Archaeology studies of prehistoric sites are supplemented by evidence of late Quaternary geomorphology, stratigraphy, and soils. When combined with studies of post-occupational disturbance through bioturbation, pedotubation, and erosion, those historic records may be used to calibrate recent processes of site formation. Recently they have submitted a Technique Development Proposal to the National Science Foundation's Archeometry Program. They propose studying several aspects of direct input of artifact, bone, and obsidian hydration-rim images using a video camera and without handling specimens. That promises to be more efficient and accurate than hand measurements.
Much field work continues to center on the eastern Mediterranean.
Charles and Dorothy Vitaliano, Indiana University, Bloomington, note that their bibliography of Santorini references contains 241 entries. The recent discovery of Theran pumice ash in a late Minoan stratigraphic context on Pserira, off the coast of Crete, is the fifth such find, and reinforces the conclusion of G.R. Rapp Jr., University of Minnesota, Duluth, the Vitalianos, and others, that the eruption was not responsible for the final destruction on Crete. Fragments of Theran Bronze Age volcanic ash were discovered in 1985 in cores samples taken from the Nile Delta by D.J. Stanley, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., and others. The study was part of a regional multi disciplinary program to interpret the late Quaternary to Recent history of the Delta. More than 100 radiocarbon dates are now available.