Forensic archaeology is mostly defined as the use of archaeological methods and principles within a legal context. However, such a definition only covers one aspect of forensic archaeology and misses the full potential this discipline has to offer. This volume is unique in that it contains 57 chapters from experienced forensic archaeological practitioners working in different countries, intergovernmental organisations or NGO s. It shows that the practice of forensic archaeology varies worldwide as a result of diverse historical, educational, legal and judicial backgrounds. The chapters in this volume will be an invaluable reference to (forensic) archaeologists, forensic anthropologists, humanitarian and human rights workers, forensic scientists, police officers, professionals working in criminal justice systems and all other individuals who are interested in the potential forensic archaeology has to offer at scenes of crime or places of incident. This volume promotes the development of forensic archaeology worldwide. In addition, it proposes an interpretative framework that is grounded in archaeological theory and methodology, integrating affiliated behavioural and forensic sciences.

Medical and industrial imaging methods have come to be recognized as powerful tools for documentation and data collection in many nontraditional settings. In Paleoimaging: Field Applications for Cultural Remains and Artifacts, two of the most preeminent experts in the field provide an in-depth examination of a range of imaging techniques and explain how these techniques can be applied to all aspects of forensic and archaeological analysis. The first part of the book examines paleoimaging multimodalities, highlighting the advantages and disadvantages of each imaging technique in different scenarios. The authors explore photography, conventional radiography, endoscopy, and various forms of computer-based imaging. Next, they present methodological and procedural standards for the various imaging techniques. They also demonstrate how multimodal imaging can assist nondestructive data collection of non-biological cultural artefacts. A final section addresses radiation safety and field safety concerns. Case studies, tables, and templates of forms for documentation of findings enhance the text with practical information. Filled with over 380 images, this book is supplemented with an accompanying downloadable resource in which the authors draw from their global experience in the paleoimaging of cultural remains and artefacts, offering a view of the diverse environments in which field paleoimaging is conducted. The breadth of the authors' expertise and the rich images contained in the book and downloadable resources make this resource an essential reference for those who seek to explore the mysteries of the past.

The book presents the discoveries made by the Polish archaeological mission in Saqqara, the central part of the largest ancient Egyptian royal necropolis. The area adjacent to the Pyramid of King Djoser on the monument's west side, so far neglected by archaeologists, turned out to be an important burial place of the Egyptian nobility from two periods of Pharaonic history: the Old Kingdom (the late third millennium BC) and the Ptolemaic Period (the late first millennium BC). The earlier, lower cemetery yielded rock-hewn tombs with splendid wall decoration in relief and painting. The book also describes methods of conservation applied to the discovered artefacts and episodes from the mission's life.

Charred, badly decomposed, or mummified corpses, as well as those restrictions forced upon coroners by certain religious sects, often make autopsies impossible to perform. In addition, lack of manpower among the personnel charged with performing autopsies frequently creates a backlog of cases in the coroner's office. This delay increases the likelihood that causes of death will go undetermined and criminal perpetrators will go unpunished. The solution can be found in what has come to be known as the virtopsy (R), a minimally invasive and efficient way to perform an autopsy through state-of-the-art imaging-guided means. A term coined by noted forensic pathologist Richard Dirnhofer, virtopsy refers to "virtual autopsy," a modality that employs a spectrum of technologies including computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging and spectroscopy, and 3D photogrammetry and surface scanning. In The Virtopsy Approach: 3D Optical and Radiological Scanning and Reconstruction in Forensic Medicine, the authors reveal a comprehensive summary of the virtopsy procedure. Well-organized, detailed enough to serve as a how-to guide for newcomers to the field, and copiously illustrated with many color figures accompanied by appropriate explanatory captions, this volume breaks new ground in the world of autopsy science.

Collection of original research articles by European scholars assessing the state of environmental archaeology and its relationship to the field; along with discussions on how to present environmental issues in prehistory to the public.

In the hands of dissenting religious zealots faith and ritual can be powerful means in mobilizing people towards radical change. From the viewpoint of many historical rebel-zealots shattering existing political and social institutions was a pre-condition for the forthcoming regency of God. Repercussions were traumatic, often catastrophic. This book examines several intense religious movements from various historical backgrounds. Even though there were no known communications between the cultures and groups from which the movements arose, they show striking similarities in the ways they emerged, in the characters of their leaders and followers, as well as in their often tragic conclusion. The earliest of these cases, the First Jewish Revolt against Rome (66-73 CE) is discussed in particular detail. The importance of this case is in its historical and ideological affiliations to Jewish, Christian, and in a less direct way Muslim messianism. In addition, it offers a rich variety of archaeological materials that reflect the intense religious ideology which guided the rebels. Some classes of finds can be used in the investigation of religious intensification in other times, cultures and circumstances. Overall, this book joins archaeological and textual evidence to anthropological theory to present a previously untested model of mass action inspired by intense religion. New light is shed on dramatic developments that altered the history of the peoples involved, with meaningful insights on some pressing issues in our own modern realities.

A collection of papers focusing on the links between archaeology and the study of geological sediments and soils.

Why do we fight? Have we always been fighting one another? This book examines the origins and development of human forms of organized violence from an anthropological and archaeological perspective. Kim and Kissel argue that human warfare is qualitatively different from forms of lethal, intergroup violence seen elsewhere in the natural world, and that its emergence is intimately connected to how humans evolved and to the emergence of human nature itself.

Atlantis, ancient astronauts, and pyramid power. Archaeologists are perennially bombarded with questions about the "mysteries" of the past. They are also constantly addressing more realistic controversies: origins of the First Americans, the ownership of antiquities, and national claims to historical territories. Alice Beck Kehoe offers to introductory students a method of evaluating and assessing these claims about the past in this reader-friendly, concise text. She shows how to use the methods of science to challenge the legitimacy of pseudoscientific proclamations and develop reasonable interpretations on controversial issues. Not one to shy away from controversy herself, Kehoe takes some stands-on transpacific migration, shamanism, the Kensington Runestone-which will challenge instructor and students alike, and foster class discussion.

The Yearbooks of Cultural Property Law provide the key, up-to-date information and analyses that keep heritage professionals, lawyers, and land managers abreast of current legal practice, including summaries of notable court cases, settlements and other dispositions, legislation, government regulations, policies and agency decisions. Interviews with key figures, refereed research articles, think pieces, and a substantial resources section round out each volume. Thoughtful analyses and useful information from leading practitioners in the diverse field of cultural property law will assist government land managers, state, tribal and museum officials, attorneys, anthropologists, archaeologists, public historians, and others to better preserve, protect and manage cultural property in domestic and international venues. In addition to eight practice-area sections (federal land management; state and local; tribes, tribal lands, and Indian arts; marine environment; museums; art market; international; enforcement actions), the 2009 volume features an interview with an important figure in the field and original articles on new ICOMOS rules on dispute resolution, Section 47 of the Internal Revenue Code, risk and fair market value of antiquities, the visual artists rights act, and religious free exercise and historic preservation. All royalties are donated to the Lawyer's Committee on Cultural Heritage Preservation.

This book discusses the application of geological methods and theory to archaeology. Written as a survey text covering appropriate methods and techniques taken from geology, geophysics, geochemistry, and geochronology, it shows the student the practicality and importance of each technique's use in solving archaeological problems. Specific techniques are illustrated by practical results obtained from the authors' use on archaeological digs.
With an international geographical scope, the book draws on sites from both hemispheres, including the Franchthi Cave in Greece, St. Catherines Island in the U.S., the Roman site of Drand in France, and Monte Verde, Chile. The authors also address applications in less traditional areas such as underwater, historical, industrial, and conservation archaeology.

Magnetometry for Archaeologists covers the most widely used method for archaeological surveying. Authors Arnold Aspinall, Chris Gaffney, and Armin Schmidt recount the history of magnetometers from their inception through today's state-of-the-art detectors, explain the physics behind the different types of sensors, and describe the most fruitful ways in which the technology can be employed. They also consider the theoretical and practical uses of magnetometry from for many archaeological periods and regions. The reader learns exactly what magnetometry measures, and how knowledge gained from it influences the ways in which surveys are undertaken. The authors also discuss the potential for and the problems associated with the use, display, and interpretation of buried remains. View the book's Acknowledgments.

The Yearbooks of Cultural Property Law provide the key, up-to-date information and analyses that keep heritage professionals, lawyers, and land managers abreast of current legal practice, including summaries of notable court cases, settlements and other dispositions, legislation, government regulations, policies and agency decisions. Interviews with key figures, refereed research articles, think pieces, and a substantial resources section round out each volume. Thoughtful analyses and useful information from leading practitioners in the diverse field of cultural property law will assist government land managers, state, tribal and museum officials, attorneys, anthropologists, archaeologists, public historians, and others to better preserve, protect and manage cultural property in domestic and international venues. In addition to eight practice-area sections (federal land management; state and local; tribes, tribal lands, and Indian arts; marine environment; museums; art market; international; enforcement actions), the 2009 volume features an interview with an important figure in the field and original articles on new ICOMOS rules on dispute resolution, Section 47 of the Internal Revenue Code, risk and fair market value of antiquities, the visual artists rights act, and religious free exercise and historic preservation. All royalties are donated to the Lawyer's Committee on Cultural Heritage Preservation.

What is archaeology, and why should we do it? Tom King, arguably the best-known heritage management consultant in the United States, answers the basic question of every introductory student from the unique perspective of one who actively uses archaeology for cultural resource management. Designed as a supplement for introduction to archaeology classes, this brief and breezy book runs the reader through the major principles of archaeology, using examples from the author's own field work and that of others. King shows how contemporary archaeology, as part of the larger cultural resource management endeavor, acts to help preserve and protect prehistoric and historic sites in the United States and elsewhere. Brief biographies of other CRM archaeologists help students envision career paths they might emulate. The bookends with an exploration of some of the thorny problems facing the contemporary archaeologist to help foster class discussion. An ideal ice-breaker for introductory college classes in archaeology, one that will get students engaged in the subject and thinking about its challenges.

Geophysics is used in dealing with problems from academic to practical interest. Applications can include, an understanding of the structure of the Earth, resource exploration, environmental and construction concerns, as well as archaeology, palaeontology, law enforcement, and counter-terrorism. The nature of this science makes inaccessible to all but those with rigorous training in mathematics and physics. While there are a great many publications in geophysics at various levels, none has been directed towards those that have a professional need to know about the geophysical techniques or are simply curious. This book was written with that particular audience in mind. Although its fundamental focus is on archaeological applications, it is sufficiently broad to be useful as a reference to support other applications and is sufficiently self-contained to serve as an introductory text.

Researchers who study ancient human diets tend to focus on meat eating, since the practice of butchery is very apparent in the archaeological record. In this volume, Julie Lesnik brings a different food source into view, tracing evidence that humans and their hominin ancestors also consumed insects throughout the entire course of human evolution. Lesnik investigates the role of insects in the diets of hunter-gatherers and our nonhuman primate cousins in order to deduce what insect consumption looked like in the past. She approaches the question from the perspectives of primatology, sociocultural anthropology, reproductive physiology, and paleoanthropology. Lesnik posits that women would likely spend more time foraging for and eating insects than men, arguing that this pattern is important to note because women are too often ignored in reconstructions of ancient human behavior. Because of the abundance of insects and the low risk of acquiring them, insects were a reliable food source that mothers used to feed their families over the past five million years. Although they are consumed worldwide to this day, insects are not usually considered to be food in Western societies. Tying together ancient history with our modern lives, Lesnik points out that insects are a highly nutritious and very sustainable food. Lesnik believes that if we accept that edible insects are a part of the human legacy, we may have new conversations about what is good to eat-both in past diets and for the future of food.

Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and related spatial technologies have a new and powerful role to play in archaeological interpretation.
Beginning with a conceptual approach to the representation of space adopted by GIS; the book examines spatial databases; the acquisition and compilation of data; the analytical compilation of data; the analytical functionality of GIS and the creation and utilisation of critical foundation data layers such as the Digital Elevation Model (DEM)
The ways in which GIS can most usefully facilitate archaeological analysis and interpretation are then explored particularly as a tool for the management of archaeological resources. Formal analysis of archaeological material, and the use of trend surface, contouring and interpolation procedures are considered. Predictive modelling analysis of visibility and intervisibility are explained. Finally there is a discussion of leading-edge issues, including three-dimensional GIS, object-oriented GIS, the relationship between GIS and 'Virtual Reality' technologies, and the integration of GIS with distributed systems and the Internet.
The approach is light, and technical detail is kept to a minimum, recognising that most readers are simply interested in using GIS effectively. The text is carefully illustrated with worked case-studies using archaeological data. The book provides a single reference source for archaeologists- students, professionals and academics in archaeology as well as those in anthropology and related disciplines.

This is an Element about some of the largest sites known in prehistoric Europe - sites so vast that they often remain undiscussed for lack of the theoretical or methodological tools required for their understanding. Here, the authors use a relational, comparative approach to identify not only what made megasites but also what made megasites so special and so large. They have selected a sample of megasites in each major period of prehistory - Neolithic, Copper, Bronze and Iron Ages - with a detailed examination of a single representative megasite for each period. The relational approach makes explicit comparisons between smaller, more 'normal' sites and the megasites using six criteria - scale, temporality, deposition / monumentality, formal open spaces, performance and congregational catchment. The authors argue that many of the largest European prehistoric megasites were congregational places.

Industrial Archaeology uses the techniques of mainstream archaeological excavation, analysis and interpretation to present an enlightening picture of industrial society.
Technology and heritage have, until recently, been the focal points of study in industrialization. Industrial Archaeology sets out a coherent methodology for the discipline which expands on and extends beyond the purely functional analysis of industrial landscapes, structures and artefacts to a broader consideration of their cultural meaning and value. The authors examine, for example, the social context of industrialization, including the effect of new means of production on working patterns, diet and health.


eBook available with sample pages: 0203022998

Interest in the Turin Shroud continues to the present day even though it was finally carbon dated in 1988 and shown not to be of an age consistent with Christ's burial. Scientifically, the age of the shroud cloth is of little consequence, but to the general public, it is of considerable significance.
The author Harry E. Gove is a co-inventor of accelerator mass spectrometry and was responsible for its use in establishing whether the Turin Shroud could have been Christ's burial cloth. Relic, Icon or Hoax?: Carbon Dating the Turin Shroud presents an eyewitness account of the events that culminated in the final determination of the age of the linen cloth of the Turin Shroud and some of the subsequent reactions to the results. The book discusses the application of accelerator mass spectrometry to the carbon dating of the Turin Shroud using samples only a few square centimeters in area and weighing only a few tens of milligrams.

Humans are the only mammals to walk on two, rather than four, legs. From an evolutionary perspective, this is an illogical development, as it slows us down. But here we are, suggesting there must have been something tremendous to gain from bipedalism. First Steps takes our ordinary, everyday walking experience and reveals how unusual and extraordinary it truly is. The seven-million-year-long journey through the origins of upright walking shows how it was in fact a gateway to many of the other attributes that make us human-from our technological skills and sociality to our thirst for exploration. DeSilva uses early human evolution to explain the instinct that propels a crawling infant to toddle onto two feet, differences between how men and women tend to walk, physical costs of upright walking, including hernias, varicose veins and backache, and the challenges of childbirth imposed by a bipedal pelvis. And he theorises that upright walking may have laid the foundation for the traits of compassion, empathy and altruism that characterise our species today and helped us become the dominant species on this planet.

Contents:
A view from across the water: the North American experience in archaeological GIS; GIS and archeological resource management - a European agenda; To be or not to be: will an object-space-time GIS/AIS become a reality or end up an archaeological entity?; Beyond GIS; Perceiving time and space in an isostatically rising region; Cumulative Viewshed Analysis: a GIS-based method for investigating intervisibility, and its archaeological application; The impact of GIS in archaeology: a personal perspective; Another way to deal with maps in archaeological GIS.

The Agricultural Revolution - including the domestication of plants and animals in the Near East - that occurred 10,500 years ago ended millions of years of human existence in small, mobile, egalitarian communities of hunters-gatherers. This Neolithic transformation led to the formation of sedentary communities that produced crops such as wheat, barley, peas, lentils, chickpeas and flax and domesticated range of livestock, including goats, sheep, cattle and pigs. All of these plants and animals still play a major role in the contemporary global economy and nutrition. This agricultural revolution also stimulated the later development of the first urban centres. This volume examines the origins and development of plant domestication in the Ancient Near East, along with various aspects of the new Man-Nature relationship that characterizes food-producing societies. It demonstrates how the rapid, geographically localized, knowledge-based domestication of plants was a human initiative that eventually gave rise to Western civilizations and the modern human condition.

This book outlines for the first time in a single volume the theoretical and methodological tools for a study of human remains resulting from episodes of mass violence and genocide. Despite the highly innovative and contemporary research into both mass violence and the body, the most significant consequence of conflict - the corpse - remains absent from the scope of existing research. Why have human remains hitherto remained absent from our investigation, and how do historians, anthropologists and legal scholars, including specialists in criminology and political science, confront these difficult issues? By drawing on international case studies including genocides in Rwanda, the Khmer Rouge, Argentina, Russia and the context of post-World War II Europe, this ground-breaking edited collection opens new avenues of research. Multidisciplinary in scope, this volume will appeal to readers interested in an understanding of mass violence's aftermath, including researchers in history, anthropology, sociology, law, politics and modern warfare. The research program leading to this publication has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP/2007-2013) / ERC Grant Agreement n Degrees 283-617. -- .

In this book, Lee A. Newsom offers an overview of wood in archaeology --how and where it is preserved and analyzed, its relevance to paleoecological and paleoenvironmental questions, as well as its role as an important source of information in modern archaeological science and related historical disciplines. Her book addresses a range of questions about wood reliance practices, sustainability, and the overall relevance of forest ecosystems to past cultures and cultural evolution. Newsom provides a step-by-step treatment of archaeological analysis with clear explanations and examples from various corners of the world. She also shows how the study of archaeological wood is relevant to modern restoration ecology and conservation biology that tracks long-term ancient ecosystems, including questions of global change. Demonstrating the vital role of wood and timber resources to past human societies, her book will interest scholars and students of archaeology, historical ecology, paleoecology, and wood science.