Two young archaeologists introduce environmental archaeology to a non-scientific readership, providing clear explanations for the many techniques now employed and relating the results of biological/geological studies to modern archaeological theory.
After showing how environmental archaeology has developed over the last 150 years, the authors look at the environment - both past vegetation and landscape form. The techniques covered include pollen analysis, snail and insect studies, as well as geoarchaeology. The second main area of investigation is past human subsistence - what people ate and how these resources were collected and farmed. In the final section of the book the authors integrate the environmental archaeological data to produce an account of past human behaviour and its influence by, and on, the surrounding environment.