This concept formed the foundation upon which alchemy was built. I found this cover an appropriate step back since this volume was more than a step back from the preceding two. Finding the right path and staying on it are among the most difficult accomplishments in any science. Led by Jones' paper in the first volume, the first two proceedings strove towards this goal, but the spirit was lost in the third as a step back to ill-defined elements was often made. Questions need to be constantly asked.
Effort has to be expended into maintaining high standards.
We can only hope the participants of the fourth meeting, held in February 1997, can reach for the level of scholarship and conscious evaluation achieved in their first two proceedings. We look forward to the papers from a very large debate on the earliest arrival of humans to Australia, at the heart of which is the dating methods of thermoluminescence and radiocarbon, their limitations and accuracy. Watching the close of the radiocarbon lab at the Australian National University, one can only hope that the world is not seeing the collapse of Archaeometry or Archaeological Science in Australia. Archaeometry in Australia was off to a wonderful start as evidenced by the first two volumes in this series. The first two meetings succeeded in reaching a much larger audience including field archaeologists and historians.