Description
Book SynopsisThe archaeological record is a combination of what is seen by eye, and what is revealed with the help of instrumentation. Microarchaeology seeks to understand the microscopic record in terms of the types of embedded information, the material and conditions under which a reliable signal can be extracted.
Trade Review'I found [this book] so engaging and useful that I read it through with extreme care, rereading and highlighting key passages … It is a textbook, hopefully the first one in a new subfield, microarchaeology, that will become a required component of rigorous archaeology training at both the undergraduate and graduate level.' Hector Neff, Geoarchaeology: An International Journal
Table of Contents1. Archaeology, archaeological science and microarchaeology; 2. Information embedded in the microscopic record; 3. Completeness of the archaeological record; 4. Common mineral components of the archaeological record; 5. Biological materials: bones and teeth; 6. Biological materials: phytoliths, diatoms, eggshells, otoliths and mollusk shells; 7. Reconstructing pyrotechnological processes; 8. Biological molecules and macromolecules: protected niches; 9. Ethnoarchaeology of the microscopic record: learning from the present; 10. Absolute dating: assessing the quality of a date; 11. Reading the microscopic record on-site; 12. Infrared spectroscopy in archaeology.
