The familiar archaeological record is the record that we see with the naked eye. The record that we do not see with the naked eye is as large and as fascinating as the visual macroscopic record. Instruments are needed, however, to reveal this microscopic record. The aim of this book is to provide archaeologists interested in exploring both the macroscopic and microscopic records with broad-ranging and basic conceptual information on the types of information that may be embedded in the microscopic records of their sites, the conditions under which this information can be extracted, and the means for assessing the reliability of this information. This is not a book about methods, nor a book about materials chemistry (although both are important); rather, it is a book about archaeology beyond the visual record. I have therefore called this book Microarchaeology.

For many years now, the trend in archaeology, and especially in prehistory, has been to excavate less but to extract more information from the archaeological record. This not only involves making better use of remote sensing and global positioning systems and better documentation of the macroscopic record, it also involves extracting as much information as possible from the microscopic record. It is hoped that this book will facilitate access to the microscopic record for all interested archaeologists and enable the specialists and archaeological scientists to obtain a broader view of the potential of the microscopic record.