The Oxford Handbook of Wetland Archaeology

The Oxford Handbook of Wetland Archaeology is the most comprehensive survey of global wetland archaeology ever published. Well known for the spectacular quality of its surviving evidence, from both an archaeological and environmental perspective, wetland archaeology enables scholars to investigate and reconstruct past people's dwellings, landscapes, material culture, and daily lives in great detail. Through concise essays written by some of the world's leading scholars in the field, this Handbook describes the key principles, methodologies, and revealing results of past and present archaeological investigations of wetland environments. The volume provides unique insights into past human interactions with lakes, bogs, rivers, and coastal marshlands across the world from prehistory to modern times. Opening with a detailed introduction by the editors, the Handbook is divided into seven parts and contains 54 essays and over 230 photographs, figures, maps, and graphs.ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ; LIST OF FIGURES ; LIST OF TABLES ; LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS ; 1. General introduction to the Handbook ; PART 1: WETLAND OCCUPATIONS: A GEOGRAPHICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE ; INTRODUCTION ; EUROPE ; 2. Wetland occupations in prehistoric Europe ; 3. Europe s wetlands from the Migration Period to the Middle Ages: settlement, exploitation and transformation, AD 400-1500 ; THE AMERICAS ; 4. Occupations of past wetland environments in the United States ; 5. People-wetland interaction in Canada ; 6. Pre-Columbian people and the wetlands in Central and South America ; AFRICA AND ASIA ; 7. People and wetlands in Africa ; 8. Wetland Archaeology and the role of marshes in the ancient Middle East ; 9. The past Eastern Russian wetlands: review of the prehistoric occupation, chronology, economy, and environment ; 10. Prehistoric wetland occupations in the Lower regions of Yangtze River, China ; 11. Wetland sites in Japan ; OCEANIA ; 12. Wetland occupations in New Zealand ; 13. Australian wetland occupations before and after the Europeans ; 14. Wetland archaeology in the Highlands of New Guinea ; PART 2: WATERLOGGED ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE ; INTRODUCTION ; SETTLEMENTS AND HABITATIONS ; 15. The Alpine region lake-dwellings ; 16. Irish and Scottish crannogs ; 17. Houses, households and settlements: architecture and living spaces ; MATERIAL CULTURE ; 18. Portable wooden objects from wetlands ; 19. Fishing traps and weirs on the Northwest Coast of North America: new approaches and new insights ; 20. Bone and antler artefacts in wetland sites ; ROAD NETWORKS AND TRANSPORT ; 21. Trackways and roads across the wetlands ; 22. Rivers and lakes: a network of wetland highways ; HUMAN BODIES ; 23. Bog bodies: underwater burials, sacrifices and executions ; PART 3: SURVEY AND EXCAVATION ; INTRODUCTION ; SURVEY ; 24. Detecting organic materials in waterlogged sediments ; 25. Underwater survey and acoustic detection and characterisation of archaeological materials ; 36. Archaeological strategies for terrestrial wetland landscapes ; EXCAVATION ; 27. Intertidal survey and excavation ; 28. Excavation of wet sites ; PART 4: MULTIDISCIPLINARY SCIENTIFIC NETWORK ; INTRODUCTION ; 29. Archaebotany: the potential of analyses of plant remains from waterlogged archaeological sites ; 30. Insect analysis in wetland archaeology ; 31. Palaeoecological reconstructions ; 32. Geoarchaeological and soil micromorphological studies in wetland archaeology ; 33. Ancient DNA research on wetland archaeological evidence ; 34. Palaeoclimatology and archaeology in the wetlands ; DATING METHODS ; 35. Radiocarbon dating of wetland sites ; 36. Dendrochronology in wetland archaeology ; 37. Lacustrine varve counting as a dating technique: advantages and disadvantages ; PART 5: A VULNERABLE CULTURAL HERITAGE: PRESERVATION AND CONSERVATION ; INTRODUCTION ; PRESERVATION ; 38. Preservation against erosion: protecting lake shores and coastal environments ; ARTEFACT CONSERVATION ; 39. A review of current post-excavation treatment methods for waterlogged organic archaeological materials: the last 20 years ; POLITICAL ACTIONS ; 40. National and international wetland management policies ; 41. Wet Site Archaeology on the Northwest Coast of North America and the Native Communities involvement in Managing their Wetland Heritage Sites ; PART 6: CHANGING RESEARCH ATTITUDE: TOWARDS ONE ARCHAEOLOGY ; INTRODUCTION ; 42. Wetland Archaeology in the twenty-first century: adapting to climate change ; 43. Life history approaches and wetland habitation: a later prehistoric case study from the Dutch delta ; 44. Rhythm of wetland life: seasonality and sociality ; 45. Towards an Anthropology of Wetland Archaeology: Hunter-Gatherers and Wetlands in Theory and Practice ; 46. Long-distance trade routes linked to wetland settlements ; 47. Integrating dry lands and wetlands in late prehistoric farming regimes ; 48. People, lakes and forest in the Baltic region: a prehistoric perspective ; PART 7: WETLAND ARCHAEOLOGY AND THE PUBLIC ; INTRODUCTION ; 49. Wetland archaeology in the media and the popular literature: beyond the scholarly taboos of the twentieth century, back to the pioneers ; 50. Informing the public: bridging the gap between experts and enthusiasts ; 51. Museum exhibitions, open-air museums and hands-on archaeology ; 52. The lake-dwelling diaspora: museums, private collectors and the evolution of ethics in archaeology ; EPILOGUE: REFLECTIONS AND FUTURE PERSPECTIVES ; INTRODUCTION ; 53. The archaeology of wetlands: a personal journey ; 54. Concluding remarks and future perspectives ; INDEX