This manual of geoarchaeology focuses on both theoretical knowledge and practical application of diverse geoarchaeological methods. It is divided into three main parts. The first one, entitled “Regional scale geoarchaeology”, focuses in eight chapters on what could be called landscape geoarchaeology. It deals with sedimentology (Chapter 1) and stratigraphy (Chapter 2) in various environments such as slopes (Chapter 4), lakes (Chapter 5), coasts (Chapter 7) and caves (Chapter 8) and provides examples of how a knowledge of sedimentation processes can be used in geoarc haeological research. Not accidentally these examples are primarily related to Palaeolithic archaeology as the sedimentation rate of aeolian (Chapter 6), fluvial and other sediments during Pleistocene stadials was usually faster than in the Holocene interstadial. The exception is soil formation (Chapter 3): a number of soils, in contrast to paleosols, formed over the last ten thousand years and were key variables in Holocene settlements worldwide. Any environmental reconstruction of Holocene prehistoric and medieval settlements has to come to terms with soil analysis (the same applies, of course, to Pleistocene paleosols). The soil itself can additionally be a witness to the human presence in any area: in the mountain regions of Italy and France, brown soils (as opposed to podsols) developed only after the application of artificial terracing (p. 63), etc.