Searching for the Past: the methods and techniques of archaeology

210 x 150 mm; pictorial wraps; line drawings and black-and-white photographs. Wraps very slightly sunned; previous owner's hand-stamp on half-title. Very good condition. "The South African Archaeological Society has long felt the need for a series of introductory booklets on southern African archaeology that will provide clear and authoritative guides for students as well as for general readers. In the first volume, Searching for the Past, Dr A. J. B. Humphreys describes the methods and techniques used by archaeologists to locate, excavate and interpret the often ephemeral remains of both prehistoric and historic inhabitants of southern Africa. Just as a detective must reconstruct the events surrounding a crime, so the archaeologist has to piece together the clues left inadvertently by people hundreds and thousands of years ago. The challenge lies not only in finding the scattered pieces of this jigsaw puzzle, but in putting them together so that a comprehensive and intelligible picture of the past will emerge. This book, which is illustrated throughout, shows how archaeologists decide where to dig, what sorts of remains - such as pollen, charcoal, and even chemicals in bones - can yield climatic and environmental data, and how this mass of information is used to reconstruct the lives of prehistoric people.".…