Archaeological Sciences 1989: Proceedings of a Conference on the Application of Scientific Techniques to Archaeology, Bradford, September 1989.

Beck, Curt W.

If the decision, in 1986, to hold the theretofore annual International Archaeometry Symposia only every other year was aimed at directing the rising flood of archaeometric papers into fewer, narrower and perhaps deeper channels, that hope has been quickly dashed. Predictably, the interstices have been filled by other international, national and specialist conferences, among them those now regularly being held in the odd years in Britain. There are now many more occasions to report work at an archaeometry meeting than there is time to do any work, and this disparity is sadly reflected in many symposium volumes: some papers are merely 'progress reports', i.e. interim accounts of unfinished work; others recount work already published; many show signs of having been put together in haste on the way to the meeting. There are, of course, also many accounts of excellent and significant work, but the hallmark of the contemporary symposium volume is a heterogeneity of quality that defies any review within a compass insufficient to deal with each paper separately.

I have said elsewhere that the only entirely satisfactory published Symposium is that of Plato, who kept complete control not only over who could speak, but also over what they would say. Modern editors must do the best they can with what they are given. Under these circumstances, the editors of Archaeological Sciences 1989, the second of the interstitial conferences held in Britain, have done a very good job. The conference, held at Bradford University, was potentially international, but essentially British: More than 90% of the participants, and the authors of all but six of the 49 papers, work in the United Kingdom. The book therefore offers a useful survey of both the directions and the methods of British archaeometry.

The section headed 'Physical and Chemical Analysis of Inorganic Materials' contains 11 papers on inorganic artefact analysis: six on ceramics, four on glass, one on stone, and two on metals, and a fundamental study of lead corrosion products in saline water. Neutron activation analysis (NAA) remains the most widely used method, followed by X-ray techniques (XRF, XRD, SEM/EDS), but the use of inductively-coupled plasma (ICP) spectroscopy is on the rise. While the 12 papers in the section on mining and metallurgy contain analytical studies by NAA, atomic absorption (AA), electron-probe micro-analysis (EPMA), secondaryion mass spectrometry (SIMS) and wet analysis, there is an emphasis on prehistoric mining technology and ancient metallurgical practice. The seven papers in the section on dating offer interesting extensions of optically-stimulated luminescence (OSL), tephrochronology, and geomagnetic, electron spin resonance (ESR), and uranium-series dating, as well as a comparison of denrochronology with other dating methods. In the five papers on remote sensing, there is an emphasis on data processing, including the very promising use of tomography and of induced polarization (IP) in the frequency mode. The categories of the expanding field of organic archaeometry are in need of revision. Here, the section of five papers titled 'Analysis of Animal and Plant Products and Residues' ranges from classical archaeobotany to coprolite analysis to non-cellular organic residues, while 'Human Remains' constitutes a separate section of six papers dealing with bone, teeth, tissue, and palaeopathology. Such anthropocentrism is, at best, quaint: when it comes to, say, dietary reconstruction from elemental analysis of bone, the difference between a Peruvian dog and an Englishman is negligible.

Inevitable, this book shows some of the weaknesses of symposium volumes deplored above, but in an over-all assessment of originality and quality of the contributions, it ranks in the upper third of the genre and provides a useful and instructive measure of what British archaeometry is up to and where it is going.

CURT W. BECK Vassar College, Poughkeepsie (NY)