Archaeological Investigation

The thoroughly updated second edition of Archaeological Investigation reviews and explains the practices of field archaeology in the world today. Now co-authored by Madeleine Hummler, the book’s scope has been enlarged in time and space, reaching out to the different methods and strategies applied in both the academic and commercial sectors in diverse terrain on land and under the sea.

Archaeological Investigation accompanies the reader on a journey from absolute beginner to professional. Part 1 (Principles) sets the scene for newcomers, showing the axial role of fieldwork in rediscovering the past. Part 2 (In the Field) is aimed at those setting out to collect primary data by the diverse methods of modern survey and excavation. Word pictures on "First day in the field" and "First day on a dig" provide friendly introductions to the high-tech enterprise that fieldwork has become. Now fully engaged in the process, newcomers to archaeology are ready, in Part 3 (Writing Up), to take part in the process of making the discoveries known. Here the findings of fieldwork are marshalled to analyse the assemblage, the use of space and the chronology of what happened. The results are then combined in a synthesis and communicated through websites, museums, the display of sites and above all through publication. Part 4 (Design) engages the reader in archaeology’s primary action: how to design projects that conserve, rediscover and explain the human past, beginning with a review of some landmark examples (Chapter 13). The final chapter (The Profession) reviews the role of the state, the academy, the commercial sector and the public in making archaeology happen – and why it matters.

Building on the authors’ extensive experience, Archaeological Investigation remains an inspiring, provocative, informative and entertaining book for students and professionals, arguing that the investigation of the human and environmental past is highly relevant to contemporary society and its future.

Martin Carver is an archaeologist who has worked in ten countries and had four careers: 14 years as an army officer, 13 years as a freelance excavator, 22 years as a university professor and 16 years, so far, as an archaeological researcher, writer and editor. He has undertaken projects in England, in the West Midlands and Sutton Hoo, in north-east Scotland at Portmahomack, and in France, Italy and Algeria for their government agencies. From 2003 to 2012, he was editor of Antiquity, which publishes archaeological theories and discoveries from all over the world. Here he created a special section on methods and an online supplement that carries notices of new projects (Project Gallery). He was the first secretary of the Institute of Field Archaeologist (now the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists), and is a fellow of the Societies of Antiquaries of London and Scotland, a corresponding member of the German Archaeological Institute and a Fellow of the British Academy.

Madeleine Hummler was educated at the Universities of Basel, Birmingham and Oxford, where she completed her DPhil on the Iron Age archaeology of the Rhône valley. She has excavated widely in Switzerland, Britain, France, northern Italy and Sicily, directing fieldwork in Britain, Provence and Lombardy and training generations of students to excavate, survey and record over four decades. Mastering four languages and a trained teacher of modern languages, she has translated and edited numerous archaeological publications, including for Antiquity and the European Journal of Archaeology, and reviewed hundreds of books when Reviews Editor at Antiquity (2005–2012). She is a fellow of the Societies of Antiquaries of London.