “This scene captures a moment in time when people who still used atlatls were in conflict with the Avonlea.” A nearby scene shows a figure with a bow who could be part of a larger narrative pitting the archer against the warrior. Perhaps, speculates Loendorf, the depictions illustrate the story of an Avonlea archer venturing onto the hunting grounds of people with deep roots in the region who chased the intruder away. “It wouldn’t surprise me if an event like that took place nearby,” he says. “Then the winners celebrated it by creating this scene.”