The Archaeologist's Laboratory

This second edition of the classic textbook, The Archaeologist's Laboratory, is a substantially revised work that offers updated information on the archaeological work that follows fieldwork, such as the processing and analysis of artifacts and other evidence. An overarching theme of this edition is the quality and validity of archaeological arguments and the data we use to support them. The book introduces many of the laboratory activities that archaeologists carry out and the ways we can present research results, including graphs and artifact illustrations.

Part I introduces general topics concerning measurement error, data quality, research design, typology, probability and databases. It also includes data presentation, basic artifact conservation, and laboratory safety. Part II offers brief surveys of the analysis of lithics and ground stone, pottery, metal artifacts, bone and shell artifacts, animal and plant remains, and sediments, as well as dating by stratigraphy, seriation and chronometric methods. It concludes with a chapter on archaeological illustration and publication.

A new feature of the book is illustration of concepts through case studies from around the world and from the Palaeolithic to historical archaeology.The text is appropriate for senior undergraduate students and will also serve as a useful reference for graduate students and professional archaeologists.

Auteur

Ted Banning is a Canadian archaeologist and professor of Anthropology at University of Toronto. His research focuses on the Neolithic of the Near East, but his other interests include the theory and methods of archaeological survey and landscape archaeology, the spatial organization of ancient built environments, and the spatial and statistical analysis of microrefuse -tiny fragments of lithics, pottery, ground stone, shell, bone, and other materials in archaeological sediments. For more than three decades, he has directed field projects in northern Jordan, and previously served on the staff of excavations at the Pre-Pottery Neolithic site of 'Ain Ghazal, Jordan, at Tell al-Maskhuta, Egypt, and on surveys in southern Jordan and northeastern Egypt. He also has side interests in historical archaeology and numismatics, and especially the early history of numismatists and antiquarians in Canada. He is author of Archaeological Survey (Springer 2002), a member of the Society of American Archaeology and American Institute of Archaeology, and Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London.

Contenu

Preface.- About the Book.- Table of Contents.- About the Author.- List of Figures.- List of Tables.- Part 1: Introduction.- Chapter 1. What are Data? Measurements and Errors.- Chapter 2. Summarizing Data: Descriptive Statistics.- Chapter 3. Systematics: Classification and Grouping.- Chapter 4. Compilations: Designing and Using Archaeological Databases.- Chapter 5. Visualizing Archaeological Data.- Chapter 6. Research Design and Sampling.- Chapter 7. Counting Things: Abundance and Other Quantitative Measures.- Chapter 8. Probability, Modelling, and Statistical Inference.- Chapter 9. Basic Artifact Conservation and Lab Management.- Chapter 10. Laboratory Health and Safety.- Part 2: Introduction.- Chapter 11. Stone Artifacts.- Chapter 12. Ceramic Artifacts.- Chapter 13. Metal Artifacts.- Chapter 14. Bone and Shell Tools.- Chapter 15. Archaeological Animal Remains.- Chapter 16. Archaeological Plant Remains.- Chapter 17. Soils, Sediments, and Geoarchaeology.- Chapter 18. Seriation.- Chapter 19. Stratigraphy.- Chapter 20. Chronometric Dating.- Chapter 21. Archaeological Illustration and Publication.- Index.