Archaeology Essentials: Theories, Methods and Practice

Cover (Archaeology Essentials)
Front Matter
	Half Title
	Title Page
	Copyright
	Contents
	Preface
	Introduction: The Nature and Aims of Archaeology
1 - The Searchers: The History of Archaeology
	The Speculative Phase
	The Beginnings of Modern Archaeology
	Classification and Consolidation
	A Turning Point in Archaeology
2 - What Is Left?: The Variety of the Evidence
	Basic Categories of Archaeological Evidence
	Formation Processes
	Cultural Formation Processes – How People Have Affected What Survives in the Archaeological Record
	Natural Formation Processes – How Nature Affects What Survives in the Archaeological Record
3 - Where?: Survey and Excavation of Sites and Features
	Locating Archaeological Sites and Features
	Assessing the Layout of Sites and Features
	Excavation
4 - When?: Dating Methods and Chronology
	Relative Dating
		Stratigraphy: Ordering Archaeological Layers
		Typological Sequences: Comparing Objects
		Environmental Sequences
	Absolute Dating
		Calendars and Historical Chronologies
		Annual Cycles
		Radioactive Clocks
		Other Absolute Dating Methods
		World Chronology
5 - How Were Societies Organized?: Social Archaeology
	Establishing the Nature and Scale of the Society
	Methods of Social Analysis
	The Archaeology of the Individual and of Identity
6 - What Was the Environment and What Did They Eat?: Environment, Subsistence, and Diet
	Investigating Environments on a Global Scale
	Reconstructing the Plant Environment
	Reconstructing the Animal Environment
	Subsistence and Diet
	What Can Plant Foods Tell Us About Diet?
	Investigating Diet, Seasonality, and Domestication From Animal Remains
	Assessing Diet From Human Remains
7 - How Were Artifacts Made, Used, and Distributed?: Technology, Trade, and Exchange
	Unaltered Materials
	Synthetic Materials
	Trade and Exchange
8 - What Were They Like?: The Bioarchaeology of People
	Identifying Physical Attributes
	Disease, Deformity, and Death
	Diet and Nutrition
9 - What Did They Think?: Cognitive Archaeology
	Cognitive Archaeology
	Working with Symbols
	The Impact of Literacy
10 - Why Did Things Change?: Explanation in Archaeology
	Migrationist and Diffusionist Explanations
	The Processual Approach
	The Form of Explanation: Specific or General?
	Explanation: One Cause or Several?
	Postprocessual or Interpretive Explanation
	Cognitive Archaeology
	Agency and Material Engagement
11 - Whose Past?: Archaeology and the Public
	The Meaning of the Past: The Archaeology of Identity
	Archaeological Ethics
	Popular Archaeology vs Pseudoarchaeology
	Who Owns the Past?
	The Responsibility of Collectors and Museums
12 - The Future of the Past: Managing Our Heritage
	The Destruction of the Past
	The Response: Survey, Conservation, and Mitigation
	Publication, Archives, and Resources
	What Use Is the Past?
	Building a Career in Archaeology
Glossary
Illustration Credits
Useful Websites
Index