| List of figures | p. xii |
| List of tables | p. xv |
| Preface | p. xvii |
| Acknowledgments | p. xx |
| Glossary | p. xxii |
| Introduction | p. 1 |
| Environmental Archaeology and Human Ecology | p. 3 |
| Organization of this volume | p. 4 |
| Interdependence | p. 5 |
| Elaborating culture | p. 8 |
| Goals of paleoenvironmental studies | p. 17 |
| Concepts for Paleoenvironmental Reconstruction | p. 20 |
| Paleoenvironmental reconstruction in archaeology | p. 23 |
| Causation and systemic relationships | p. 31 |
| The emerging challenge to causal thinking | p. 33 |
| Mechanisms of Environmental Change | p. 36 |
| Geographic concepts | p. 37 |
| Climatic concepts | p. 37 |
| Environmental change in external factors | p. 41 |
| Environmental change in the five spheres | p. 48 |
| Human Responses to Environmental Change | p. 63 |
| Scales of environmental change | p. 67 |
| Human strategic options | p. 72 |
| Implications for environmental archaeology | p. 77 |
| Chronology | p. 81 |
| Introduction to Chronometry and Correlation | p. 83 |
| Measuring time | p. 85 |
| Calibration | p. 87 |
| Seasonal clocks and biological rhythms | p. 91 |
| Stratification and stratigraphy | p. 96 |
| Chronometry based on diagenetic changes | p. 101 |
| Summary | p. 106 |
| Measuring Time with Isotopes and Magnetism | p. 107 |
| Chronometry based on radioactive decay | p. 107 |
| Chronometry based on radiation damage | p. 121 |
| Chronometry based on cosmogenic nuclides | p. 125 |
| Chronometry based on the Earth's magnetic field | p. 126 |
| Summary | p. 130 |
| Case Study: The elusiveness of time | p. 132 |
| Climate | p. 137 |
| Climate: The Driving Forces | p. 139 |
| Scales in time and space | p. 140 |
| Factors operating at large (mega- and macro-) scales | p. 144 |
| Factors at macro- to micro-scales | p. 148 |
| Mechanisms involved in a meso-scale climatic reversal | p. 158 |
| Coda | p. 162 |
| Climate Reconstruction | p. 163 |
| Defining climate at large scales | p. 164 |
| Defining climate at meso- and micro-scales | p. 176 |
| Coda | p. 187 |
| Case Study: When is an environmental change a climatic change? | p. 188 |
| Geomorphology | p. 193 |
| Landforms | p. 195 |
| Introduction to geomorphology | p. 197 |
| Scales of landform analyses | p. 198 |
| Processes and concepts in landform analyses | p. 201 |
| Basic geomorphological methods | p. 213 |
| Landforms at mega- and macro-scales (]10[superscript 4]km[superscript 2]; 10[superscript 6-9] years) | p. 217 |
| Landforms at meso-scales ([10[superscript 4]km[superscript 2]) | p. 219 |
| Landforms at micro-scale ([1km[superscript 2]) | p. 225 |
| Landforms of Shores and Shallow Water | p. 227 |
| Coastal geomorphic concepts and processes | p. 227 |
| Methods of landform reconstruction | p. 237 |
| Coastal landforms with archaeological sites | p. 243 |
| Coda | p. 250 |
| Case Study: Landform reconstruction at Laetoli, Tanzania | p. 251 |
| Sediments and Soils | p. 255 |
| Basic Principles of Sedimentology and Soils Science | p. 257 |
| Introductory concepts | p. 257 |
| Study techniques in sedimentology | p. 262 |
| Pedogenesis and diagenesis | p. 279 |
| Soil science | p. 288 |
| Coda | p. 290 |
| Archaeological Matrices | p. 291 |
| Messages in the matrix | p. 291 |
| Terrestrial matrices | p. 296 |
| Wet and frozen site environments | p. 314 |
| Coda | p. 318 |
| Case Study: Did the Classical civilizations destroy their own agricultural lands? | p. 320 |
| Vegetation | p. 327 |
| Concepts and Methods in Paleobotany | p. 329 |
| Macrobotanical remains (Plantae and Fungi) | p. 332 |
| Microbotanical remains: pollen and spores | p. 343 |
| Microbotanical remains in mineral form | p. 362 |
| Chemical traces and proxy data | p. 365 |
| Coda | p. 368 |
| Vegetation in Paleoecology | p. 369 |
| Assembling the database | p. 369 |
| Scales of reconstruction | p. 375 |
| Communities in paleoecology | p. 381 |
| Landscapes with people | p. 390 |
| Plants in people | p. 396 |
| Discussion | p. 401 |
| Case Study: The paleoecology of the elm decline | p. 403 |
| Fauna | p. 409 |
| Faunal Paleoenvironments: Concepts and Methods | p. 411 |
| Animal Kingdom | p. 414 |
| Vertebrates | p. 421 |
| Invertebrates | p. 433 |
| Coda | p. 443 |
| Faunal Paleoecology | p. 444 |
| Reconstructing faunal environments | p. 445 |
| From assemblages to associations | p. 454 |
| Responses to habitat change: behavior and physiology | p. 463 |
| Coda | p. 467 |
| Humans Among Animals | p. 468 |
| Human effects in animal ecosystems | p. 469 |
| Animals as human foods | p. 477 |
| Paleopathology | p. 482 |
| Coda | p. 488 |
| Case Study: How do we read these bones? Seasons of use at Star Carr | p. 489 |
| Integration | p. 495 |
| Anthropocentric Paleoecology | p. 497 |
| The many variables of environmental studies | p. 502 |
| Implications for research practice | p. 509 |
| Example of successful integration and interpretation | p. 515 |
| A future for paleoenvironmental studies | p. 520 |
| References | p. 523 |
| Index | p. 577 |
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