Geoarchaeology: The earth-science approach to archaeological interpretation; Geological methods for archaeology
✍ Scribed by Michael R. Waters
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1999
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 86 KB
- Volume
- 14
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0883-6353
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Both books take a broad approach to geoarchaeology and cover a number of topics. As requested by the book review editor, I will first review each book separately and end with a general discussion of geoarchaeology.
Herz and Garrison (p. viii) state that the purpose of their book, Geological Methods For Archaeology, is to "show archaeologists the many ways that geological sciences can help solve their problems." The authors divide their book into four major sections with multiple chapters in each section. Part I, "The Archaeological Site and Its Environment," presents a discussion of geomorphology, sediments, and soils; Part II, "Dating Techniques," covers chemical, radioactive, and other methods of dating; Part III, "Site Exploration," addresses geophysical and geochemical applications to archaeology; and Part IV, "Artifact Analysis," offers a discussion of the analysis of the raw materials used to manufacture artifacts and features.
Part I is the weakest section of the book. In two chapters (49 pages of the total 343 pages), the authors discuss what they considered to be the most important aspects of geomorphology, sedimentology, and pedology. Minus illustrations and a discussion of pollen and phytoliths, this fundamental material is covered in only 20 full text pages. The discussions of various topics are so brief that they provide only the barest introduction to the subject, with little depth on any topic. Because of this brevity, there are glaring omissions. For example, in the discussion of sediment and soil particle size, only the USDA and British soil texture triangles are presented (without any discussion as to their meaning or how to use them), but no mention is made of the Folk system of sediment classification, which is the backbone of sedimentological descriptions. The Wentworth grain size scale, likewise, is absent. Further, outdated terminology such as "caliche" (p. 39) is introduced as an accepted geologic term. Finally, some of the writing in this section is rough, which makes it difficult for the reader to understand. For example, in the section dealing with soils one reads on page 40, "A soil profile is composed of all the layers that influenced pedogenesis." Sometimes this rough writing may lead to misconceptions; for example, on page 18 the authors state, "The erosional processes that carved the landforms-including soil formation, sediment removal or deposition, and tectonic uplift-are documented." Clearly, soil formation, deposition, and uplift are not erosional processes. A section on plant macro-and microfossils is included under the discussion of sediments and soils. This section seems out of place and has little to do with sedimentology. Far too little attention and emphasis was placed on geomorphology, sedimentology, pedology, and stratigraphy in this text.
Part II of the book discusses dating techniques used in archaeology. This section is better than Part I. In four chapters, over 15 different dating techniques are covered in depth, and much can be learned from this section. However, some important techniques such as paleomagnetism are only barely men-