Geoarchaeology in Action provides much-needed 'hands on' methodologies to assist anyone conducting or studying geoarchaeological investigations on sites and in landscapes, irrespective of date, place and environment.The book sets out the essential features of geoarchaeological practice and geomorphological processes, and is deliberately aimed at the archaeologist as practitioner in the field. It explains the basics - what can be expected, what approaches may be taken, and what outcomes might be forthcoming, and asks what we can reasonably expect a micromorphological approach to archaeological contexts, data and problems to tell us.The twelve case studies are taken from Britain, Europe and the Near East. They illustrate how past landscape change can be discovered and deciphered whether you are primarily a digger, environmentalist or soil micromorphologist.Based on the author's extensive experience of investigating buried and eroded landscapes, the book develops new ways of looking at conventional models of landscape change. With an extensive glossary, bibliography and more than 100 illustrations it will be an essential text and reference tool for students, academics and professionals.
Author(s): Charles French
Edition: 1
Year: 2003
Language: English
Pages: 320
Book Cover......Page 1
Title......Page 4
Copyright......Page 5
Contents......Page 8
1 Issues and aims in geoarchaeology......Page 26
2 Processes of archaeological preservation......Page 33
3 Geomorphological processes......Page 43
4 Soils, sediments and buried soils......Page 58
5 Lowland and upland landscape systems......Page 82
6 The lower Welland valley, Cambridgeshire, England......Page 106
7 The Fengate shore, lower Nene valley and the Flag Fen basin, Cambridgeshire, England......Page 120
8 The lower Great Ouse valley, Cambridgeshire, England......Page 136
9 The development of the Cambridgeshire fenlands of eastern England......Page 156
10 The dyke survey in the northwestern Cambridgeshire fenlands......Page 166
11 Monitoring desiccation, erosion and preservation of sites and landscapes in the East Anglian wetlands and elsewhere......Page 182
12 Wyke Down and the upper Allen valley, Cranborne Chase, Dorset, England......Page 195
13 The lower Aguas basin, southeastern Spain......Page 221
14 The Troina river valley, north-central Sicily......Page 233
15 The Dhamar region, Central Highlands, Yemen......Page 247
16 The environs of Tell Brak, northeastern Syria......Page 258
17 The steppe at Botai, northeastern Kazakhstan......Page 263
Conclusions......Page 271
Glossary......Page 275
Bibliography......Page 280
Index......Page 304
