Archaeologists today need a wide range of scientific approaches in order to delineate and interpret the ecology of their sites. Dena Dincauze has written an authoritative and essential guide to a variety of archaeological methods, ranging from techniques for measuring time with isotopes and magnetism to the sciences of climate reconstruction, geomorphology, sedimentology, soil science, paleobotany and faunal paleoecology. Professor Dincauze insists that borrowing concepts from other disciplines demands a critical understanding of their theoretical roots. Moreover, the methods that are chosen must be appropriate to particular sets of data. The applications of the methods needed for an holistic human-ecology approach in archaeology are illustrated by examples ranging from the Paleolithic, through classical civilizations, to recent urban archaeology.

In this book, a diverse collection of case studies reveal how archaeology can contribute to a better understanding of humans' relation to the environment. The Archaeology of Environmental Change shows that the environmental challenges facing humanity today can be better approached through an attempt to understand how past societies dealt with similar circumstances.

This book highlights studies addressing significant anthropological issues in the Americas from the perspective of environmental archaeology. The book uses case studies to resolve questions related to human behavior in the past rather than to demonstrate the application of methods. Each chapter is an original or revised work by an internationally-recognized scientist. This second edition is based on the 1996 book of the same title. The editors have invited back a number of contributors from the first edition to revise and update their chapter. New studies are included in order to cover recent developments in the field or additional pertinent topics.

Environmental Archaeology: Theoretical and Practical Approaches outlines and assesses the various methods used to reconstruct and explain the past interaction between people and their environment. Emphasising the importance of a highly scientific approach to the subject, the book combines geoarchaeological, bioarchaeological (archaeobotany and zooarchaeology) and geochronological information and examines how these various aspects of archaeology may be used to enhance our knowledge and understanding of past human environments. Drawing from both the practical experiences of the authors and cutting-edge research, Environmental Archaeology: Theoretical and Practical Approaches is a valuable contribution to the subject. It will be essential reading for students and professionals in archaeology, geography and anthropology.

Environmental Archaeology provides a pragmatic introduction to the subject, taking the reader step-by-step through approaches, methods and theoretical frameworks used by archaeologists, with a focus throughout on interpretation.

There has been an increasing archaeological interest in human-animal-nature relations, where archaeology has shifted from a focus on deciphering meaning, or understanding symbols and the social construction of the landscape to an acknowledgment of how things, places, and the environment contribute with their own agencies to the shaping of relations.This means that the environment cannot be regarded as a blank space that landscape meaning is projected onto. Parallel to this, the field of environmental humanities poses the question of how to work with the intermeshing of humans and their surroundings.To allow the environment back in as an active agent of change, means that landscape archaeology can deal better with issues such as global warming, an escalating loss of biodiversity, as well as increasingly toxic environment. However, this does not leave human agency out of the equation. It is humans who reinforce the environmental challenges of today.The scholarly field of the humanities deal with questions like how is meaning attributed, what cultural factors drive human action, what role is played by ethics, how is landscape experienced emotionally, as well as how concepts derived from art, literature, and history function in such processes of meaning attribution and other cultural processes. This humanities approach is of utmost importance when dealing with climate and environmental challenges ahead and we need a new landscape archaeology that meets these challenges, but also that meets well across disciplinary boundaries. Here inspiration can be found in discussions with scholars in the emerging field of Environmental Humanities.

This book aims to thoroughly discuss new directions of thinking in the arena of environmental archaeology and test them by presenting new practical applications. Recent theoretical and epistemological advancement in the field of archaeology calls for a re-definition of the subdiscipline of environmental archaeology and its position within the practise of archaeology. New technological and methodological discoveries in hard sciences and computer applications opened fresh ways for interdisciplinary collaborations thus introducing new branches and specialisations that need now to be accommodated and integrated within the previous status-quo. This edited volume will take the challenge and engage with contemporary international discussions about the role of the discipline within the general framework of archaeology. By drawing upon these debates, the contributors to this volume will rethink what environmental archaeology is and what kind of input the investigation of this kind of materiality has to the reconstruction of human history and sociality.