The Geoarchaeology of River Valleys, 2004, 220 p., nbr. ill. -

The present volume is a collection of papers presented at the 8th annual meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists (EAA), held in Thessaloniki, Greece, 24–29 September, 2002. In the past decade or so, interest in the geoarchaeology of river valleys has been increasing continuously among archaeologists and geologists alike. Access to water, the subsistence of life, determined human activities at all times. Knowing that rivers were an important source of fresh water and also provided a means of communication, proximity to inland surface water resources – streams, rivers, lakes – was an important factor in choosing an appropriate place for settling in the past. Rivers play a significant role in the natural environment in the process of culture and social pattern formation from the Palaeolithic up to recent times. The papers in the volume concentrate on the following topics: how the interrelationship between man and the natural environment contributed to changes in the settlement network system and economy; the river valley in context of climatic and cultural changes; the river as a means of communication; the river as a border between communities; and the impact of natural and anthropogenic factors on the Late Glacial-Holocene evolution of river valleys.