Geoarchaeology: An International Journal, Vol. 19, No. 3, 293–295 (2004)� 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

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Book Reviews

Enduring Records: The Environmental and Cultural Heritage Of Wetlands.

Barbara A. Purdy (Editor), 2001, Oxbow Books, Oxford, UK, 320 pp., $75.00 (hard-cover).

The 27 articles in this volume were presented as papers at a conference on wetland archaeology heldat the University of Florida, Gainesville, on December 1–5, 1999. Scientists from 17 countries presentedthe results of their research and discussed items of importance to the field as a whole. The conference’scentral theme was the significance of the survival of organic materials from archaeological contexts.

For this volume, editor Barbara A. Purdy organized the papers into five general areas: Florida ar-chaeology; archaeology of the Americas (other than Florida); archaeology of the rest of the world;wetland environments; and management and conversation methods. Short biographical sketches of theauthors are presented in the front matter of the book.

In her Introduction, Dr. Purdy makes an eloquent plea for the protection of wetland environments inorder to save the cultural materials they might contain. She lists shrinkage of wetlands due to devel-opment, expanding agriculture, and peat mining among the major problems, with hopes that this pub-lication will lead to an awareness by governments, developers, and the public of the cultural and envi-ronmental heritage that is lost when wetlands are modified.

The articles selected for this volume cover not only many parts of the world, but also a wide rangeof topics including newly discovered archaeological sites and previously reported sites revisited. Othertopics include the conservation and management of wet sites, bog bodies, improved techniques forpreserving wet-site artifacts, interpretation of recovered artifacts, and one article that pushes the antiq-uity of wet-site cultural and biotic materials back to Acheulian times.

Examples of this variety include Werkler and Goren-Inbar’s report on the reconstruction of thewoody-vegetation environment at Gosher Benot Ya-aqov. This site is located in the Dead Sea Rift system, anddates to 780 ka. At least seven well-dated archaeological horizons, each yielding thousands of artifactsin situ, have been thoroughly investigated. A total of 27 genera of trees and shrubs were identified.

Improved techniques for using polyethylene glycol (PEG) for the conservation of sunken ships arereported by Hoffman. PEG has been used in the conservation of wet-site artifacts for many years (forexample, for treating the Swedish ship Vasa and the wooden artifacts form the Ozette site inWashingtonstate, USA). Research reported in Hoffman’s article describes markedly improved results achieved byusing PEG of different molecular weights in a two-step system.

Doran’s article describes continuing analysis of burial remains from Florida’s remarkable WindoverSite, where 168 partial and complete burials were excavated from a mortuary pond. For unknownreasons people living in this area between 8120 14C yr B.P. and 6900 14C yr B.P. chose to bury their deadin shallow, freshwater ponds. To date, ongoing DNA studies have failed to identify any descendantpopulation. Textiles and cordage from the Windover Bog are reported by Andrews, Adovasio, Hyland,and Illingworth. Eighty-seven fiber artifacts recovered in association with the burials at this site werepainstakingly analyzed for the materials and techniques employed and for their use or function.Andrewset al. conclude that most are pieces of cloth from lightweight rectangular or square blankets, capes,toga-like garments, or shrouds.

In 1566, Spanish bishop Diego de Landa reported to the crown that the Well of Sacrifice (El Cenotede Sagrado), a limestone sinkhole 60 m in diameter, was a place where human sacrifices were madeand where gold and other riches were thrown into the water. Coggins reports on various recoveredartifacts from this site in Yucatan, Mexico, including gold and copper bells, jade beads and carvings, awooden scepter topped with a human figure, several atlatls, more than 600 textiles, fragments of sandalsand baskets, and scores of other items.

BOOK REVIEWS

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top of textbase of textColes describes his research into artistic Bronze Age artifacts found in wetlands-peat bogs, rivers,

streams, ponds, and small lakes in Norway and Sweden. He reports that prestige or display items arerarely found in settlements or burials. He also considers Bronze Age rock art and attempts to show therelationship between this art form and the items recovered from the wetlands.

This volume demonstrates that in many parts of the world wet-site archaeology and concerns for thecultural value of wetlands are “alive and well.” It also show that this subfield of archaeology is constantlychanging, with an ever-expanding age range of sites being discovered and investigated, and with thedevelopment of new methods of excavation and new techniques for preserving perishable materials.

Barbara Purdy is to be credited for an excellent job of organizing and securing support for the inter-national wetlands conference, which lead to this volume. Her editorship is outstanding. The book offersfascinating reading for everyone interested in archaeology and is a “must” for those teaching archae-ology.

Richard D. Daugherty

2231 Marina Lane

Lacey, Washington 98503

Published online in Wiley Interscience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI:10.1002/gea.10118

The Holocene Evolution of the London Thames. J. Sidell, K. Wilkinson, R.Scaife, and N. Cameron, 2000, Museum of London Archaeology Service Monograph5, London, vii � 144 pp., £15.00 (paper).

This volume describes the excavation and studies of the environmental archaeology of the JubileeLine extension carried out in London between 1991 and 1998 by the Museum of London ArchaeologyService (MoLAS). MoLAS and authors must be congratulated on such a prompt publication—anexampleto all. The work is unusual in that, as mentioned by Martin Bell in the forward, the emphasis is explicitlyon geoarchaeology. However, the research objectives are both geoarchaeological and palaeoenviron-mental, even to the point of making a significant contribution to Quaternary science. It is refreshing tosee “sites” investigated with no demonstrable human presence in the form of artefacts, but whichcontribute to the reconstruction of lived-in past environments.

This work contains an excellent and concise review of previous environmental work in the area,although far less well covered, presumably for reasons of space, is the rich archaeological record. Thespecialties covered in the work include lithostratigraphy, pollen (Scaife), diatoms (Cameron), and sometopographic modeling. Molluscan analysis was carried out at one site, and one sediment sample wasdated by optically stimulated luminescence (OSL). The chronology is provided by 14 radiocarbon ages,a surprisingly small number considering the scale of the project.

Two substantive findings emerge relating to the tidal-freshwater transition and the lime (Tilia) de-cline. The first evidence of the incursion of tidal water is at ca. 3500 cal. yr B.P. This was preceded bychannel contraction at ca. 5300 cal. yr B.P. that appears to be a fluvial event and unrelated to estuarinesedimentation. After a period of flux at 3000 cal. yr B.P., the tidal influence had reached Westminster,giving an estimated tidal migration of 5.4 miles yr�1, although it was almost certainly an episodic mi-gration determined by both tidal and freshwater influences. Considering the human element, it is clearthat Neolithic–Bronze Age activity in the area took place in a very different environment relative toactivity during and after the later Bronze Age.

The second major finding relates to the lime decline. An initial decline in lime pollen is seen duringthe Neolithic at nearly all the sites, while a second and more diachronous decline takes place in theBronze Age. The Neolithic declines are apparently not associated with arable weeds or herbs, but theBronze Age declines are. While both are attributed to human activity and it is tempting to speculate

BOOK REVIEWS

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top of textbase of textabout the relative role of pastoral and mixed farming in the local Neolithic and Bronze Age, the authors

do point out important taphonomic considerations and the possible aquatic source of some of the pollen.This question could perhaps be addressed in greater detail with a more in depth discussion of sitehistory in relation to flooding and the palynological indicators of derived pollen, including grain con-dition and pre-Quaternary pollen and spores. The lithostratigraphy could also have been augmented byloss on ignition curves for carbon content, and grain-size curves that could have related to local sedi-mentation conditions.

This reviewer has some niggling points, such as the colorful but not very detailed location maps, alack of stratigraphic keys on some diagrams, and the nonstandard nature of other figures. On a moreserious level, the last chapter on the interaction of environmental change and human habitation is theweakest. This is hardly surprising given the explicitly environmental aim of the work and the limitedcultural data presented. This will no doubt be remedied over the next few years, especially when theseresults are evaluated in relation to data from the ongoing Tidal Thames Foreshore Project (EnglishHeritage). Both these projects illustrate how rich the environmental evidence can be from underneathand within our cityscapes. Hopefully this will help dispel the myth that urban archaeology is all cellarsand latrines.

We have under London, and other floodplain cities, a rich sequence of sediments packed with pa-laeoenvironmental evidence. When the paleoenvironmental data are related to the archaeologicalrecord, our understanding of the development and growth of these major urban centers will be en-hanced. The volume does provide the basis for a truly integrated account of the archaeology of theLondon Thames and is, therefore, of great value and highly recommended to both environmental spe-cialists and non-specialist archaeologists.

Tony Brown

School of Geography and Archaeology

Rennes Drive

Amory Building

University of Exeter

Exeter EX4 4RJ, United Kingdom

Published online in Wiley Interscience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI:10.1002/gea.10119