Geoarchaeology is the field of study that applies the concepts and methods of the geosciences to archaeological research. Geoarchaeological studies are important to archaeology because they can significantly enhance the archaeological interpretation. This book presents a geoarchaeological investigation of the processes involved in the formation of the Neolithic site at Paliambela in the Northern Pieria region of Central Macedonia, Northern Greece which unusually comprises both a tell and flat/extended component. Evidence (i.e., pits) of the Byzantine-Ottoman period was also detected on the tell part of the Neolithic site. The book presents and interprets the results of geoarchaeological analysis of core-data and of selected deposits (pits and ditches of the Neolithic period and pits of the Byzantine-Ottoman period, for comparative purposes) within the site. It also explores the spatial organisation of these deposits in more detail applying non-linear and linear methods of statistical analysis on the smallest cultural indicators (i.e., microartIfacts) detected on these archaeological deposits. The overall outcome of this analysis is the recognition that the formation of the archaeological deposits from both parts of the site, both temporally and spatially, was largely the result of differences in human activities and probably in the organisation of human activities that seem to preserve the two components of the Neolithic site as spatially distinct over time while differences between the Neolithic and the Byzantine-Ottoman contexts broadly indicate differences in the living environment between the prehistoric and the historic settlement.

A collection of papers focusing on the links between archaeology and the study of geological sediments and soils.

Almost every artifact in archaeological analysis originates in or on the ground. While there are elaborate methods for extracting and analyzing artifacts, treatment of the matrix within which they are located is often unsophisticated and does not include systematic analysis. Sediments in Archaeological Context concerns the analysis of this matrix and the potential use of sediments to answer archaeological questions. Describing sediments and sampling them in appropriate ways do not replace the study of artifacts, but they can provide additional, useful information regarding a site complex, its physical environment, and the relations of artifacts to each other. Each chapter in the volume considers sediments within a specific context. Topics include sediments found in a variety of environments: cultural environments, rockshelter and cave environments, dryland alluvial environments, humid alluvial environments, lake environments, shoreline environments, and spring and wetland environments. Sediments in Archaeological Context is intended for every archaeologist who investigates sites in depositional contexts.

Sedimente, archäologische - Methodik - Geologie.

A collection of papers focusing on the links between archaeology and the study of geological sediments and soils.