Archaeological Flotation: A Brief Bibliography

Invented in the 1970s, the archaeological method of flotation or water separation involves the use of water (sometimes impregnated with chemicals) to recover tiny artifacts such as seeds, charcoal, nut shell fragments, micro-debitage and bone fragments from soil or feature fill deposits. Here is a collection of studies describing the technique and exploring its usefulness.

Barber, Russell J. 1983 Basic technique in land snail analysis. Plains Anthropologist 28(101):219-223.

Bodner, Connie C. and Ralph M. Rowlett 1980 Separation of bone, charcoal, and seeds by chemical flotation. American Antiquity 45(1):110-116.

Davis, E. M. and Al B. Wesolowsky 1975 The Izum: A simple water separation device. Journal of Field Archaeology 22:71-273.

French, D. H. 1971 An experiment in water-sieving. Anatolian Studies 21:59-64.

Hunter, Andrea A. and Brian R. Gassner 1998 Evaluation of the Flote-Techn machine-assisted flotation system. American Antiquity 63(1):143-156.

Kidder, Tristram R. 1997 Sugar reflotation: An alternative method for sorting flotation-derived heavy fraction samples. Journal of Field Archaeology 24(1):39-45.

Lennstrom, Heidi A. and Christine A. Hastorf 1995 Interpretation in context: Sampling and analysis in paleoethnobotany. American Antiquity 60(4):701-721.

Limp, W. F. 1974 Water separation and flotation processes. Journal of Field Archaeology 1(3):337-342.

Minnis, Paul E. and Steven A. LeBlanc 1976 An efficient, inexpensive arid lands flotation system. American Antiquity 41(4):491-493.

Rossen, Jack 1999 The Flote-Tech flotation machine: Messiah or mixed blessing? American Antiquity 64(2):370-372.

Schock, Jack M. 1971 Indoor water flotation - A technique for the recovery of archaeological materials. Plains Anthropologist 16:228-231.

Shaffer, Brian S. and Barry W. Baker 1999 Comments on James' methodological issues concerning analysis of archaeofaunal recovery and screen size correction factors. Journal of Archaeological Science 26:1181-1182.

Struever, Stuart 1968 Flotation techniques for the recovery of small-scale archaeological remains. American Antiquity 33(3):353-362.

Watson, Patty J. 1976 In pursuit of prehistoric subsistence: A comparative account of some contemporary flotation techniques. Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology 1(1):77-100.

Weaver, M. E. 1971 A new water separation process for soil from archaeological excavations. Anatolian Studies 21:65-68.