Anthropological Research Framing for Archaeological Geophysics: Material Signatures of Past Human Behavior

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Recent archaeological scholarship along with technical and technological advances in near-surface geophysics has brought exciting new possibilities to a growing body of archaeological thought. Yet, few explicitly theoretical attempts have been made to provide archaeological geophysics with anthropological premises. Anthropological Research Framing for Archaeological Geophysics: Material Signatures of Past Human Behavior initiates a dialogue with other archaeological and geophysical professionals to do so. Most archaeological applications of geophysics remain methodological and technical, devoted to gaining awareness of buried anthropogenic materials but not human behavior. By proposing the amelioration of communication gaps between traditional and geophysical archaeologists, Jason Randall Thompson foments dialogue and participates in bringing about new ways of thinking anthropologically about archaeological geophysics.

Reviews

A heartfelt and well-reasoned analysis of how and why geophysical analysis should be used in conjunction with more standard archaeological methods to help understand people, history, and past landscapes within an anthropological framework. -- Lawrence Conyers, University of Denver
A courageous, heartfelt, and well-argued plea to put anthropologythe study of peoplesquarely and centrally into the use of archaeological geophysical techniques, so that this wave of the future technology will be understandable and effectively usable by all archaeologists and geoarchaeologists. -- Glenn R. Storey, University of Iowa

Author Bio

Jason Randall Thompson is an anthropological archaeologist who teaches at University of Northern Iowa, Ashford University, and American Public University.