Customer Reviews

Age Determination of Young Rocks and Artifacts: Physical and Chemical Clocks in Quaternary Geology and Archaeology (Natural Science in Archaeology)

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Wagner's book on chronological methods applicable to recent materials is an outstanding achievement in terms of completeness, clarity, and ability to present multidisciplinary materials in a consistent and readable form. All chronological methods, even the most recent ones, are carefully described in principles and practice, including an impressive array of well described examples and case studies. A MUST for every serious geologist and archeologist, absolutely necessary for geo-archeologists and archaeometrists.

The book provides a reader with a very complete introduction to physico-chemical methods of datation. The book contains clear and complete explanations of terminology and methodological basis (geology, as well as physics) allowing the beginning reader to understand the essence of described methods and their limitations. Many additional information make it also an excellent handbook to specialists. One can find here practical advice, common traps, datation possibilities vs. archaeological and geological materials and enlarged references. It is a really good example of German precision and exactitude.
I strongly recommend this book to all archaeologists and naturalists. It could be also a very educative piece of reading for students and non-specialists interested in the subject.

Within this book's content,several qualities are united which make it not only the best aviable introductory textbook into such crucial topic for archaeology and anthropology,but a truly unique contribution that transcendes the compromistic exposure of subject which could be found within more formal textbook.

First,author provided brief but quintessential introduction into the very fundaments of physical and chemical properties which are relevant in those phenomenons which enable exegesis of temporal relations in the form of absolute chronology.

Second,a highly critical disscusion is given for selected materials and their specific characteristic,with conclusions about dating methods which are most appropriate,plus refference to other part of the book which deals with dating methods per se,and this was a very wise choise in semantical organisation,since it enables easy refference to particular issue.

While one could think of style as something not important with regard to books that are dealing with hard science,this is not case here,because author truly suceeded in making his presentation inteligable to readers who are not experts in nuclear physics,but are obliged to know fundaments,methods,and logic of age determination process in quaternary geology-geologists,anthropologists,paleontologists,archaeologists.

Students of these sciencies have often difficulties in finding materials of explanatory,introductory,practical and bibliographical kind,since it is often too fragmentated to be easily obtained.Up to this day,this book is absolutely the best for that purpose.

Finnaly,one must mention that within entire content,one persistant quality is wide diapazon of perspectives on subject-ranging from theoretical and empirical foundation,to such practical aspects as proper taking of samples.Richly illustrated,with strong bibliographic back-up,this is book that is definitely the most accurate scrutinisation of quarternary age determination,and one needs to follow progress in the field from other,more proptly informative sources-corections in calibration,development and refinement of method etc.-but no more to seek for book that synthetises this area of science in a fashion that is both approachable and also professional.