Principles of Archaeological Stratigraphy PDF Download

Author: Edward C. Harris
Publisher: Elsevier
ISBN: 1483295850
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 185

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Book Description
This book is the only text devoted entirely to archaeological stratigraphy, a subject of fundamental importance to most studies in archaeology. The first edition appeared in 1979 as a result of the invention, by the author, of the Harris Matrix--a method for analyzing and presenting the stratigraphic sequences of archaeological sites. The method is now widely used in archaeology all over the world. The opening chapters of this edition discuss the historical development of the ideas of archaeological stratigraphy. The central chapters examine the laws and basic concepts of the subject, and the last few chapters look at methods of recording stratification, constructing stratigraphic sequences, and the analysis of stratification and artifacts. The final chapter, which is followed by a glossary of stratigraphic terms, gives an outline of a modern system for recording stratification on archaeological sites. This book is written in a simple style suitable for the student or amateur. The radical ideas set out should also give the professional archaeologist food for thought. - Covers a basic principle of all archaeological excavations - Provides a data description and analysis tool for all such digs, which is now widely accepted and used - Gives extra information

Author: Nautical Archaeology Society (NAS)
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1444358316
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 370

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Book Description
Underwater Archaeology: The NAS Guide to Principles and Practice provides a comprehensive summary of the archaeological process as applied in an underwater context. Long awaited second edition of what is popularly referred to as the NAS Handbook Provides a practical guide to underwater archaeology: how to get involved, basic principles, essential techniques, project planning and execution, publishing and presenting Fully illustrated with over 100 drawings and new colour graphics New chapters on geophysics, historical research, photography and video, monitoring and maintenance and conservation

Author: J.R.L. Allen
Publisher: Archaeopress Publishing Ltd
ISBN: 1784916889
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 148

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Book Description
This short introduction aims to provide archaeologists of all backgrounds with a grounding in the principles, materials, and methods of geology. Each chapter ends with a short reading list, and many have selected case-histories in illustration of the points made. Included is a glossary of technical terms.

Author: Panagiotis Karkanas
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1119016436
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 299

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Book Description
A guide to the systematic understanding of the geoarchaeological matrix Reconstructing Archaeological Sites offers an important text that puts the focus on basic theoretical and practical aspects of depositional processes in an archaeological site. It contains an in-depth discussion on the role of stratigraphy that helps determine how deposits are organised in time and space. The authors — two experts in the field — include the information needed to help recognise depositional systems, processes and stratigraphic units that aid in the interpreting the stratigraphy and deposits of a site in the field. The book is filled with practical tools, numerous illustrative examples, drawings and photos as well as compelling descriptions that help visualise depositional processes and clarify how these build the stratigraphy of a site. Based on the authors’ years of experience, the book offers a holistic approach to the study of archaeological deposits that spans the broad fundamental aspects to the smallest details. This important guide: Offers information and principles for interpreting natural and anthropogenic sediments and physical processes in sites Provides a framework for reconstructing the history of a deposit and the site Outlines the fundamental principles of site formation processes Explores common misconceptions about what constitutes a deposit Presents a different approach for investigating archaeological stratigraphy based on sedimentary principles Written for archaeologists and geoarchaeologists at all levels of expertise as well as senior level researchers, Reconstructing Archaeological Sites offers a guide to the theory and practice of how stratigraphy is produced and how deposits can be organised in time and space.

Author: Michael J. O'Brien
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 030647168X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 262

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Book Description
It is difficult for today's students of archaeology to imagine an era when chronometric dating methods were unavailable. However, even a casual perusal of the large body of literature that arose during the first half of the twentieth century reveals a battery of clever methods used to determine the relative ages of archaeological phenomena, often with considerable precision. Stratigraphic excavation is perhaps the best known of the various relative-dating methods used by prehistorians. Although there are several techniques of using artifacts from superposed strata to measure time, these are rarely if ever differentiated. Rather, common practice is to categorize them under the heading `stratigraphic excavation'. This text distinguishes among the several techniques and argues that stratigraphic excavation tends to result in discontinuous measures of time - a point little appreciated by modern archaeologists. Although not as well known as stratigraphic excavation, two other methods of relative dating have figured important in Americanist archaeology: seriation and the use of index fossils. The latter (like stratigraphic excavation) measures time discontinuously, while the former - in various guises - measures time continuously. Perhaps no other method used in archaeology is as misunderstood as seriation, and the authors provide detailed descriptions and examples of each of its three different techniques. Each method and technique of relative dating is placed in historical perspective, with particular focus on developments in North America, an approach that allows a more complete understanding of the methods described, both in terms of analytical technique and disciplinary history. This text will appeal to all archaeologists, from graduate students to seasoned professionals, who want to learn more about the backbone of archaeological dating.

Author: Paul Goldberg
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1118688198
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 1

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Book Description
Practical and Theoretical Geoarchaeology provides an invaluable overview of geoarchaeology and how it can be used effectively in the study of archaeological sites and contexts. Taking a pragmatic and functional approach, this book presents: a fundamental, broad-based perspective of the essentials of modern geoarchaeology in order to demonstrate the breadth of the approaches and the depth of the problems that it can tackle. the rapid advances made in the area in recent years, but also gives the reader a firm grasp of conventional approaches. covers traditional topics with the emphasis on landscapes, as well as anthropogenic site formation processes and their investigation. provides guidelines for the presentation of field and laboratory methods and the reporting of geoarchaeological results. essential reading for archaeology undergraduate and graduate students, practicing archaeologists and geoscientists who need to understand and apply geoarchaeological methodologies. Artwork from the book is available to instructors online at: www.blackwellpublishing.com/goldberg “This is one of the best textbooks that I have read in years. I enjoyed reviewing it, and found it well-written and thorough in its coverage of the traditional earth science aspects of geoarchaeology. The non-traditional aspects were intriguing and equally thorough... I predict that this book will become the textbook of choice for geoarchaeology classes for several years.” Geomorphology 101 (2008) 740–743

Author: Edward C. Harris
Publisher: Elsevier
ISBN: 1483295826
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
Practices of Archaeological Stratigraphy brings together a number of examples which illustrate the development and use of the Harris Matrix in describing and interpreting archaeological sites. This matrix, the theory of which is described in two editions of the previous book by Harris, Principles of Archaeological Stratigaphy, made possible for the first time a simple diagramatic representation of the strategraphic sequence of a site, no matter how complex. The Harris Matrix, by showing in one diagram all three linear dimensions, plus time, represents a quantum leap over the older methods which relied on sample sections only.In this book 17 essays present a sample of new work demonstrating the strengths and uses of the Harris Matrix, the first ever published collection of papers devoted solely to stratigraphy in archaeology. The crucial relationships between the Harris methods, open-area excavation techniques, the interpretation of interfaces, and the use of single-context plans and recording sheets, is clarified by reference to specific sites. These sites range from medieval Europe, through Mayan civilizations to Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia. This book will be of great value to all those involved in excavating and recording archaeological sites and should help to ensure that the maximum amount of stratigraphic information can be gathered from future investigations.* Presents case studies which illuminate the Harris matrix method, invented by Edward C. Harris* Senior editor is the inventor of this method and principle in the field* Serves as a companion volume to Harris's Principles of Archaeological Stratigraphy

Author: Allan S. Gilbert
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 9789400748279
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Geoarchaeology is the archaeological subfield that focuses on archaeological information retrieval and problem solving utilizing the methods of geological investigation. Archaeological recovery and analysis are already geoarchaeological in the most fundamental sense because buried remains are contained within and removed from an essentially geological context. Yet geoarchaeological research goes beyond this simple relationship and attempts to build collaborative links between specialists in archaeology and the earth sciences to produce new knowledge about past human behavior using the technical information and methods of the geosciences. The principal goals of geoarchaeology lie in understanding the relationships between humans and their environment. These goals include (1) how cultures adjust to their ecosystem through time, (2) what earth science factors were related to the evolutionary emergence of humankind, and (3) which methodological tools involving analysis of sediments and landforms, documentation and explanation of change in buried materials, and measurement of time will allow access to new aspects of the past. This encyclopedia defines terms, introduces problems, describes techniques, and discusses theory and strategy, all in a format designed to make specialized details accessible to the public as well as practitioners. It covers subjects in environmental archaeology, dating, materials analysis, and paleoecology, all of which represent different sources of specialist knowledge that must be shared in order to reconstruct, analyze, and explain the record of the human past. It will not specifically cover sites, civilizations, and ancient cultures, etc., that are better described in other encyclopedias of world archaeology. The Editor Allan S. Gilbert is Professor of Anthropology at Fordham University in the Bronx, New York. He holds a B.A. from Rutgers University, and his M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. were earned at Columbia University. His areas of research interest include the Near East (late prehistory and early historic periods) as well as the Middle Atlantic region of the U.S. (historical archaeology). His specializations are in archaeozoology of the Near East and geoarchaeology, especially mineralogy and compositional analysis of pottery and building materials. Publications have covered a range of subjects, including ancient pastoralism, faunal quantification, skeletal microanatomy, brick geochemistry, and two co-edited volumes on the marine geology and geoarchaeology of the Black Sea basin.

Author: Paul Goldberg
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1461511836
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 519

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Book Description
This volume brings together contributions from an experienced group of archaeologists and geologists whose common objective is to present thorough and current reviews of the diverse ways in which methods from the earth sciences can contribute to archaeological research. Many areas of research are addressed here, including artifact analysis and sourcing, landscape reconstruction and site formation analysis, soil micromorphology and geophysical exploration of buried sites.

Author: Corrado Pedelì
Publisher: Getty Publications
ISBN: 1606061585
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 170

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Book Description
The relationship between archaeology and conservation has long been complex and, at times, challenging. Archaeologists are often seen as interested principally in excavation and research, while conservators are concerned mainly with stabilization and the prevention of deterioration. Yet it is often initial conservation in the field that determines the long-term survival and intelligibility of both moveable artifacts and fixed architectural features. This user-friendly guide to conservation practices on archaeological excavations covers both structures and artifacts, starting from the moment when they are uncovered. Individual chapters discuss excavation and conservation, environmental and soil issues, deterioration, identification and condition assessment, detachment and removal, initial cleaning, coverings and shelters, packing, and documentation. There are also eight appendixes. Geared primarily for professionals engaged in the physical practice of excavation, this book will also interest archaeologists, archaeological conservators, site managers, conservation scientists, museum curators, and students of archaeology and conservation.