Archaeology: An Introduction – The History, Principles and Methods of Modern Archaeology

List of illustrations. Acknowledgements. Note on references. Preface 1 The Idea of the Past 1. Human Origins 2. Avenues of investigation 3. Archaeology and the Enlightenment 4. The recognition of human artefacts 5. The discovery of civilizations 6. Achievements of early antiquarians 2 Discovery, Fieldwork and Recording 1. The discovery of new archaeological sites 2. Fieldwalking and site recording 3. Aerial photography 4. Geophysical surveying 5. Archaeology and the landscape 6. A Mediterranean field survey project 7. GIS Conclusions B3 Excavation 1. The development of excavation techniques 2. An example of the development of excavation techniques: Corbridge, Northumberland 3. Excavation procedure 4. Excavation: special cases 5. The excavation of structures 4 Dating the Past 1. Background 2. Historical dating 3. Typology 4. Sequence dating and seriation 5. The advent of scientific dating techniques 6. Environmental methods 7. Absolute techniques 8. Radioactive effects on crystal structure 9. Derivative techniques 10. The authenticity of artefacts 11. Conclusions 5 Science and Archaeology 1. Is archaeology a science? 2. The examination of objects and raw materials 3. Conservation 4. The environment 5. Climate 6. Rocks and soils 7. Plant remains 8. Animal remains 9. Human remains 10. Statistics 11. Experimental archaeology 12. Conclusion 6 Making Sense of the Past 1. Where is archaeology at the end of the twentieth century? 2. Archaeological theory 3. Social evolution 4. Diffusionism 5. Nationalism and racism 6. Towards processualist archaeology 7. Ethnoarchaeology 8. Post-processualism 9. Reconstructing archaeology 10. Current issues in archaeology 11.