Archaeologists now face a myriad of digital ways of engaging with the public - social media, online TV channels, games, etc. It is critical that this potential and its limitations are closely assessed and utilised to make archaeology a genuinely public activity. Archaeology and Digital Communication examines how archaeology engages the public in the rapidly changing world of communication. This volume proposes digital strategies of public engagement that will be of interest to archaeologists working in various contexts, particularly in collaboration with media professionals and institutions. It identifies some of the most promising uses of digital media in different domains of archaeological communication and the benefits they can generate for participants. Each use is presented through case studies highlighting how media experiences are designed and consumed. While providing specific operational recommendations, Archaeology and Digital Communication also attempts to chart potential new directions for research.

Archaeologists, historians, chemists, and physicists have employed a variety of chemical and physical approaches to study artifacts and historical objects since at least the late 18th century. During the past 50 years, the chemistry of archaeological materials has increasingly been used to address a broad spectrum of anthropological topics, including preservation, dating, nativity, exchange, provenance, and manufacturing technology. This book brings together 28 papers that address how various analytical techniques can be used to address specific archaeological questions. Chemists, archaeologists, geologists, graduate students, and others in related disciplines who are investigating the use of archaeometric techniques will find this book of interest.

First hand anecdotal snap shots offer a taste of daily life during the author's fifteen-year period at the High Down and Woomera rocket test sites. The preparation of eight Black Knight and four Black Arrow rockets up to their liftoff are recounted in detail with relevant diagrams and a few photos. So-called "rocket-science" jargon is deliberately sidestepped throughout. Delays that dogged Black Arrow's birth are touched along with a full explanation for terminating RO's maiden flight. Peripheral issues met during the final two proving flights are also discussed. The launch team's bittersweet feelings as R3 was readied and lifted off to deliver Prospero into earth orbit are chronicled alongside their dismay at the projects unfitting end. Black Arrow was Britain's only home grown rocket to stage an orbital insertion and may also be the only rocket to achieve this using peroxide oxidiser.

This practical introductory guide explains what archaeoastronomy is and gives advice for the beginner in the subject about how to check the astronomy of a prehistoric site. * Contains evidence for archaeoastronomy from around the world * Explains the role of archaeologists * Gives a simple introduction to solar and lunar astronomy * Lists the key dates to visit ancient sites * Explains why alignments have slightly altered over the centuries * Emphasises the links with ancient sea-faring and navigation * Encourages readers to adopt their own site for further research

This guidance provides practical advice on the recording, analysis and understanding of earthworks and other historic landscape features using non-intrusive archaeological field survey and investigation techniques. It describes and illustrates approaches to archaeological field survey, drawing conventions and Levels of Survey for record creators and users. The guidance also draws from the experience of Historic England field teams, exploring different aspects of landscape investigation and analysis through a series of case studies. This revised version of the 2007 edition is one of several pieces of Historic England guidance available from the Historic England website. This guidance builds on those documents and stands alongside Understanding Historic Buildings: a guide to good recording practice.

This guidance note has been prepared to assist planning authorities and archaeological officers, developers and their consultants to make clear and informed decisions about piling schemes and their potential impact upon archaeological remains. It provides information on piling types, impacts, and solutions for sustainable foundation design and is illustrated by case studies. Originally published in 2007, it has been revised by a team of archaeologists and engineers, to place a greater emphasis on the planning process and current planning guidance (NPPF). This new edition also includes a risk assessment methodology to provide a framework in which clients and their contractors can identify, avoid or otherwise manage the key construction risks to archaeological remains arising from their schemes.

This guidance document covers the use of geoarchaeology to assist in understanding the archaeological record. Geoarchaeological techniques may range in scale from landscape studies to microscopic analysis, and are carried out by practitioners with specialist knowledge about the physical environment in which archaeological stratigraphy is preserved, and excavations take place. The main aim is usually to understand site formation processes, but there may also be issues concerning site preservation, refining field interpretations of archaeological contexts and identifying changes in the physical landscape through time.

This document provides practical guidance on how to investigate sites where pottery production has taken place. It describes how to anticipate and locate pottery production sites and the types of evidence that may be found. This document also provides advice on the available methods and strategies for examining, recording and sampling features and finds of various types at each stage of the work. The different techniques for establishing the date of pottery production, and for characterising the products of a site, are given particular emphasis. This document was compiled by Harriet White, Sarah Paynter and Duncan Brown with contributions by Joanne Best, Chris Cumberpatch, David Dawson, Peter Ellis, Jane Evans, Laurence Jones, Oliver Kent, Gareth Perry, The Prince's Regeneration Trust, Ian Roberts, Kerry Tyler and Ann Woodward.

This guidance document provides an introduction to the ways that the archaeological evidence for metalworking is studied. Archaeometallurgical evidence can include whole landscapes, buildings, features, artefacts and waste materials (eg slag and crucibles). Archaeometallurgy includes fieldwork investigations (survey and excavation) and the subsequent study of these data as well as any artefacts and residues recovered. Scientific approaches provide insights into the techniques used to produce different metals and how these were fabricated into artefacts.

The present book takes up the long-debated subject of the presence of amber around the Adriatic during the Bronze Age (2nd millennium BC). It offers an exhaustive review of the current state of knowledge about the use of amber by prehistoric communities living on the opposite sides of the sea. The author focuses primarily on the spatial and chronological aspects of amber’s acquisition in Italy and the Balkans, form and function of the artefacts made of it, issues connected to their processing and ways of circulation of these products within the study area. Furthermore, attention is paid to material and symbolic statuses of amber among the local societies. Finally, the role of the circum-Adriatic zone in the long-range transfer of amber from Northern to Southern Europe is assessed.

Archaeological Geophysics for Ephemeral Human Occupations: Focusing on the Small-Scale combines technological advances in near-surface geophysics with recent archaeological scholarship and underlying archaeological premises to provide a practical manual for guiding archaeo-geophysical research design. By proposing the amelioration of communication gaps between traditional and geophysical archaeologists, this book will foment dialogue and participate in bringing about new ways of thinking anthropologically about archaeological geophysics, especially in relation to prehistoric open-air ephemeral sites. Offering a way to begin a dialogue between archaeology and geophysics, Archaeological Geophysics for Ephemeral Human Occupations is an important reference for practicing professionals, instructors, and students in geophysics and anthropology/archaeology, as well as geology.

Fitful Histories and Unruly Publics re-examines the relationship between Eurasia's past and its present by interrogating the social construction of time and the archaeological production of culture. Traditionally, archaeological research in Eurasia has focused on assembling normative descriptions of monolithic cultures that endure for millennia, largely immune to the forces of historical change. The papers in this volume seek to document forces of difference and contestation in the past that were produced in the perceptible engagements of peoples, things, and places. The research gathered here convincingly demonstrates that these forces made social life in ancient Eurasia rather more fitful and its publics considerably more unruly than archaeological research has traditionally allowed. Contributors are Mikheil Abramishvili, Paula N. Doumani Dupuy, Magnus Fiskesjoe, Hilary Gopnik, Emma Hite, Jean-Luc Houle, Erik G. Johannesson, James A. Johnson, Lori Khatchadourian, Ian Lindsay, Maureen E. Marshall, Mitchell S. Rothman, Irina Shingiray, Adam T. Smith, Kathryn O. Weber and Xin Wu.

The Neolithic of the Near East is a period of human development which saw fundamental changes in the nature of human society. It is traditionally studied for its development of domestication, agriculture, and growing social complexity. In this book Karina Croucher takes a new approach, focusing on the human body and investigating mortuary practices - the treatment and burial of the dead - to discover what these can reveal about the people of the Neolithic Near East. The remarkable evidence relating to mortuary practices and ritual behaviour from the Near Eastern Neolithic provides some of the most breath-taking archaeological evidence excavated from Neolithic contexts. The most enigmatic mortuary practices of the period produced the striking 'plastered skulls', faces modelled onto the crania of the deceased. Archaeological sites also contain evidence for many intriguing mortuary treatments, including decapitated burials and the fragmentation, circulation, curation, and reburial of human and animal remains and material culture. Drawing on recent excavations and earlier archive and published fieldwork, Croucher provides an overview and introduction to the period, presenting new interpretations of the archaeological evidence and in-depth analyses of case studies. The book explores themes such as ancestors, human-animal relationships, food, consumption and cannibalism, personhood, and gender. Offering a unique insight into changing attitudes towards the human body - both in life and during death - this book reveals the identities and experiences of the people of the Neolithic Near East through their interactions with their dead, with animals, and their new material worlds.

Zooarchaeology, or the study of ancient animal remains, is a vital but frequently side-lined subject in archaeology. Many disciplines, including anthropology, sociology, and geography, recognise human-animal interactions as a key source of information for understanding cultural ideology. Archaeological records are also composed largely of debris from human-animal relationships, be they in the form of animal bones, individual artefacts or entire landscapes. By integrating knowledge from archaeological remains with evidence from texts, iconography, social anthropology and cultural geography, Beastly Questions: Animal Answers to Archaeological Issues provides an intellectual tool-kit to enable archaeological students, researchers and those working in the commercial sector to offer more engaging interpretations of the evidence at their disposal. Going beyond the simple confines of 'what people ate', this accessible but in-depth study covers a variety of high-profile topics in European archaeology and provides novel insights into mainstream archaeological questions.This includes cultural responses to wild animals, the domestication of animals and its implications on human daily practice, experience and ideology, the transportation of species and the value of incorporating animals into landscape research, the importance of the study of foodways for understanding past societies and how animal studies can help us to comprehend issues of human identity and ideology: past, present and future.

Hanan Eshel (z"l) was a prolific scholar in the field of Dead Sea Scrolls, Classical Archaeology of the Near East and many other topics. During his terminal illness, friends and colleagues got together to present him with a collection of studies on topics that were close to his fields of interest, as an expression of deep friendship and admiration. The volume contains the 22 papers presented to Hanan before his death, covering topics in archaeology, history, and textual studies, with a particular emphasis on aspects relating to the Dead Sea Scrolls, spanning the late Iron Age through late Antiquity.

Written by the world's leading expert, this is an accessible introduction to optical dating for earth scientists who rely on the results given without needing to understand the technicalities of the technique. The basic notions and procedures are outlined through illustrative case histories. In addition the book provides active practitioners with a full understanding of the theory, through a series of technical notes, and brings together the various strands of ongoing research.

Osteoarchaeology: A Guide to the Macroscopic Study of Human Skeletal Remains covers the identification of bones and teeth, taphonomy, sex, ancestry assessment, age estimation, the analysis of biodistances, growth patterns and activity markers, and paleopathology. The book aims to familiarize the reader with the main applications of osteoarchaeology and provide the necessary knowledge required for the implementation of a broad range of osteological methods. It is ideal as a complement to existing textbooks used in upper level undergraduate and graduate courses on osteoarchaeology, human osteology, and, to some extent, forensic anthropology. Pedagogical features include ample illustrations, case study material, revision exercises, and a glossary. Additional features comprise macros that facilitate data processing and analysis, as well as an extensive chapter on applied statistics.

This book explores different aspects of LA-ICP-MS (laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry). It presents a large array of new analytical protocols for elemental or isotope analysis. LA-ICP-MS is a powerful tool that combines a sampling device able to remove very small quantities of material without leaving visible damage at the surface of an object. Furthermore, it functions as a sensitive analytical instrument that measures, within a few seconds, a wide range of isotopes in inorganic samples. Determining the elemental or the isotopic composition of ancient material is essential to address questions related to ancient technology or provenance and therefore aids archaeologists in reconstructing exchange networks for goods, people and ideas. Recent improvements of LA-ICP-MS have opened new avenues of research that are explored in this volume.

The application of statistical techniques to the study of manuscript books, based on the analysis of large data sets acquired through the archaeological observation of manuscripts, is one of the most original trends in codicological research, aiming not only to reconstruct on a sound basis the methods and processes used in book manufacture and their tendential evolution in space and time, but also to interpret them as the result of a dynamic interplay between various and often incompatible needs (of cultural, technical, social and economic nature) that book artisans had to reconcile in the best possible way. The present collection of essays in English translation was guided by the desire to offer a multifarious well-articulated picture of the application of statistical methodology to the various aspects of manuscript production, namely analysis of materials, characterization of book types, manufacturing techniques, planning and use of layout characterization of scripts and scribal habits. The volume aims to present to a wider readership a series of significant papers which have appeared over the last fifteen years, by means of which the statistical approach continues to demonstrate its vast potential.

Tools of data comparison and analysis are critical in the field of archaeology, and the integration of technological advancements such as geographic information systems, intelligent systems, and virtual reality reconstructions with the teaching of archaeology is crucial to the effective utilization of resources in the field. ""E-Learning Methodologies and Computer Applications in Archaeology"" presents innovative instructional approaches for archaeological e-learning based on networked technologies, providing researchers, scholars, and professionals a comprehensive global perspective on the resources, development, application, and implications of information communication technology in multimedia-based educational products and services in archaeology.

Soils, invaluable indicators of the nature and history of the physical and human landscape, have strongly influenced the cultural record left to archaeologists. Not only are they primary reservoirs for artifacts, they often encase entire sites. And soil-forming processes in themselves are an important component of site formation, influencing which artifacts, features, and environmental indicators (floral, faunal, and geological) will be destroyed and to what extent and which will be preserved and how well. In this book, Holliday will address each of these issues in terms of fundamentals as well as in field case histories from all over the world. The focus will be on principles of soil geomorphology, soil stratigraphy, and soil chemistry and their applications in archaeological research.

The 1992 publication of Pottery Function brought together the ethnographic study of the Kalinga and developed a method and theory for how pottery was actually used. Since then, there have been considerable advances in understanding how pottery was actually used, particularly in the area of residue analysis, abrasion, and sooting/carbonization. At the 20th anniversary of the book, it is time to assess what has been done and learned. One of the concerns of those working in pottery analysis is that they are unsure how to "do" use-alteration analysis on their collection. Another common concern is understanding intended pottery function-the connections between technical choices and function. This book is designed to answer these questions using case studies from the author and his colleagues for applying use-alteration analysis to infer actual pottery function. The focus of Understanding Pottery Function is on how practicing archaeologists can infer function from their ceramic collection.