Ethnopalynology - Pollen Analysis in Land and Underwater Archaeology

Using pollen to answer questions from the past or from the present is a useful and interesting pursuit that is continually changing the ways in which we view our world, our ancestors and ourselves. New avenues of study are constantly evolving within the science of palynology and especially ethnopalynology to bring to light new information that was not available because of methodology, lack of understanding or both. Ethnopalynology is defined as any information that may be derived from pollen data that is indicative of human activity from the past or present in an archaeological context. In this book I explore new avenues of how to process pollen from a variety of materials and contexts including the history, terminology, techniques, and theories of ethnopalynology as it pertains to archaeology. The purpose of this book is to provide a handbook for archaeologists or anyone interested in the application of ethnopalynology to attain a better understanding of what pollen data can and cannot be used for, and how to sample for pollen in a variety of archaeological con-texts.