Einfuhrung in Die Geo-Archaologie Des Vorderen Orients (Book Review‪)‬

Einfuhrung in die Geo-Archaologie des Vorderen Orients, by WERNER NUTZEL. Wiesbaden: REICHERT VERLAG, 2004. Pp. xviii + 291, illus. [euro]29 (paper). This book begins with a somewhat awkward definition of geoarchaeology. Nutzel argues that geoarchaeology consists of combining geoscience publications with archaeological knowledge to solve unanswered archaeological and philological questions. In recent years, however, many geoarchaeologists have shown that geoarchaeology is also an active and dynamic field discipline in the pursuit of solving archaeological and philological questions (e.g., Brown 1997, Goldberg et al. 2001, and French 2003). The definition indicates what Nutzel intends to do with this book, offering a summary of published environmental works with relevance to archaeology. This, however, is a necessary task, since so much has been published and so little summarized into a coherent and up-to-date overview.