Authoritative guide to a variety of archaeological methods, ranging from techniques for measuring time with isotopes and magnetism to the sciences of climate reconstruction, geomorphology, sedimentology, soil science, paleobotany and faunal paleoecology.
Part I. Introduction: 1. Environmental archaeology and human ecology; 2. Concepts for paleoenvironmental reconstruction; 3. Mechanisms of environmental change; 4. Human responses to environmental change; Part II: 5. Introduction to chronometry and correlation; 6. Measuring time with isotopes and magnetism; Part III: 7. Climate: the driving forces; 8. Climate reconstruction; Part IV. Geomorphology: 9. Landforms; 10. Landforms of shores and shallow water; Part V. Sediments and Soils: 11. Basic principles of sedimentology and soils science; 12. Archaeological matrices; Part V. Vegetation: 13. Concepts and methods of paleobotany; 14. Vegetation in paleoecology; 15. Concepts and methods for faunal paleoenvironments; 16. Faunal paleoecology; 17. Humans among animals; Part VIII. Integration: 18. Anthropocentric paleoecology.
'The text is comprehensive ... as an overview of many aspects of environmental archaeology and related subjects it is hard to beat.' Hannah O'Regan, The Palaeontological Association Newsletter 'In short, any archaeologist who seeks to place their cultural studies into an environmental context should read this book, regardless of whether they are practising environmentalists or not.' Adam Gardner, The Holocene