This Quaternary International Special Issue comprises contributions presented in the session “Casting a glance over the mountain – multi-proxy approaches to the understanding of vertical mobility” at the Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists (EAA) in Glasgow in September 2015. In the framework of this session, archaeologists, archaeozoologists, archaeobotanists and scholars from related scientific disciplines discussed ‘vertical mobility' and ‘niche construction' through time using different approaches and perspectives.