The Archaeology Coursebook: An Introduction to Themes, Sites, Methods and Skills

692 Pages·2015·32.186 MB·English

by  Jim Grant, Sam Gorin, Neil Fleming

The Archaeology
Coursebook
Fourth Edition
This fully updated and revised edition of the best-selling title The Archaeology Coursebook is a guide
for students studying archaeology for the first time. Including new methods and key studies in this
fourth edition, it provides pre-university students and teachers, as well as undergraduates and
enthusiasts, with the skills and technical concepts necessary to grasp the subject.
The Archaeology Coursebook:
n introduces the most commonly examined archaeological methods, concepts and themes, and
provides the necessary skills to understand them
n explains how to interpret the material students may meet in examinations
n supports study with key studies, key sites, key terms, tasks and skills development
n illustrates concepts and commentary with over 400 photos and drawings of excavation sites,
methodology and processes, tools and equipment
n provides an overview of human evolution and social development with a particular focus upon
European prehistory.
Reflecting changes in archaeological practice and with new key studies, methods, examples, boxes,
photographs and diagrams, this is definitely a book no archaeology student should be without.
All three authors have considerable experience in teaching archaeology, examining and field
archaeology. Jim Grant is Vice Principal at Cirencester College. Sam Gorin was formerly a Curriculum
Director at Newark and Sherwood College. He has been widely involved in field archaeology in the
East Midlands. Neil Fleming is Upper-Sixth House Master at Christ’s Hospital, Horsham.
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The Archaeology
The Archaeology
Coursebook
Coursebook
Fourth Edition
An introduction to themes, sites,
methods and skills
Jim Grant, Sam Gorin and Neil Fleming
First edition published 2001
Second edition published 2005
Third edition published 2008
This fourth edition published 2015
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2001, 2005, 2008, 2015 Jim Grant, Sam Gorin and Neil Fleming
The right of Jim Grant, Sam Gorin and Neil Fleming to be identified as
authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections
77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,
now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording,
or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Grant, Jim, 1958–
The archaeology coursebook: an introduction to themes, sites, methods
and skills/Jim Grant, Sam Gorin and Neil Fleming. – Fourth edition.
pages cm
“Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada”—Title page verso.
Includes bibliographical references.
1. Archaeology – Study and teaching (Higher) 2. Archaeology –
Methodology. 3. Archaeology – Examinations – Study guides.
I. Gorin, Sam, 1946– II. Fleming, Neil, 1955– III. Title.
CC83.G7 2015
930.1076—dc23
2014031586
ISBN: 978–0-415–52688–3 (pbk)
ISBN: 978–1-315–72783–7 (ebk)
Typeset in Palatino and Bell Gothic
by Florence Production Ltd, Stoodleigh, Devon, UK
Additional materials are available on the companion website at www.routledge.com/cw/grant
Brief Contents
Introduction xxvii
PartI Understanding archaeological resources 1
1 Archaeological reconnaissance 3
2 Archaeological excavation 43
3 Post-excavation analysis and archaeological materials 88
4 Understanding dating in archaeology 142
5 Archaeological interpretation 164
PartII Studying themes in archaeology 189
6 Human origins 191
7 Sites and people in the landscape: settlement archaeology 226
8 Economics A: foraging to farming – the exploitation of plants
and animals 293
9 Economics B: extraction, manufacture, material culture
and exchange 367
10 People and society in the past 418
11 The archaeology of religion and ritual 504
PartIII Issues in world archaeology 563
12 Managing archaeological heritage 565
13 Archaeology and the present: whose past is it anyway? 594
Glossary of terms and abbreviations 629
Bibliography 638
Index 653
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Contents
Acknowledgements xxi
Illustration acknowledgements xxiii
INTRODUCTION xxvii
What is new? xxvii
How the book is structured xxviii
How to use this text xxix
Conventions xxix
Getting started xxxi
Archaeology and related subjects xxxi
Some key archaeological concepts xxxii
PART I UNDERSTANDING ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESOURCES 1
1 ARCHAEOLOGICAL RECONNAISSANCE 3
How sites are found 3
Reconnaissance methods 4
Desktop study or ‘desk-based assessment’ 4
Historical documents 7
Maps 8
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) 10
Key study: Scottish Coastal Archaeology and the Problem of
Erosion (SCAPE) 11
Oral accounts 13
Surface surveys 13
Surveying features 13
Key study: Surveying an abandoned landscape on St Kilda 15
Recording standing buildings 17
Sampling in archaeological fieldwork 17
viii CONTENTS
Fieldwalking 18
Limitations of fieldwalking 21
Alternatives to fieldwalking 21
Geochemical prospection 24
Geophysical surveys 24
Resistivity survey 25
Magnetometer surveying 26
Caesium vapour (CV) magnetometers 27
Other non-invasive methods 28
Combining geophysics techniques at Binchester Fort 29
Aerial photography 29
Shadow marks 32
Cropmarks 32
Soil marks 33
Key study: Contrasting approaches: Empingham and East Kent
Access Road 35
Remote sensing 36
Satellite survey 40
Lidar 40
Sonar 40
Exploring lost landscapes 40
2 ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXCAVATION 43
Approaches to archaeological excavation 43
Excavation: rescue or research? 43
Similarities and differences 44
To excavate or not? 45
Planning for excavation 46
Key study: The Chester Amphitheatre project 48
Excavation strategies 50
Why context is everything: the theory of stratification 52
How to dig? 56
Trenches 56
Test pits 56
Area excavation 57
Box-grid or quadrant systems 57
Key Study: Boxgrove 59
Recognising features and the planum method 62
The process of excavation 62
Recovery of environmental material 64
Sieving 64
CONTENTS ix
Flotation 65
Soil sampling 65
Metal detection 66
On-site conservation 66
What records do archaeologists create? 68
Context sheets 68
Plans 68
Section drawings 73
Harris matrix 74
Photographs 74
Special cases 77
Archaeology of standing buildings 77
Wetland archaeology 78
Underwater archaeology 80
Urban archaeology 82
Excavating and recording human skeletons 83
Forensic archaeology 85
After excavation 87
3 POST-EXCAVATION ANALYSIS AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL
MATERIALS 88
Post-ex 88
Initial processing and conservation 89
Visual examination and recording 91
Analysis of inorganic materials 92
Lithics 92
Ceramics 95
Metals 100
Analysis of organic materials 103
Organic artefacts 103
Soil 105
Faunal remains 106
Human remains 111
Key study: Eulau: human remains and Neolithic relationships 116
Plants 120
Invertebrates 125
How do archaeologists reconstruct ancient landscapes? 127
Key study: The decline of the Maya 128
Archaeometry 129
DNA analysis 130
Characterisation studies 131