The Science and Archaeology of Materials

Author: Julian Henderson
Publisher: Psychology Press
ISBN: 0415199336
Category : Archaeological chemistry
Languages : en
Pages : 351

Book Description
This volume provides a clear and up-to-date description of how the materials were exploited, modified and manufactured in prehistoric and historic periods.

Archaeology, History and Science

Author: Marcos Martinón-Torres
Publisher: Left Coast Press
ISBN: 1598743503
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 220

Book Description
Rarely do archaeological studies provide critical consideration of how historical, archaeological, and scientific data relate to each other, or explicit attempts at demonstrating successful strategies for these kinds of interdisciplinary research. The authors in this volume provide such a critical consideration, examining a wide range of cultures, time periods, and materials.

The Science and Archaeology of Materials

Author: Julian Henderson
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135953171
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 351

Book Description
The Science and Archaeology of Materials is set to become the definitive work in the archaeology of materials. Henderson's highly illustrated work is an accessible and fascinating textbook which will be essential reading for all practical archaeologists. With clear sections on a wide range of materials including ceramics, glass, metals and stone, this work examines the very foundations of archaeological study. Anyone interested in ancient technologies, especially those involving high temperatures, kilns and furnaces will be able to follow in each chapter how raw materials are refined, transformed and shaped into objects. This description is then followed by appropriate case studies which provide a new chronological and geographical example of how scientific and archaeological aspects can and do interact. They include: *Roman pale green and highly decorated glass *17th Century glass in Britain and Europe *the effect of the introduction of the wheel on pottery technology *the technology of Celadon ceramics *early copper metallurgy in the Middle East *chemical analysis and lead isotope analysis of British Bronzes *early copper alloy metallurgy in Thailand *the chemical analysis of obsidian and its distribution *the origins of the Stonehenge bluestones This book shows how archaeology and science intersect and fe ed off each other. Modern scientific techniques have provided data which, when set within a fully integrated archaeological context, have the potential of contributing to mainstream archaeology. This holistic approach generates a range of connections which benefits both areas and will enrich archaeological study in the future.

Archaeometallurgy – Materials Science Aspects

Author: Andreas Hauptmann
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030503674
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 605

Book Description
This book successfully connects archaeology and archaeometallurgy with geoscience and metallurgy. It addresses topics concerning ore deposits, archaeological field evidence of early metal production, and basic chemical-physical principles, as well as experimental ethnographic works on a low handicraft base and artisanal metal production to help readers better understand what happened in antiquity. The book is chiefly intended for scholars and students engaged in interdisciplinary work.

Archaeological Science

Author: Michael P. Richards
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521195225
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 467

Book Description
An accessible and wide-ranging introduction to the exciting and expanding field of archaeological science, for students, professionals and academics.

Material Evidence

Author: Robert Chapman
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317576233
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 383

Book Description
How do archaeologists make effective use of physical traces and material culture as repositories of evidence? Material Evidence takes a resolutely case-based approach to this question, exploring instances of exemplary practice, key challenges, instructive failures, and innovative developments in the use of archaeological data as evidence. The goal is to bring to the surface the wisdom of practice, teasing out norms of archaeological reasoning from evidence. Archaeologists make compelling use of an enormously diverse range of material evidence, from garbage dumps to monuments, from finely crafted artifacts rich with cultural significance to the detritus of everyday life and the inadvertent transformation of landscapes over the long term. Each contributor to Material Evidence identifies a particular type of evidence with which they grapple and considers, with reference to concrete examples, how archaeologists construct evidential claims, critically assess them, and bring them to bear on pivotal questions about the cultural past. Historians, cultural anthropologists, philosophers, and science studies scholars are increasingly interested in working with material things as objects of inquiry and as evidence – and they acknowledge on all sides just how challenging this is. One of the central messages of the book is that close analysis of archaeological best practice can yield constructive guidelines for practice that have much to offer archaeologists and those in related fields.

Archaeology

Author: Mark Q Sutton
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 131735009X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 433

Book Description
Illuminating the world of archaeology. Archaeology conveys the excitement of archaeological discovery and explains how archaeologists think as they scientifically find, analyze, and interpret evidence. The main objective of this text is to provide an introduction to the broad and fascinating world of archaeology from the scientific perspective. Discussions on the theoretical aspects of archaeology, as well as the practical applications of what is learned about the past, have been updated and expanded upon in this fourth edition. Learning Goals Upon completing this book, readers will be able to: Discuss the theoretical aspects of archaeology. Apply what has been learned about the past. Identify the various perspectives archaeologists have.

A Consumer's Guide to Archaeological Science

Author: Mary E. Malainey
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1441957049
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 600

Book Description
Many archaeologists, as primarily social scientists, do not have a background in the natural sciences. This can pose a problem because they need to obtain chemical and physical analyses on samples to perform their research. This manual is an essential source of information for those students without a background in science, but also a comprehensive overview that those with some understanding of archaeological science will find useful. The manual provides readers with the knowledge to use archaeological science methods to the best advantage. It describes and explains the analytical techniques in a manner that the average archaeologist can understand, and outlines clearly the requirements, benefits, and limitations of each possible method of analysis, so that the researcher can make informed choices. The work includes specific information about a variety of dating techniques, provenance studies, isotope analysis as well as the analysis of organic (lipid and protein) residues and ancient DNA. Case studies illustrating applications of these approaches to most types of archaeological materials are presented and the instruments used to perform the analyses are described. Available destructive and non-destructive approaches are presented to help archaeologists select the most effective technique for gaining the target information from the sample. Readers will reach for this manual whenever they need to decide how to best analyze a sample, and how the analysis is performed.

Archaeological Research

Author: Peter Peregrine
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1351816632
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 171

Book Description
This updated edition of Archaeological Research introduces the basic methods of archaeological research, including data collection, analysis, interpretation, as well as a consideration of the state of archaeology today. New to the Second Edition is updated information on geographic information systems and remote sensing strategies, and a greatly expanded discussion of practices in cultural resource management archaeology. This popular, concise textbook explores various research methods, analytical techniques, legal and ethical issues facing archaeologists; includes discussions of the archaeological process and record, sampling and research design, survey and excavation methods and strategies, recordkeeping, analysis, archaeological dating, presenting results, and research opportunities; is an excellent text for undergraduate students in basic archaeology courses, field methods courses, and field schools

Archaeology

Author: Bj¿rnar Olsen
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520274164
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 266

Book Description
“This book exhorts the reader to embrace the materiality of archaeology by recognizing how every step in the discipline’s scientific processes involves interaction with myriad physical artifacts, ranging from the camel-hair brush to profile drawings to virtual reality imaging. At the same time, the reader is taken on a phenomenological journey into various pasts, immersed in the lives of peoples from other times, compelled to engage their senses with the sights, smells, and noises of the publics and places whose remains they study. This is a refreshingly original and provocative look at the meaning of the material culture that lies at the foundation of the archaeological discipline.”—Michael Brian Schiffer, author of The Material Life of Human Beings “This volume is a radical call to fundamentally rethink the ontology, profession, and practice of archaeology. The authors present a closely reasoned, epistemologically sound argument for why archaeology should be considered the discipline of things, rather than its more commonplace definition as the study of the human past through material traces. All scholars and students of archaeology will need to read and contemplate this thought-provoking book.”—Wendy Ashmore, Professor of Anthropology, UC Riverside "A broad, illuminating, and well-researched overview of theoretical problems pertaining to archaeology. The authors make a calm defense of the role of objects against tedious claims of 'fetishism.'"—Graham Harman, author of The Quadruple Object