Encyclopedia of Geoarchaeology

This 2nd edition of the encyclopedia keeps up with the latest advances in the ever-expanding and rapidly evolving field of geoarchaeology. New subjects have been added and previous ones updated to stay apace with innovations since the 1st edition. It describes terms, introduces concepts and problems, explains and illustrates techniques, and discusses theory and strategy in the use of earth science applications in archaeology. The breadth of the discipline is systematically covered, including environmental archaeology, dating, materials analysis, and paleoecology, as well as syntheses of important archaeological sites where geoarchaeology has played a prominent role in describing, analyzing, and interpreting the record of the human past. The text is clearly written so that technical topics become accessible to a wide spectrum of readers, from the general public and university students to researchers and practitioners. It will not specifically cover general sites, civilizations, and ancient cultures, etc., that are better described in other encyclopedias of world archaeology, but it does include entries on sites and past events that are better known as a result of substantial geoarchaeological contributions. Allan S. Gilbert is Professor of Anthropology at Fordham University in the Bronx, New York. He holds a B.A. from Rutgers University, and his M.A. and Ph.D. in anthropology were earned at Columbia University. His areas of research interest include the Near East (late prehistory and early historic periods) as well as the historical archaeology of New York City. His specializations are in zooarchaeology and geoarchaeology, especially compositional analysis of building materials. The Associate Editors Paul Goldberg is Professor Emeritus at Boston University, Affiliated Professor of Geoarchaeology (University of Tübingen), and Visiting Professorial Fellow (University of Wollongong). His degrees are in geology (B.A. University of Colorado, Boulder, and M.S. and Ph.D. from The University of Michigan). He uses micromorphology to study landscapes, soils, and archaeological deposits and site formation. Most of his research is in France, Spain, Israel, Germany, China, and Siberia. Rolfe D. Mandel is Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at the University of Kansas, and Senior Scientist and Director of the Odyssey Archaeological Research Program at the Kansas Geological Survey in Lawrence, Kansas. He has spent most of career working with archaeologists in North America and the eastern Mediterranean, and over the past 22 years he has been focusing on the use of geoscientific methods to search for the earliest evidence of humans in the Americas. Vera Aldeias is a principal researcher at the ICArEHB in the University of Algarve, Portugal. She earned a Ph.D. in Earth & Environmental Sciences from the University of Pennsylvania and was a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany. She specializes in applying geoarchaeological techniques to study human adaptations and site formation processes, with research spanning Early Pleistocene to Early Holocene contexts in Europe, the Levant, and in Africa.