The thoroughly updated second edition of Archaeological Investigation reviews and explains the practices of field archaeology in the world today. Now co-authored by Madeleine Hummler, the book’s scope has been enlarged in time and space, reaching out to the different methods and strategies applied in both the academic and commercial sectors in diverse terrain on land and under the sea.
Archaeological Investigation accompanies the reader on a journey from absolute beginner to professional. Part 1 (Principles) sets the scene for newcomers, showing the axial role of fieldwork in rediscovering the past. Part 2 (In the Field) is aimed at those setting out to collect primary data by the diverse methods of modern survey and excavation. Word pictures on ""First day in the field"" and ""First day on a dig"" provide friendly introductions to the high-tech enterprise that fieldwork has become. Now fully engaged in the process, newcomers to archaeology are ready, in Part 3 (Writing Up), to take part in the process of making the discoveries known. Here the findings of fieldwork are marshalled to analyse the assemblage, the use of space and the chronology of what happened. The results are then combined in a synthesis and communicated through websites, museums, the display of sites and above all through publication. Part 4 (Design) engages the reader in archaeology’s primary action: how to design projects that conserve, rediscover and explain the human past, beginning with a review of some landmark examples (Chapter 13). The final chapter (The Profession) reviews the role of the state, the academy, the commercial sector and the public in making archaeology happen – and why it matters.
Building on the authors’ extensive experience, Archaeological Investigation remains an inspiring, provocative, informative and entertaining book for students and professionals, arguing that the investigation of the human and environmental past is highly relevant to contemporary society and its future.
By:
Martin Carver (University of York UK),
Madeleine Hummler
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Edition: 2nd edition
Dimensions:
Height: 246mm,
Width: 189mm,
Weight: 1.320kg
ISBN: 9781032024912
ISBN 10: 1032024917
Pages: 570
Publication Date: 18 December 2024
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Primary
,
Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
List of illustrations Acknowledgements and picture credits Preface Preface to the second edition The authors PART 1: Principles How archaeological fieldwork relates to theory and the society in which it is practised. The demands of research, the needs of conservation and the rights of stakeholders – and how these can be reconciled. Chapter 1: The Stuff A prodigious variety How sites form Digging them up Let’s speak archaeology Mega-macro-micro-nano In sum… Briefing Chapter 2: Approaches What do we want from fieldwork? Empirical to reflexive: four approaches Value-led archaeology Field Research Procedure In sum… Briefing Chapter 3: Field Research Procedure – a framework A value-led project: Sutton Hoo The recent campaign Stage 1 Reconnaissance Stage 2 Evaluation Stage 3 Project Design Stage 4 Implementation Stage 5 Analyses and syntheses Stage 6 Publication and the public The future Reflections Briefing PART 2: In the Field Here we review techniques and their applications for three principal types of field operation. Chapter 4: Landscape Survey First day in the field Methods: Using maps, from the air, on the surface Applications: Inventory surveys, mitigation surveys, research surveys, environments (historic and natural), survey by samples In sum… Briefing Chapter 5: Site Survey Definitions Methods: In the archives, from the air, on the ground (topography and surface collection), geophysical mapping, georadar, geochemical methods, strata testing (cores pits and trenches) Applications: In the countryside, a basket of site surveys in Sicily, urban sites, graveyards, battlefields and gardens, studying standing buildings In sum…. Briefing Chapter 6: Excavation First day on a dig On method: three ways of dissecting strata, contexts, features and structures, the excavation site as a laboratory On procedure: Recovery levels A–E Recovering the unseen: Recovery level F (taking away, nano investigations) Recording: Rationales of recording, recording in action, components of records (contexts, features, structures, horizons, sections and profiles), finds, notebooks and videos, an integrated recording system The course of an excavation In sum… Briefing PART 3: WRITING UP This section shows how the records gathered in the field are studied and reported to researchers, to clients and to the public. Chapter 7: Analysis Preliminary tasks: inventory, assessment and design The analytical programme: assemblage, space, chronology Designing the analytical itinerary An example In sum… Briefing Chapter 8: Assemblage Retrieval Programmes of Analysis Artefacts: fabric, form, style Ecodata: bioarchaeological material: Human remains: SI, aDNA; Animals; Plants and plant-related remains; Organic Residues and Proteomics; Soils Interpretation of archaeological assemblages: in settlements and cemeteries In sum… Briefing Chapter 9: Space Scales of space Spatial patterns from excavation: mapping objects, contexts, features and structures; finding patterns in burial; finding buildings; Inside buildings Spatial patterns from site survey: mapping settlements Spatial patterns in the landscape In sum…. Briefing Chapter 10: Chronology The business of chronology Typological dating of artefacts Direct dating of objects Direct dating of contexts Relative ordering of contexts Using objects to date contexts Ordering assemblages Using stratification, assemblage and radiocarbon together Feature sequences Chronology of sites: dating buildings; rural sites; urban sites Context seriation: assemblages and stratification working together Convergent chronologies In sum….. Briefing Chapter 11: Synthesis Why write? The case for synthesis Site models Towards synthesis Ethnography Experiment: artefacts; a building; a ship The validation of syntheses Joined-up synthesis: science and humanities in tandem In sum… Chapter 12: Publication Eight ways of telling it: who pays and why? Archives and Field Records Field Reports Client Reports Reporting research: preparing a research report Books for the wider public (including students) Presenting sites to the public Museums and websites Ephemeral output: the press, TV, social media Archaeologists communicate. The Future of Publication Briefing PART 4 Design This part studies project design as the principal driver of archaeological investigations and how the concept has created a vivid and varied repertoire of career opportunities. Chapter 13: Challenges Extensive investigations – The Ruby Pipeline Nevada, Olympic Dam South Australia, Loango coast Congo, Green Sahara, Canadian ice patches and calibou. Intensive investigations- Digging deep - Paleolithic Urals, Klithi cave. Digging mounds- Carlston Annis mound, Wijnaldum-Tjitsma terp. On the flat - Yeavering, Bylany. Underneath towns - York Minster, Managing Urban Archaeology (Ove Arup), Crossrail, Grand Arcade in Cambridge. Underwater investigations- wrecks: Yassīada. Drowned settlements: Charavines, Atlit Yam, Splashcos. An integrated challenge: – the underground carpark of the Zurich Opera house. Reflections Briefing Chapter 14: Designing Projects Introduction - a rationale for design Field Research Procedure and its Design Stages Evaluation in town and country The research agenda Predicting the archaeology The Social context Contents of a Project Design Submission and assessment Reflections Briefing Chapter 15: Our profession and its future The basis for a profession Deregulated archaeology: values, responsibilities, rewards The Research Cycle The Heritage Cycle Professional prospects – the way in A global agenda? – the SDGs The Creative Spirit Briefing References Index
Martin Carver is an archaeologist who has worked in ten countries and had four careers: 14 years as an army officer, 13 years as a freelance excavator, 22 years as a university professor and 16 years, so far, as an archaeological researcher, writer and editor. He has undertaken projects in England, in the West Midlands and Sutton Hoo, in north-east Scotland at Portmahomack, and in France, Italy and Algeria for their government agencies. From 2003 to 2012, he was editor of Antiquity, which publishes archaeological theories and discoveries from all over the world. Here he created a special section on methods and an online supplement that carries notices of new projects (Project Gallery). He was the first secretary of the Institute of Field Archaeologist (now the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists), and is a fellow of the Societies of Antiquaries of London and Scotland, a corresponding member of the German Archaeological Institute and a Fellow of the British Academy. Madeleine Hummler was educated at the Universities of Basel, Birmingham and Oxford, where she completed her DPhil on the Iron Age archaeology of the Rhône valley. She has excavated widely in Switzerland, Britain, France, northern Italy and Sicily, directing fieldwork in Britain, Provence and Lombardy and training generations of students to excavate, survey and record over four decades. Mastering four languages and a trained teacher of modern languages, she has translated and edited numerous archaeological publications, including for Antiquity and the European Journal of Archaeology, and reviewed hundreds of books when Reviews Editor at Antiquity (2005–2012). She is a fellow of the Societies of Antiquaries of London.
