ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of the book. The book aims to raise awareness of the missing majority, the perishable material culture of past societies and make the case for a more holistic approach to material culture. Its research shows how a holistic approach can be used to put the missing majority back into archaeological thinking. The book also aim was to demonstrate by examples and case studies how to extract information about the missing majority from the inorganic artefacts and environmental data. Archaeologists have increasingly sophisticated techniques at their disposal, especially at the level of biological and chemical markers. The human interventions in environment also shaped it, sometimes consciously but always interactively. Perishable material culture played a major role and well worth investigating the missing majority. The idea of plants and animals as material culture needs to ripple outwards through all the layers of archaeological data gathering, interpretation and presentation.
