Note: this is part of an electronic companion that supplements Kevin Greene's book Archaeology: an introduction (1995); click on the title to start from the home page.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1: THE IDEA OF THE PAST
CHAPTER 2: DISCOVERY, FIELDWORK AND RECORDING
CHAPTER 3: EXCAVATION
CHAPTER 4: DATING THE PAST
CHAPTER 5: SCIENCE AND ARCHAEOLOGY
CHAPTER 6: MAKING SENSE OF THE PAST

Return to introductory page


CHAPTER 1: THE IDEA OF THE PAST

Return to list of chapter titles
1 HUMAN ORIGINS

1.1 Prehistory and history
1.2 Human antiquity
1.3 Catastrophists and Fluvialists
2 AVENUES OF INVESTIGATION

2.1 Medieval attitudes to antiquity
2.2 Archaeology from the Renaissance to the 'Age of Reason'
3 ARCHAEOLOGY AND THE ENLIGHTENMENT

3.1 Antiquarian fieldwork in Britain
3.2 Fieldwork elsewhere
3.3 Touring and collecting
4 THE RECOGNITION OF HUMAN ARTEFACTS

4.1 Scandinavia and the Three-Age System
4.2 Typology
5 THE DISCOVERY OF CIVILIZATIONS

5.1 Egypt and Mesopotamia
5.2 Schliemann and Troy
5.3 Evans and Knossos
5.4 Beyond Europe and the Near East
6 ACHIEVEMENTS OF EARLY ANTIQUARIANS

Return to list of chapter titles OR go directly to Chapter 1 OR return to instruction page

CHAPTER 2: DISCOVERY, FIELDWORK AND RECORDING

Return to list of chapter titles
1 THE DISCOVERY OF NEW ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES

2 FIELDWALKING AND SITE RECORDING

2.1 Sites and Monuments Records
3 AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY

3.1 Visible sites
3.2 Invisible sites
4 GEOPHYSICAL SURVEYING

4.1 Resistivity surveying
4.2 Magnetic surveying
4.3 Metal detectors
4.4 Radar and sonar location devices
4.5 Soil analysis
4.6 Dowsing
5 ARCHAEOLOGY AND THE LANDSCAPE

5.1 Landscape archaeology
6 A MEDITERRANEAN FIELD SURVEY PROJECT

6.1 The Neothermal Dalmatia Project
6.2 Research design and methods
6.3 Interpretation
6.4 Analysis
7 GIS

8 CONCLUSIONS

Return to list of chapter titles OR go directly to Chapter 2 OR return to instruction page


CHAPTER 3: EXCAVATION

Return to list of chapter titles
1 THE DEVELOPMENT OF EXCAVATION TECHNIQUES

1.1 The destruction of evidence
1.2 The concept of stratification
1.3 Pitt Rivers
1.4 Developments in the twentieth century
1.5 Mortimer Wheeler
1.6 From keyholes to areas
1.7 The interpretation of stratification

2 AN EXAMPLE OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF EXCAVATION TECHNIQUES: CORBRIDGE (NORTHUMBERLAND)

2.1 Antiquarian observations
2.2 Excavation
2.3 Excavations between the wars
2.4 Area excavations
2.5 Publication and cataloguing
2.6 A new museum
3 EXCAVATION PROCEDURE

3.1 Selection of a site
3.2 Planning an excavation
3.3 Background research
3.4 Staff and equipment
3.5 Excavation strategy
3.6 Recording
3.7 Computerised processing of site records
3.8 Publication
4 EXCAVATION: SPECIAL CASES

4.1 Camps and caves
4.2 Waterlogged sites
4.2 Underwater archaeology
4.3 Graves
5 THE EXCAVATION OF STRUCTURES

5.1 The excavation of stone structures
5.2 Timber structures
5.3 Other building materials
5.4 Reconstruction
Return to list of chapter titles OR go directly to Chapter 3 OR return to instruction page


CHAPTER 4: DATING THE PAST

Return to list of chapter titles
1 BACKGROUND

2 HISTORICAL DATING

3 TYPOLOGY

4 SEQUENCE DATING AND SERIATION

5 THE ADVENT OF SCIENTIFIC DATING TECHNIQUES

5.1 Geological time-scales
6 ENVIRONMENTAL METHODS

6.1 Tree ring dating (dendrochronology)
6.2 Varves
6.3 Pollen analysis
6.4 Sea bed deposits
6.5 Ice sheet cores
7 ABSOLUTE TECHNIQUES

7.1 Radioactive decay
7.2 Radiocarbon dating
7.3 Presenting and interpreting a radiocarbon date
7.4 Potassium-argon dating
7.5 Uranium series dating
8 RADIOACTIVE EFFECTS ON CRYSTAL STRUCTURE

8.1 Thermoluminescence dating
8.2 Electron spin resonance ('ESR')
8.3 Fission-track dating
9 DERIVATIVE TECHNIQUES

9.1 Fluorine, uranium and nitrogen tests
9.2 Amino acid racemization
9.3 Obsidian hydration dating
9.4 Archaeomagnetic dating
9.5 Cation-Ratio dating ('CR')
10 THE AUTHENTICITY OF ARTEFACTS

11 CONCLUSIONS

Return to list of chapter titles OR go directly to Chapter 4 OR return to instruction page


CHAPTER 5: SCIENCE AND ARCHAEOLOGY

Return to list of chapter titles
1 IS ARCHAEOLOGY A SCIENCE?

2 THE EXAMINATION OF OBJECTS AND RAW MATERIALS

2.1 Microscopic examination
2.2 Analysis and characterisation
2.3 Provenance by date
3 CONSERVATION

3.1 Ancient objects
3.2 Historic buildings and archaeological sites
4 THE ENVIRONMENT

4.1 The concept of 'sites'
4.2 The survival of environmental evidence
5 CLIMATE

6 ROCKS AND SOILS

6.1 Soil science
7 PLANT REMAINS

7.1 Pollen analysis
7.2 Tree rings
8 ANIMAL REMAINS

8.1 Animal bones
8.2 Fish bones
8.3 Shells
9 HUMAN REMAINS

9.1 Genetics
9.2 The study of coprolites
10 STATISTICS

10.1 Computers
11 EXPERIMENTAL ARCHAEOLOGY

11.1 Artefacts
11.2 Sites and structures
12 CONCLUSION

Return to list of chapter titles OR go directly to Chapter 5 OR return to instruction page


CHAPTER 6: MAKING SENSE OF THE PAST

Return to list of chapter titles
1 WHERE IS ARCHAEOLOGY AT THE END OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY?

1.1 Too much knowledge?
2 ARCHAEOLOGICAL THEORY

3 SOCIAL EVOLUTION

3.1 Early anthropology
3.2 The impact of Darwin
3.3 'Culture history'
4 DIFFUSIONISM

4.1 Diffusionism in disrepute: megalithic tombs
4.2 New interpretations of megalithic tombs
5 NATIONALISM AND RACISM

6 TOWARDS PROCESSUALIST ARCHAEOLOGY

6.1 Social evolution and Marxism
6.2 The 'New archaeology'
7 ETHNOARCHAEOLOGY

8 POST-PROCESSUALISM

8.1 Context, structure, mind...
9 RE-CONSTRUCTING ARCHAEOLOGY...

10 CURRENT ISSUES IN ARCHAEOLOGY

11 MANAGING OUR HERITAGE

11.1 Archaeology and the State
11.2 Museums: from Art Gallery to 'Experience'
11.3 Controlling the present by means of the past?
11.4 Stonehenge
12 ETHICAL ISSUES

12.1 The antiquities trade
12.2 Indigenous peoples
12.3 Gender
12.4 The Green movement
13 CONCLUSION

return to list of chapter titles OR go directly to Chapter 6 OR return to instruction page
DUMP:

Testing
John Leland (1503-1552)

William Camden (1551-1623)

John Aubrey (1626-97)

William Stukeley (1687-1765)
Structure

Survival of stone structures

Standing structures


Construction of timber buildings

Interpreting timber structures
Positive factors

Negative factors

Summary table


Radiocarbon samples

First-order radiocarbon dating

The impact of radiocarbon dating

Petrology

Metallography

Obsidian

Bronze Age metallurgy

Roman coins

Isotopic analysis

Interpretation

Marine shells

Land molluscs

York