Archaeology is a vast subject - it is the study of human society everywhere in the world, from distant human origins 3-4 million years ago up to the present day. The Oxford Handbook of Archaeology brings together 35 authors - all specialists in their own fields - to explain what archaeology is really about. This is one of the most comprehensive treatments of the subject and of the key debates ever attempted. It is designed to open up the world of archaeology to non-specialists and to provide an essential starting point for those who want to pursue particular topics in more depth.

Now including numerous full colour figures, this updated and revised edition of Larsen's classic text provides a comprehensive overview of the fundamentals of bioarchaeology. Reflecting the enormous advances made in the field over the past twenty years, the author examines how this discipline has matured and evolved in fundamental ways. Jargon free and richly illustrated, the text is accompanied by copious case studies and references to underscore the central role that human remains play in the interpretation of life events and conditions of past and modern cultures. From the origins and spread of infectious disease to the consequences of decisions made by humans with regard to the kinds of foods produced, and their nutritional, health and behavioral outcomes. With local, regional, and global perspectives, this up-to-date text provides a solid foundation for all those working in the field.

In The Archaeology of Lydia: From Gyges to Alexander, Christopher Roosevelt provides the first overview of the regional archaeology of Lydia in western Turkey, including much previously unpublished evidence as well as a fresh synthesis of the archaeology of Sardis, the ancient capital of the region. Combining data from regional surveys, stylistic analyses of artifacts in local museums, ancient texts, and environmental studies, he presents a new perspective on the archaeology of this area. To assess the importance of Lydian landscapes under Lydian and Achaemenid rule, roughly between the seventh and fourth centuries BCE, Roosevelt situates the archaeological evidence within frameworks established by evidence for ancient geography, environmental conditions, and resource availability and exploitation. Drawing on detailed and copiously illustrated evidence presented in a regionally organized catalogue, the book considers the significance of evidence of settlement and burial at Sardis and beyond for understanding Lydian society as a whole and the continuity of cultural traditions across the transition from Lydian to Achaemenid hegemony.

Originally published in 1943, this book presents a study regarding the nature of prehistoric archaeology. The text discusses the common division of prehistoric human development into the Stone Age, the Bronze Age and the Iron Age, drawing attention to the value of this system and its potential limitations. Detailed textual notes are included throughout. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in archaeology and prehistoric man.

This book describes the detailed processes and techniques essential for the scientific investigation of atrocity crimes. It includes methods for the location, evaluation, excavation, recovery, and recording of mass graves and the analysis of human remains and other evidence in order to establish the identity of victims and the cause and manner of their deaths. This volume establishes protocols and standard operating procedures to guide standards and approaches that can be used for both judicial and humanitarian contexts. The procedures for field and mortuary application are flexible and can meet specific project aims, constraints, and contexts. The phases of activity and detailed methodological approaches set out in this book describe components of a complex scientific process. Chapters examine the evaluation of possible sites, scene of crime management, health and safety, key roles, excavation of graves, forensic sciences, mortuary management, analysis of human remains, and ante-mortem data collection.

The Poole Iron Age logboat, one of the largest surviving prehistoric watercraft in Britain, is today imposingly displayed in the entrance to Poole Museum in Dorset. However, the vessel faced a difficult journey from its first discovery to the amazing artefact we can now see. Recovered from Poole Harbour in 1964, it is impossible to overestimate the international significance of this vessel. But until now it had never been fully recorded and apart from its impressive size, very little was known about it. Its dimensions made it inherently unstable and suggest it was designed for use solely in Poole Harbour. This book is the culmination of significant multi-disciplinary work carried out by a variety of specialists, from conservators to woodworking and boatbuilding experts, exploring not only the craft’s history but also its functionality – or lack of – as a vessel. Digital recording, using the latest technology, has made it possible to test its capabilities. For the first time, prehistorians, nautical archaeologists and lay people alike can understand the story of one of Britain’s oldest boats – the archaeological and historical background, the environmental context, the timber and ship science, and the challenges of conserving such an important vessel.

Friedrich Rathgen (1862-1942) was a German chemist who made a profound contribution to the development of conservation science. First published in 1905, this book contains an English translation of Rathgen's 1898 work Die Konservierung von Altertumsfunden, the first comprehensive text on the subject of archaeological conservation. The book is divided into two parts: part one is concerned with the changes undergone by antiquities in earth and air; part two discusses the treatment of antiquities, with examples of various methods used for conservation. Numerous illustrative figures and a bibliography are also provided. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in conservation science and archaeology.

The Oxford Handbook of Wetland Archaeology is the most comprehensive survey of global wetland archaeology ever published. Well known for the spectacular quality of its surviving evidence, from both an archaeological and environmental perspective, wetland archaeology enables scholars to investigate and reconstruct past people's dwellings, landscapes, material culture, and daily lives in great detail. Through concise essays written by some of the world's leading scholars in the field, this Handbook describes the key principles, methodologies, and revealing results of past and present archaeological investigations of wetland environments. The volume provides unique insights into past human interactions with lakes, bogs, rivers, and coastal marshlands across the world from prehistory to modern times. Opening with a detailed introduction by the editors, the Handbook is divided into seven parts and contains 54 essays and over 230 photographs, figures, maps, and graphs.

The life history of stone tools is intimately linked to tool production, use and maintenance. These are important processes in the organization of lithic technology, or the manner in which lithic technology is embedded within human organizational strategies of land use and subsistence practices. This volume brings together essays that measure the life history of stone tools relative to retouch values, raw material constraints and evolutionary processes. Collectively, they explore the association of technological organization with facets of tool form such as reduction sequences, tool production effort, artifact curation processes and retouch measurement. Data sets cover a broad geographic and temporal span, including examples from France during the Paleolithic, the Near East during the Neolithic, and other regions such as Mongolia, Australia, and Italy. North American examples are derived from Paleoindian times to historic period aboriginal populations throughout the United States and Canada.

This volume analyses previous attempts to delineate ethnic groupings with the help of archaeological finds. After a short review of the history of these interpretations, central concepts are examined (people, culture, race, language) and ethnological and sociological concepts of identity are adduced. Against this background, Brather undertakes a comparative description of the methodological problems of ethnic reconstructions for the period between the Iron Age and the Middle Ages, and contrasts them with interpretations from cultural, economic and social history as alternative approaches to an explanation which is closer to the sources. This structural historical analysis places the explanatory power of archaeological sources on a footing with those of literary texts.

This book offers an overview of iconographic methods and their application to archaeological analysis. It offers a truly interdisciplinary approach that draws equally from art history and anthropology. Vernon James Knight, Jr begins with an historiographical overview, addressing the methodologies and theories that underpin both archaeology and art history. He then demonstrates how iconographic methods can be integrated with the scientific methods that are at the core of much archaeological inquiry. Focusing on artifacts from the pre-Columbian civilizations of North and Meso-American sites, Knight shows how the use of iconographic analysis yields new insights into these objects and civilizations.

The Danubian provinces represent one of the largest macro-units within the Roman Empire, with a large and rich heritage of Roman material evidence. Although the notion itself is a modern 18th-century creation, this region represents a unique area, where the dominant, pre-Roman cultures (Celtic, Illyrian, Hellenistic, Thracian) are interconnected within the new administrative, economic and cultural units of Roman cities, provinces and extra-provincial networks. This book presents the material evidence of Roman religion in the Danubian provinces through a new, paradigmatic methodology, focusing not only on the traditional urban and provincial units of the Roman Empire, but on a new space taxonomy. Roman religion and its sacralised places are presented in macro-, meso- and micro-spaces of a dynamic empire, which shaped Roman religion in the 1st-3rd centuries AD and created a large number of religious glocalizations and appropriations in Raetia, Noricum, Pannonia Superior, Pannonia Inferior, Moesia Superior, Moesia Inferior and Dacia. Combining the methodological approaches of Roman provincial archaeology and religious studies, this work intends to provoke a dialogue between disciplines rarely used together in central-east Europe and beyond. The material evidence of Roman religion is interpreted here as a dynamic agent in religious communication, shaped by macro-spaces, extra-provincial routes, commercial networks, but also by the formation and constant dynamics of small group religions interconnected within this region through human and material mobilities. The book also presents for the first time a comprehensive list of sacralised spaces and divinities in the Danubian provinces.

Many archaeologists, as primarily social scientists, do not have a background in the natural sciences. This can pose a problem because they need to obtain chemical and physical analyses on samples to perform their research. This manual is an essential source of information for those students without a background in science, but also a comprehensive overview that those with some understanding of archaeological science will find useful. The manual provides readers with the knowledge to use archaeological science methods to the best advantage. It describes and explains the analytical techniques in a manner that the average archaeologist can understand, and outlines clearly the requirements, benefits, and limitations of each possible method of analysis, so that the researcher can make informed choices. The work includes specific information about a variety of dating techniques, provenance studies, isotope analysis as well as the analysis of organic (lipid and protein) residues and ancient DNA. Case studies illustrating applications of these approaches to most types of archaeological materials are presented and the instruments used to perform the analyses are described. Available destructive and non-destructive approaches are presented to help archaeologists select the most effective technique for gaining the target information from the sample. Readers will reach for this manual whenever they need to decide how to best analyze a sample, and how the analysis is performed.

Despite being one of the most successful branches of mainstream archaeology, wetland archaeology, as an academic discipline, is still relatively unknown. We might have all heard of the wonderfully preserved organic artefacts and ecofacts found in waterlogged conditions, but do we really know how they were preserved, found, retrieved, and conserved for us to admire and study? Wetland Archaeology and Beyond takes the reader through the fascinating biography of wetland archaeology, from the dawn of the discipline to its remarkable achievements. Through a discussion of a large variety of worldwide wetland archaeological sites and their material culture, Menotti offers an appreciative study of the people who occupied these sites and who created the archaeological artefacts. The volume also includes a comprehensive explanation of the procedures and research processes involved in archaeological practice and theory. Focusing on the relationship between archaeological experts and the general public, Menotti highlights the importance of this relationship for the future of the discipline as wetland ecosystems continue to disappear at an inexorable rate - and with them our invaluable cultural heritage.

This revised edition provides an up-to-date account of the many different kinds of information that can be obtained through the archaeological study of pottery. It describes the scientific and quantitative techniques that are now available to the archaeologist, and assesses their value for answering a range of archaeological questions. It provides a manual for the basic handling and archiving of excavated pottery so that it can be used as a basis for further studies. The whole is set in the historical context of the ways in which archaeologists have sought to gain evidence from pottery and continue to do so. There are case studies of several approaches and techniques, backed up by an extensive bibliography.

The vertebrate fossil record extends back more than 500 million years, and bonebeds--localized concentrations of the skeletal remains of vertebrate animals--help unlock the secrets of this long history. Often spectacularly preserved, bonebeds--both modern and ancient--can reveal more about life histories, ecological associations, and preservation patterns than any single skeleton or bone. For this reason, bonebeds are frequently studied by paleobiologists, geologists, and archeologists seeking to piece together the vertebrate record.
Thirteen respected researchers combine their experiences in "Bonebeds," providing readers with workable definitions, theoretical frameworks, and a compendium of modern techniques in bonebed data collection and analysis. By addressing the historical, theoretical, and practical aspects of bonebed research, this edited volume--the first of its kind--provides the background and methods that students and professionals need to explore and understand these fantastic records of ancient life and death.

The aim of the conference was to discuss the contribution of physics and other sciences in archaeological research and in the preservation of cultural heritage. Considering that the mission of ECSAC is to promote the interaction among the diverse cultures of the peoples from the lands on the Adriatic and Ionian seas, it is apt that the major themes were related to the rich history and pre-history of this region - from Greek-Roman archaeology on the eastern Adriatic coasts to the palaeoanthropology of the Neanderthals of the Vindija caves in Croatia, from the Roman city of Aquileia to the pleistocenic cave of Homo heidelbergensis in the Karst of Visogliano (Trieste), from the Roman ship Julia Felix of the Grado lagoon to the ancient bronze Apoxyomenos of the Veli Losinj waters.A variety of scientific disciplines provide tools and methods that are crucial in reconstructing humanity's past and in preserving material remains that witness the evolution of human culture. Geology reconstructs the history of terrestrial environments, critical for the evolution and dispersal of humans. Chemistry explains reactions that modify materials left by human activities, including the destructive effects of pollution. Biology has a critical role in archaeology, particularly with the recent advance in analysis of DNA in ancient organic materials.

Archaeology, like all scientific disciplines, is accumulating an ever-increasing volume of data which the researcher must be able to retrieve and use in formulating and testing theories of interpretation. There are many practical questions of how information can best be recorded, stored and disseminated, but behind these lie fundamental intellectual questions. It is to the latter that Jean-Claude Gardin addresses this book. The advent of data banks, computers, micro-publishing, etc. will not in itself improve the access of the researcher to information of real value unless some consensus can be reached on the way the information is selected and presented and the reasoning processes that these different modes of presentation embody. Jean-Claude Gardin sees this as a long-term goal, the book as one step on the way to its achievement.

Birds is the first book to examine bird remains in archaeology and anthropology. Providing a thorough review of the literature on this topic, it also serves as a guide to the methods of study of bird remains from the past and covers a wide range of topics, including anatomy and osteology, taphonomy, eggs, feathers, and, bone tools. It examines the myriad ways in which people have interacted with birds in the past. The volume also includes discussion on the consumption of wild birds, the domestication of birds, cockfighting and falconry, birds in ritual and religion, and the role of birds in ecological reconstruction, providing an up-to-date survey of current knowledge on these topics. Birds will be an invaluable resource for undergraduate and graduate students interested in zooarchaeology and human-animal relations, as well as professional zooarchaeologists, archaeologists, and anthropologists interested in birds and people of the past.

The archaeological record consists of 'dead' finds, remnants of human culture. The archaeologist relies on them to understand how past societies were organised and how they functioned. This book, by the distinguished Czech scholar Evzen Meustupny, considers the archaeological method, the way in which archaeologists translate mute objects into descriptions of a living past. The method involves a series of steps; an analysis of the archaeological record; a synthesis of the finds to generate formal archaeological structure; and the use of models derived from descriptions of observed human activity to explain these structures. Without models, archaeologists would have no way of interpreting their finds. The author also considers the relevance of archaeology of such concepts as induction and deduction, empirical research and theory.

When political geography changes, how do reorganized or newly formed states justify their rule and create a sense of shared history for their people? Often, the essays in "Selective Remembrances "reveal, they turn to archaeology, employing the field and its findings to develop nationalistic feelings and forge legitimate distinctive national identities.
Examining such relatively new or reconfigured nation-states as Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Israel, Russia, Ukraine, India, and Thailand, "Selective Remembrances" shows how states invoke the remote past to extol the glories of specific peoples or prove claims to ancestral homelands. Religion has long played a key role in such efforts, and the contributors take care to demonstrate the tendency of many people, including archaeologists themselves, to view the world through a religious lens--which can be exploited by new regimes to suppress objective study of the past and justify contemporary political actions.
The wide geographic and intellectual range of the essays in "Selective Remembrances" will make it a seminal text for archaeologists and historians.

Birds is the first book to examine bird remains in archaeology and anthropology. Providing a thorough review of the literature on this topic, it also serves as a guide to the methods of study of bird remains from the past and covers a wide range of topics, including anatomy and osteology, taphonomy, eggs, feathers, and, bone tools. It examines the myriad ways in which people have interacted with birds in the past. The volume also includes discussion on the consumption of wild birds, the domestication of birds, cockfighting and falconry, birds in ritual and religion, and the role of birds in ecological reconstruction, providing an up-to-date survey of current knowledge on these topics. Birds will be an invaluable resource for undergraduate and graduate students interested in zooarchaeology and human-animal relations, as well as professional zooarchaeologists, archaeologists, and anthropologists interested in birds and people of the past.

First published in 1990, Archaeological Prospecting and Remote Sensing surveys some of the highly ingenious non-destructive methods for detecting and mapping remains of ancient cultures that have vanished from the modern surface. Techniques include low-level air photography, magnetic, thermal, electric, and electromagnetic geophysical prospecting. A mathematical analysis of the phenomena and measurements is given together with the techniques for interpretation of results using computerized image processing. Archaeological prospecting used with image processing has emerged as a universal tool. The aim is to build a visual geographic system available for use by conservationists, historians and scientists alike. The team of authors comprises an archaeologist, two geophysicists and an applied mathematician who have collaborated to produce a book of immense value in this innovative field of study.

The development of European archaeology as a scholarly discipline in the nineteenth century was closely connected with the appearance of systematic methods for dating archaeological materials and these methods evolved largely in Scandinavia. Professor Graslund's book is the first in-depth study of what is now recognised as a crucial stage in the history of archaeology. Beginning with an analysis of the basic elements of archaeological dating systems, he traces the origin and subsequent development of these systems, examining in detail how they were built up and refined. The Three Age System, methods of dating by find associations and the applications of typology for relative dating are themes that receive particular attention. Individuals, however, are never lost from sight. Throughout the book the author seeks to assess the contribution of the often colourful personalities involved and the volume concludes with a valuable biographical appendix.

The contributions in this volume reflect the breadth of work being undertaken on the ancient relationship between humans and cattle across the continents of Europe, Africa and Asia, and from the late Pleistocene to postmedieval period. Almost all involve the study of archaeological cattle remains. They use different zooarchaeological methods, but the combinations of these varied approaches with that of ethnography, isotopes and genetics is a major feature. Cattle and Humans originated in a session that took place at the 2018 International Council of Archaeozoology conference in Ankara, Turkey, entitled "Humans and Cattle: Interdisciplinary Perspectives to an Ancient Relationship." The aim of the session was to bring together zooarchaeologists and their colleagues from various other research fields working on human/cattle interactions over time.