Beginner’s Guide to Archaeology: Non-Invasive Techniques

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archaeology, Beginners Guide, education, Leicestershire, Loughborough, WEA

In the first session we looked at non-invasive archaeological techniques such as desk-based assessment, fieldwalking, geophysics and landscape survey. This video clip from ‘Time Team’ discusses the use of geophysics in archaeology and the evolution of the different techniques through time:

If you wish to find out more about some of these non-invasive techniques, the following links may be of interest to you:

• A brief introduction to cropmarks
• Introduction to archaeology
• Geophysical survey
• BAJR archaeological guides are free pdfs on a variety of topics including geophysics and field surveying, amongst many others.

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Reading List: A Beginner’s Guide to Archaeology

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archaeology, Beginners Guide, Britain, education, England, Leicester, Leicestershire, Loughborough, WEA

Whilst it is not essential to do any background reading before the course begins, you may find it useful to do so. The reading list below contains books that you can read. You don’t have to read all of these and we don’t specify any that you must read. Instead, these are readings you can use to gain a preliminary understanding of topics, as well as to study in more depth those parts of the course you are particularly interested in. You may also want to take a look at magazines such as British Archaeology, World Archaeology and Current Archaeology.

Further suggestions about ways you can extend your understanding of topics through books, television etc may also be posted as appropriate on this blog.

Aitken, M. 1990. Science-based Dating in Archaeology. Longman. (Introduces several different science-based dating techniques used by archaeologists)

Bahn, P. 2012. Archaeology: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press. (Latest edition of popular, concise introduction to archaeology)

Carver, M. 2009. Archaeological Investigation. Routledge. (General introduction to the process of fieldwork from discovery to publication).

Drewett, P. 2011. Field Archaeology: An Introduction. (2^nd edition). Routledge. (Leading text introducing principles of field archaeology)

Gamble, C. 2015. Archaeology: the basics (revised 3nd edition).Routledge. (A good general introduction to a lot of concepts)

Gater, J & Gaffney, C. 2003. Revealing the Buried Past: Geophysics for Archaeologists. The History Press Ltd. (A good introduction to archaeological geophysics by the Time Team ‘geofizz’ guys)

Greene, K. & Moore, T. 2010. Archaeology: An Introduction (5th edn). London: Routledge. (A good general introduction. You may also wish to check out the associated online resources: http://cw.routledge.com/textbooks/greene/).

O’Connor, T. 2005. Environmental Archaeology: Principles and Methods (2^nd edn.) The History Press. (General introduction to environmental archaeology)

Mays, S. 2010. The Archaeology of Human Bones (2^nd edn). Routledge. (General introduction to the archaeological analysis of human remains)

Renfrew, C & Bahn, P (eds). 2004. Archaeology: The Key Concepts. Routledge Key Guides. (Collection of different chapters written by experts in their field)

Renfrew, C. & Bahn, P. 2016. Archaeology: Theories, Methods and Practice (7th edn). Thames and Hudson.  (Aimed at 1^st year undergraduates, but still very accessible to read and covers a lot of topics)

Beginner’s Guide to Archaeology: Absolute Dating

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archaeology, Beginners Guide, education, Leicester, Leicestershire, WEA

Absolute dating, also sometimes called chronometric dating, is the process of determining an age on a specified chronology in archaeology and geology. Absolute dating provides a numerical age or range in contrast with relative dating which places events in order without any measure of the age between events.

Techniques include (amongst others): radiocarbon dating, potassium-argon dating, thermoluminescence dating, and amino acid racemization.

In The Future of the Past: Dating archaeology using radiocarbon and particle accelerators Tom Higham of the University of Oxford examines some of the projects the Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit has been involved with over the last few years; from dating the Neanderthal extinction, to identifying the bones of Richard III and Alfred the Great.

Whilst in Carbon Dating: The Science of When Things Happen he discusses the way in which scientists establish the age of ancient and prehistoric artefacts.

Beginner’s Guide to Archaeology: Relative Dating

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archaeology, Beginners Guide, education, Leicester, Leicestershire, WEA

Relative dating is the science of determining the relative order of past events (i.e., the age of an object in comparison to another), without necessarily determining their absolute age.

Various approaches can be taken to do this including (amongst others) seriation,  typology, and the vole clock. This Time Team episode (season 7 episode 6) from Elveden in Suffolk includes an explanation of the latter.

Beginner’s Guide to Archaeology: Reading List

Tags

archaeology, Beginners Guide, education, Leicester, Leicestershire, WEA

Whilst it is not essential to do any background reading before the course begins, you may find it useful to do so. The reading list below contains books that you can read. You don’t have to read all of these and we don’t specify any that you must read. Instead, these are readings you can use to gain a preliminary understanding of topics, as well as to study in more depth those parts of the course you are particularly interested in. You may also want to take a look at magazines such as British Archaeology, World Archaeology and Current Archaeology.

Further suggestions about ways you can extend your understanding of topics through books, television etc may also be posted as appropriate here on the tutor’s personal blog.

Aitken, M. 1990. Science-based Dating in Archaeology. Longman. (Introduces several different science-based dating techniques used by archaeologists)

Bahn, P. 2012. Archaeology: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press. (Latest edition of popular, concise introduction to archaeology)

Drewett, P. 2011. Field Archaeology: An Introduction. (2^nd edition). London: Routledge. (Leading text introducing principles of field archaeology)

Gamble, C. 2015. Archaeology: the basics (revised 3nd edition). London: Routledge.(A good general introduction to a lot of concepts)

Gater, J & Gaffney, C. 2003. Revealing the Buried Past: Geophysics for Archaeologists. The History Press Ltd. (A good introduction to archaeological geophysics by the Time Team ‘geofizz’ guys)

Greene, K. & Moore, T. 2010. Archaeology: An Introduction (5th edn). London: Routledge. (A good general introduction. You may also wish to check out the associated online resources: http://cw.routledge.com/textbooks/greene/).

Renfrew, C & Bahn, P (eds). 2004. Archaeology: The Key Concepts. Routledge Key Guides. (Collection of different chapters written by experts in their field)

Renfrew, C. & Bahn, P. 2016. Archaeology: Theories, Methods and Practice (7th edn). London: Thames and Hudson.  (Aimed at 1^st year undergraduates, but still very accessible to read and covers a lot of topics)