Field Archaeology from Around the World: Ideas and Approaches

252 Pages·2015·15.63 MB·English

by  Martin Carver

SPRINGER BRIEFS IN ARCHAEOLOGY
Martin Carver
Bisserka Gaydarska
Sandra Montón-Subías Editors
Field Archaeology
from Around the
World
Ideas and
Approaches
123
SpringerBriefs in Archaeology
For further volumes:
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Martin Carver (cid:129) Bisserka Gaydarska
Sandra Montón-Subías
Editors
Field Archaeology
from Around the World
Ideas and Approaches
Editors
Martin Carver Bisserka Gaydarska
University of York Durham University
York , UK Durham , UK
Sandra Montón-Subías
Department of Humanities
ICREA/Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Barcelona , Spain
This book consists of slightly modifi ed selections from the Encyclopedia of Global
Archaeology edited by Claire Smith, originally published by Springer Science+Business
Media New York in 2014.
ISSN 1861-6623 ISSN 2192-4910 (electronic)
ISBN 978-3-319-09818-0
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-09819-7
Springer Cham Heidelberg New York Dordrecht London
Library of Congress Control Number: 2014948760
© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015
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Excavation in progress in Nara, Japan (see p. 223)

Pref ace
Students and academics sometimes allow themselves to express the opinion that
“not much has changed in fi eld archaeology over the last twenty years”. The reason
is easily explained. As the commercial profession was formed, fi eld method became
standardised and, due largely to national economic and political pressures, it got
stuck in its ways. Standardised practice was where the money was. But elsewhere,
under the radar, practitioners realised that the version of the past they generate was
under-served by standard procedures; it is our job to respond creatively – not pas-
sively – to the great variety of the archaeological resource and the host of questions
we put to it.
This book hopes to show that fi eld archaeology is archaeology’s liveliest sub-
discipline. The last few decades have witnessed a surge of experimentation, on and
under the ground – but it is not only in technical method that the advances are seen.
Field research procedure is breaking away from the “default systems” of the 1960s
to 1990s and adopting ingenious attitudes to project design – the “ideas and
approaches” of our title. The giant commercial sector is applying itself to the task of
increasing the research dividend of every intervention. Academics are coming to
realise that ideas are not confi ned to theory: what you do is as determinant as what
you think.
T his brief trip around the world offers an impression of how this is happening.
Part 1 is a summary overview of current practices in survey and excavation. In Part
2 we encounter some of the special challenges that are posed by working in peat,
caves, permafrost, jungle mines, motorways and modern cities and the variety of
approaches, tools, and recording systems that have been assembled to respond to
them. In Part 3, our authors offer sketches of the traditions adopted by fi eldworkers
in several continents, explaining their differences, less through the teaching of great
pioneers and more from the character of the terrain and the political framework
within which archaeologists work.
vii
viii Preface
We will see a thriving subject, spread across the academic, commercial and pub-
lic sectors. Here high precision and disciplined practice are married to imagination,
adaptability and ingenuity in the service of the mission dear to every scientist – to
produce something new.
York, UK Martin Carver
Durham, UK Bisserka Gaydarska
Barcelona, Spain Sandra Montón-Subías
Acknowledgements
The material assembled here was originally prepared for Springer’s E ncyclopaedia
of Global Archaeology , edited by Claire Smith and published in 11 volumes in 2014.
The editors and authors pay tribute and offer their thanks to the publisher for provid-
ing this valuable additional outlet. Our subject is archaeological practice, so the ven-
ture will be especially benefi cial, we believe, to the many thousands of professional
and commercial archaeologists practising worldwide who may have limited access
to the whole encyclopaedia. The editors are particular grateful to Teresa Kraus and
Hana Nagdimov of Springer who have shepherded the new book into being.
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