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Using globally diverse examples, this book examines how to integrate new biomolecular and microscopic techniques with long-established forms of archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological data to reconstruct prehistoric diet and subsistence in different environments leading to a comprehensive picture of the tapestry of past human cultural variation.
List of contents
1. Introduction; 2. Is determinism dead?; 3. Incorporating new methods I: the stable isotope revolution; 4. Incorporating new methods II: residue chemistry; 5. Incorporating new methods III: answering palaeoeconomic questions with molecular genetics; 6. Incorporating new methods IV: phytoliths and starch grains in the tropics and beyond; 7. Integrated case study I: early farming in Central Europe; 8. Integrated case study II: horse domestication and the origins of pastoralism in Central Asia; 9. Conclusion.
About the author
Alan K. Outram is Professor of Archaeological Science at the University of Exeter. A zooarchaeologist who specialises in the domestication of the horse, he has conducted extensive archaeological fieldwork in Europe, Central Asia, and North America. The former editor of World Archaeology and current editor of Science and Technology of Archaeological Research, he has published several ground breaking publications in Science and Nature.Amy Bogaard is Professor of Neolithic and Bronze Age at the University of Oxford. She is a botanically inclined archaeologist who specialises in the study of ancient agroecology and its social ramifications by conducting archaeological fieldwork alongside the study of present-day farming systems. She is the current executive editor of World Archaeology.
Summary
Using globally diverse examples, this book examines how to integrate new biomolecular and microscopic techniques with long-established forms of archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological data to reconstruct prehistoric diet and subsistence in different environments leading to a comprehensive picture of the tapestry of past human cultural variation.
