Trial by Soil

Our understanding of Earth's geological history is a culmination of relative and absolute dating methods that have been constantly refined over the past several centuries. Understanding the evolution of extinct human ancestors is vital to complete the picture of the Geologic Time Scale and its correlation to prehistoric archaeological time periods. A fundamental aspect of differentiating these two distinct ways of classifying time periods lies in some of the earliest evidence of the Stone Age. It is here that the impact of hominins and early humans left significant traces of past activity that drive the symmetry of geoscience and anthropological inquiry, which provide the foundations for archaeological investigations. For this reason, it is crucial for the practicing archaeologist to maintain a working knowledge and habituated understanding of how Earth's geological processes influenced the formation of the archaeological record. It is also important to understand the relationship between archaeological material and the depositional circumstances from which they were uncovered. This book serves as a practical guide and reference manual on the history of geologic time, geologic time periods themselves, the prehistoric ages, archaeological periods, paleoanthropology, geophysics, archaeometry, and geoarchaeology. It is for those who seek the past in order to understand the future of humankind.