Geoarchaeology
Geoarchaeology uses methods and theories developed in the earth sciences to address
archaeological questions related to human settlement, artifacts, site taphonomy,
paleoenvironments, and more.
The Geoarchaeology research approach is truly multidisciplinary, and can be a
subfield of geology, earth sciences, or anthropology.
It incorporates and often facilitates the use of
paleoenvironmental reconstructions
the analysis of sediments and stratigraphy,
raw material sourcing
geochronology, geography and mapping
geophysical and geochemical techniques,
paleontology
Geomorphology.
These applications are important to archaeologists because they provide information
about human interactions with their prehistoric environments.
Influence on human culture
Human societies depend on resources provided by local floral and faunal
communities, water availability, and earth materials.
The extent and nature of that dependence has evolved in concert with the development
of our species.
The availability of subsistence foods and other raw materials affects cultural change.
This also can be affected by the underlying natural forces of climate and geology
influences.
Efforts to recognize and understand such relationships are inherently complex,
because of the multiple and variable spatial and temporal levels at which they interact.
Our aim is to understand the diverse variables and factors that couple human cultural
development with natural resources.
Climate + Paleoenvironments
o Seasonal variations in climate may be affected by short-term events, such as floods
and droughts, which are immediate in their impact. However, the timescales of
climate change include longer-term disturbance and change that, in most instances,
can far surpass a human lifespan.
o In addition, trends in climate can lead to profound changes that alter temperatures
and hence effect human settlement patterns, with significant consequences for the
societies rooted in the affected region.
o There is a critical need to understand and discriminate the influences of climate
versus human activity on the distribution and diversity of vegetation.
o For example, identifying the more likely cause for deforestation or desertification.
o The combination of data portraying cultural change with evidence for climate
change in a defined spatial and temporal context offers the potential to recognize
human response to environmental change.
Geology
Like geologists, geoarchaeologists are often concerned with chronology, sediments,
and stratigraphy but they try to understand these variables in the context of past
human occupation in a region.
They focus on the natural processes that directly affect
o the preservation of archaeological sites,
o the distribution of raw materials (for creating tools, art, or obtaining food),
o sediment deposition
o Geomorphological changes within archaeological sites.
The physical properties of the raw materials, coupled with the chronological and
geomorphological data, can lead to a better understanding of cultural change and
continuity through time.
The governing processes involved in the weathering of bedrock that aids the exposure,
transport, and deposition of mineral and rock resources can inform our opinions of
how far human groups travelled for resources, with whom they might have traded and
why people choose to live in certain settings.
Human settlement
The specific conditions that favour human settlements are often linked
intrinsically to resource availability.
A place of settlement is fixed in space and time to utilize the benefits provided
by the local landscape, exploiting resources.
Societies face major challenges when finite resources become depleted locally,
which can only be solved by identification of new resources or engagement in
trade, which may represent events of cultural significance.
Fluvial systems are particularly important because humans used river systems as
travel corridors and as resource extraction locales.
However, fluvial geomorphology is complicated by cyclical patterns of erosion
and deposition, resulting in site burial or removal from the archaeological
record.
Geoarchaeological methods can define the depositional and erosional
chronologies of sediments in the subsurface and help researchers predict where
sites might remain in buried contexts and is important when studying late
Pleistocene and early Holocene archaeological sites around the world.
Site taphonomic research focuses on the geological mechanisms that alter
archaeological sites through time. Geomorphological mechanisms that alter
site taphonomy include burial and erosion. The study include the assessment of
chronology, stratigraphy, micro-stratigraphy, geochemistry, and geophysical
research.
Integration of influences
Recognition of causal relationships between societal and cultural change,
climate change, and geology have helped archaeologists to a great extent.
This gives opportunity to examine in a purposeful manner how, societal change
was functionally linked to resources, or affected by climate change.
Integrated studies of all factors enable researchers in archaeology, geology, and
climatology to understand the influential forces that shape cultural evolution,
and the nature of societal responses to crises in resource availability.
Earth Sciences and Archaeology
Earth science (or geoscience) includes all fields of natural science related to
planet Earth. This is a branch of science dealing with the physical and chemical
constitution of Earth and its atmosphere.
Geoarchaeology is a multi-disciplinary approach which uses the techniques and
subject matter of geography, geology, geophysics and other Earth sciences to
examine topics which inform archaeological knowledge and thought.
Scholars brings together, the experiences of both archaeologists and geologists
with the goal of __ providing comprehensive and up-to-date assessments of the
various ways ___ in which earth science approaches may contribute
archaeological study.
There works includes:
artifacts analysis and sourcing,
landscape reconstruction and site formation analysis,
soil micromorphology
Geophysical exploration of buried sites.
Archaeology has benefited from geological methods in many ways in recent
decades.
Geoarchaeologists study the natural physical processes that affect
archaeological sites such as geomorphology, the formation of sites through
geological processes and the effects on buried sites and artifacts post-
deposition.
Scopes of Geoarchaeology
o Geoarchaeologists study the natural physical processes that affect
archaeological sites such as geomorphology, the formation of sites through
geological processes and the effects on buried sites and artifacts post-
deposition.
o Geoarchaeologists' work frequently involves studying soil and sediments as
well as other geographical concepts to contribute an archaeological study.
o Geoarchaeologists may also use computer cartography, geographic
information systems (GIS) and digital elevation models (DEM) in combination
with disciplines from human and social sciences and earth sciences.
o Geoarchaeology is important to society because it informs archaeologists
about the geomorphology of the soil, sediment, and rocks on the buried sites
and artifacts they are researching. By doing this, scientists are able to locate
ancient cities and artifacts and estimate by the quality of soil how
"prehistoric" they really are.
o Geoarchaeology is considered a sub-field of environmental archaeology
because soil can be altered by human behaviour, which archaeologists are
then able to study and reconstruct past landscapes and conditions.
o Hence, it incorporates and often facilitates the use of paleo-environmental
reconstructions, the analysis of sediments and stratigraphy, raw material
sourcing, geochronology, geography and mapping, geophysical and
geochemical techniques, paleontology, and geomorphology.
o These applications are important to archaeologists because they provide
information about human interactions with their prehistoric environments.
