BU_level2

Research Interests: Geological archaeology, micromorphology of sediments and archaeological sites, site formation process.

Paul Goldberg is a geologist by training. He is engaged in a variety of projects that concern the geological aspects of archaeological sites, particularly as they relate to the formation of archaeological sites. This research has included the study of archaeological sites, paleoenvironments and Quaternary landscape evolution in the deserts of Israel and Sinai, and the study of archaeological sediments, soils and materials using the technique of micromorphology. This technique utilizes undisturbed blocks of soil/sediment from which petrographic thin sections are made. These thin sections can be used to unravel the complex depositional and post-depositional history of deposits associated with archaeological sites. This technique has been summarized in Soils and Micromorphology in Archaeology, published by Cambridge University Press [with M.A. Courty (France) and R.I. Macphail (UK)]. His main current research projects focus on the micromorphological study of sediments from open-air sites and prehistoric caves in Israel,Turkey, South Africa, and France.

Dr. Goldberg is Associate Editor of the journal, Geoarchaeology with Rolfe Mandel, Kanses Geological Survey.

REpresentative Publications
Goldberg, P. and R.I. Macphail, 2006. Practical and Theoretical Geoarchaeology. Blackwell Publishing, Oxford

Goldberg, P., S. Schiegl, K. Meligne, C. Dayton, and N.J. Conard, 2003. Micromorphology and site formation at Hohle Fels Cave, Swabian Jura, Germany. Eiszeitalter and Gegenwart, 53: 1-25.

Formation Processes in Context. Madison, Wisconsin, Prehistory Press, Monographs in World Archaeology No. 17 (M. Petraglia and D.T. Nash co-editors, 1993).

Soils and Micromorphology in Archaeology. Cambridge University Press (co-authors: M.A. Courty, R.I. Macphail, 1989).

Micromorphological studies of a Bedouin tent floor. In: Formation Processes in Context, P. Goldberg, D.T. Nash and M. Petraglia, eds., Prehistory Press, Monographs in World Archaeology No. 17, pp. 165-188 (co-author: I. Whitbread, 1993).