Geoarchaeology: The Earth-science Approach to Archaeological Interpretation - Brossura

Rapp, George Robert; Hill, Christopher L.

Brossura

ISBN 10: 0300109660 ISBN 13: 9780300109665

Casa editrice: Yale Univ Pr, 2006

Riassunto

An integrated approach to geoarchaeology, framing geologic concepts within an archaeological context—"probably the most comprehensive treatise on geoarchaeology yet written." (Vance Haynes, University of Arizona)

An indispensable book for all professionals and students interested in the field of geoarchaeology, including those with limited earth-science experience, this new edition of Geoarchaeology builds on the success and innovation of the first edition and includes updates, new concepts and examples, an enhanced bibliography, and many new illustrations.  The second edition begins by considering the history and theory of geoarchaeology.  Rapp and Hill then move to discussions of soils and environmental interpretations; initial context and site formation; methods of discovery and spatial analyses; estimating time; paleoenvironments, landscapes, and the human past; identifying, analyzing, and sourcing raw materials; and construction, destruction, and conservation of sites and materials.  

"[This book] covers a wide range of topics . . . with clarity and balance. . . . [The] chapters are all well written and have concise introductory discussions that are not too detailed and not too brief. . . . Beautifully produced."—Michael Waters, Geoarchaeology: An International Journal (on the first edition)

Su questo libro

Informazioni sugli autori

George (Rip) Rapp is Regents Professor Emeritus of Geoarchaeology and was formerly director of the Archaeometry Laboratory at the University of Minnesota. Christopher L. Hill is an assistant professor in the department of anthropology at Boise State University, Boise, Idaho. 

George (Rip) Rapp is Regents Professor Emeritus of Geoarchaeology and was formerly director of the Archaeometry Laboratory at the University of Minnesota. Christopher L. Hill is an assistant professor in the department of anthropology at Boise State University, Boise, Idaho. 

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Geoarchaeology

The Earth-Science Approach to Archaeological Interpretation By George Rapp Christopher L. Hill

Yale University Press

Copyright © 2006 Yale University
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-300-10966-5

Contents

Preface to the Second Edition........................................................................xiPreface to the First Edition.........................................................................xiii1 Theory and History.................................................................................1The Scope of Geoarchaeology..........................................................................1Archaeology and the Earth Sciences...................................................................4Foundational Phase: Before 1900......................................................................5Collaborative Phase: 1900-1950.......................................................................10Integrative Phase: After 1950........................................................................16Changing the Guard...................................................................................202 Sediments Soils and Environmental Interpretations..................................................25Sediments............................................................................................25Weathering...........................................................................................26Transportation.......................................................................................27Postdepositional Changes.............................................................................28Archaeological Implications..........................................................................28Classification of Sedimentation Products.............................................................29Clastic Deposits.....................................................................................29Gravel...............................................................................................32Sand.................................................................................................33Mud..................................................................................................34Chemical Deposition..................................................................................35Calcareous Precipitates..............................................................................36Noncalcareous Precipitates...........................................................................36Organic Matter.......................................................................................37Soils and Buried Soils...............................................................................38The Soil Profile.....................................................................................39Soil Types...........................................................................................41Entisols.............................................................................................41Vertisols............................................................................................41Inceptisols..........................................................................................41Mollisols............................................................................................41Alfisols.............................................................................................42Ultisols.............................................................................................42Spodosols............................................................................................42Aridosols............................................................................................42Histosols............................................................................................42Paleosols and Buried Soils...........................................................................43Inferring Environments from Physical and Chemical Parameters.........................................45Color................................................................................................45Cementation and Induration...........................................................................47Texture..............................................................................................47Structure............................................................................................53Composition..........................................................................................54Boundaries...........................................................................................58Micromorphology......................................................................................593 Initial Context and Site Formation.................................................................60The Creation of the Archaeological Record............................................................60Stages of Site Formation.............................................................................62Initial Landscapes and Original Occupation...........................................................62Sedimentary Contexts.................................................................................63Desert Depositional Systems..........................................................................64The Effects of Wind..................................................................................64The Effects of Moisture..............................................................................65Desert System Site Formation.........................................................................66Alluvial Depositional Systems: Flowing Water.........................................................67Depositional Contexts................................................................................68Site Formation in Alluvial Settings..................................................................75Lakes and Associated Basin Settings..................................................................78Basin Deposits.......................................................................................78Site Formation in Basin Settings.....................................................................80Cave and Rock Shelter Depositional Systems...........................................................81Limestone Caves......................................................................................81Sandstone Caves and Rock Shelters....................................................................85Igneous Rock Caves...................................................................................85Site Formation in Caves..............................................................................85The Glacial System...................................................................................86Coastal and Marine Depositional Settings.............................................................90Coastal Processes and Site Formation.................................................................91Coastal Landscape Context............................................................................95Postdepositional Processes...........................................................................98Mass Wasting.........................................................................................99Cryoturbation........................................................................................99Bioturbation.........................................................................................1004 Methods of Discovery and Spatial Analyses..........................................................103Maps.................................................................................................103Landform Sediment Assemblages........................................................................109Settlement Patterns..................................................................................109Remote Sensing.......................................................................................110Geophysical Prospecting..............................................................................111Magnetometry and Magnetic Properties of Soils and Sediments..........................................113Electrical Resistivity...............................................................................115Electromagnetic Conductivity.........................................................................116Ground Penetrating Radar.............................................................................116Seismic Profiling....................................................................................117Magnetic Analysis....................................................................................118Aerial Photography...................................................................................118Satellite and Airborne Remote Sensing................................................................120Dowsing..............................................................................................121Geochemical Prospecting and Analysis.................................................................122Core Drilling........................................................................................125Locating Water Resources.............................................................................129Geographic Information Systems.......................................................................129The Complexities of Scale............................................................................1305 Estimating Time....................................................................................132Climate Change and Time..............................................................................133Artifacts and Dating.................................................................................134Stratigraphy.........................................................................................135Rhythmites (Varves)..................................................................................136Paleosols in Loess and Alluvium......................................................................139Tephrochronology.....................................................................................142Dating Using Animal and Plant Fossils................................................................143Paleontology.........................................................................................143Dendrochronology.....................................................................................144Radiometric Dating Methods...........................................................................144Potassium-Argon and Argon-Argon Dating...............................................................144Uranium-Series Dating................................................................................146Radiocarbon Dating...................................................................................147Other Dating Methods.................................................................................153Fission-Track Dating.................................................................................153Paleomagnetic and Archaeomagnetic Dating.............................................................153Electron Spin Resonance and Luminescence Dating......................................................156Temperature-Affected Dating..........................................................................160Amino Acid Racemization and Epimerization............................................................160Hydration (Obsidian).................................................................................160Dating Techniques Based on Chemical Accumulation.....................................................162Chemical Analysis....................................................................................162Dating Exposed Surfaces..............................................................................163Patination and Desert Varnish........................................................................163Cosmogenic Nuclides..................................................................................1636 Paleoenvironmental Reconstructions: Landscapes and the Human Past..................................165Environmental and Landscape Change...................................................................165Inferring Environmental Change.......................................................................166Ecology and Landscape Change.........................................................................167Terrestrial (Non-marine) Geoecologic Data from Lake Records..........................................168Plant (Botanical) Indicators.........................................................................169Microfossils.........................................................................................169Pollen...............................................................................................169Phytoliths...........................................................................................172Diatoms..............................................................................................174Macrofossils.........................................................................................175Animal Indicators....................................................................................176Invertebrates........................................................................................176Ostracods............................................................................................176Mollusks.............................................................................................178Insects..............................................................................................179Vertebrates..........................................................................................180Mammal Fossil Remains................................................................................180Bird Fossil Remains..................................................................................181Reptile and Amphibian Fossil Remains.................................................................182Fish Fossil Remains..................................................................................182Other Ecologic Accumulations.........................................................................183Pack-Rat Middens.....................................................................................183Peat.................................................................................................183Geochemical Indicators...............................................................................183Environmental Change and Archaeological Explanations.................................................186Human Habitats and Geoecology........................................................................186Tectonics Climates Landscapes and the Human Past.....................................................188Microclimates........................................................................................191Human Interaction with Environment and Its Effects on Climate........................................1927 Raw Materials and Resources........................................................................195Definitions..........................................................................................195Minerals.............................................................................................196Chert and Chalcedony.................................................................................196Semiprecious Stones..................................................................................197Other Archaeologically Important Minerals............................................................199Metals and Ores......................................................................................202Rocks................................................................................................207Shells...............................................................................................210Clays................................................................................................211Building Materials...................................................................................213Building Stone.......................................................................................214Burnt Brick..........................................................................................215Mortar...............................................................................................215Other Materials......................................................................................216Pigments.............................................................................................217Abrasives............................................................................................218Rock and Mineral Recovery............................................................................218Water................................................................................................2198 Sourcing (Provenance)..............................................................................222Geologic Deposits....................................................................................224Materials Used in Sourcing...........................................................................225Obsidian.............................................................................................225Sourcing Other Igneous and Metamorphic Rocks.........................................................226Chert................................................................................................227Marble...............................................................................................228Clay.................................................................................................229Temper...............................................................................................229Amber................................................................................................230Bitumen..............................................................................................230Soft Stone Other Rocks and Semiprecious Minerals.....................................................230Native Copper........................................................................................231Complex Copper Minerals..............................................................................232Tin..................................................................................................232Lead Silver and Gold.................................................................................234Sourcing Methods.....................................................................................235Trace-Element Analyses...............................................................................235Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis.............................................................236X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometry......................................................................237Isotope Analysis/Mass Spectrometry 237DNA..................................................................................................238Mineral Magnetism....................................................................................238Other Analytical Methods.............................................................................238Petrographic Analysis................................................................................238Statistics and Data Analysis.........................................................................2429 Construction Destruction Archaeological Resource Preservation and Conservation.....................244Geotechnology........................................................................................244Construction.........................................................................................245Dams.................................................................................................245Canals...............................................................................................246Fields and Raised Fields.............................................................................247Roads................................................................................................248Excavation (Mines and Quarries)......................................................................248Natural Burial and Site Formation....................................................................249Rock Properties and Weathering.......................................................................250Destruction..........................................................................................250Weathering...........................................................................................251Pollution............................................................................................252Water................................................................................................254Erosion and Subsidence in Archaeology................................................................256Erosion..............................................................................................256Land Subsidence......................................................................................256Geologic "Catastrophes" and the Human Past...........................................................257Earthquakes and Seismic Disturbance..................................................................257Floods and Flood Legends.............................................................................262Volcanoes............................................................................................263Site Preservation....................................................................................265Site Preservation Problems...........................................................................265Reservoirs...........................................................................................267Hilltops or Slopes...................................................................................268Seismicity...........................................................................................268Site Stabilization...................................................................................268Earth Burial.........................................................................................269Archaeological/Cultural Resource Management..........................................................270Resource Management..................................................................................270Conservation.........................................................................................271Materials Preservation...............................................................................271Corrosion............................................................................................27110 Epilogue..........................................................................................273The Future...........................................................................................273The Future of Geoarchaeology within Archaeology......................................................273Notes................................................................................................277Glossary.............................................................................................287Bibliography.........................................................................................291Index................................................................................................319

Chapter One

Theory and History

Knowledge is a continuum, like the sphere of the earth but with the uninterrupted vastness of a universe.-Roald Fryxell 1977

Geoarchaeology is critical to understanding the archaeological record and the human past. Indeed, the earth sciences play a pivotal role in interpreting evidence of the human past in terms of both concepts and techniques. The antecedents for using an earth-science approach in evaluating the archaeological record lie in the history of the disciplines, beginning with the concern in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries for an appreciation of "prehistoric" time and the development of basic principles, moving into the twentieth century with the collaboration between natural scientists and archaeologists, and arriving at the present with the convergence of the two disciplines in a number of areas. Throughout the history of this interaction, ideas and methods originating with the earth sciences have been used to study the processes involved in the formation of the sedimentary archaeological record, to infer the paleoenvironmental settings associated with archaeological sites, to develop chronological frameworks, and to measure and classify the physical characteristics of artifacts and geofacts. Here we offer an overview of this history and explore how the geoarchaeological approach attempts to evaluate and understand the archaeological record and the dynamic forces that produced it.

The Scope of Geoarchaeology

The term geoarchaeology (or, less commonly, geoarchaeology) has been used with increasing frequency since the 1970s to designate a variety of types of research that use geoscience techniques in the evaluation of the archaeological record. The labeling of research as an aspect or a subsidiary of geoarchaeology depends in part on whether the term is used to designate a narrower, more focused set of concepts and methods or a broader, more inclusive set. There are many viewpoints concerning what can appropriately be called geoarchaeology. Lars-Konig Konigsson, for example, contrasts geoarchaeology with archaeogeology. In his view, archaeogeology is a complementary science that is useful in describing deposits related to archaeological material. It is seen as having an advisory role in archaeological interpretation. Konigsson describes geoarchaeology, in contrast, as a study in which the geologist tries to determine the "cultural" development of an area; geologists are not in direct collaboration with archaeologists and rely exclusively on geologic materials and methods. Reid Ferring's definition of geoarchaeology emphasizes the changes in archaeological perspective since the advent of Lewis Binford's "New Archaeology." As practiced, Ferring sees geoarchaeology as a "grossly empirical approach to archaeological problems" or the "new empiricism." In perhaps its broadest sense and theway the term is used in this book geoarchaeology refers to the application of any earth-science concept, technique, or knowledge base to the study of artifacts and the processes involved in the creation of the archaeological record. Geoarchaeology thus becomes "the geoscience tradition within archaeology ... [that] deals with earth history within the time frame of human history" or that "implies archaeological research using the methods and concepts of the earth sciences." However, the term has also been limited specifically to the study and interpretation of sediments and physical landscapes. As Charles French has commented, the more narrow definition of geoarchaeology that emphasizes the study of soils and sediments serves as a basis for the study of landscape evolution and the human past.

There is also the question of the relation between geoarchaeology and archaeological geology. Our view is that geoarchaeology is part of archaeology. It is the part that uses geoscience methods, concepts, and knowledge base. The geo-modifies the noun archaeology. An example of geoarchaeology would be the study of archaeo-logical sediments in an excavation: the frame-work and questions posed are strictly archaeo-logical with the goal of understanding the human past. In contrast, archaeological geology is geo-logic research that has direct relevance to one or more archaeological contexts. Coastal change studies that determine shoreline migration, the filling in of estuaries, or the expansion of deltas in archaeologically important areas fit this definition. Geologists routinely investigate the changes in land-sea boundaries that have transpired over hundreds of millions of years. This research is not archaeological per se. A historically interesting example of what we would consider within the scope of archaeological geology is found in the comments by Helmut de Terra, published in Science in 1934: "I had been working in Northern India and ... found an artifact ... due to my ignorance I was unable, temporarily, to use it for my stratigraphic work.... [H]ad I known then, as I do now, that the tool belonged to an early Levalloisian type ... associated with Middle Pleistocene strata, I would have had a definite lead to guide my work in Pleistocene stratigraphy." In this case information derived from archaeological studies would have been applied to answer a geological issue. Also, when paleogeomorphic maps of dramatic landscape changes in such significant archaeological terrain as Ancient Troy, Ancient Carthage, or the east coast of North America are undertaken because of the sites' archaeological importance, such studies can be considered archaeological geology. Many kinds of geologic investigations in archaeological contexts lie between these two extremes. The geoarchaeology label has been applied by researchers from a wide range of earth-science disciplines (in addition to archaeology itself), including stratigraphy, sedimentology, geomorphology, pedology, petrology, petrography, geochemistry, geophysics, paleontology, marine geology, geochronology, and climatology. Almost every subdiscipline in geology has concepts, methods, and a knowledge base that can contribute to the solution of archaeological problems.

Geoarchaeology in its widest scope or most encompassing form is the application of these earth-science disciplines and subfields to the study of the archaeological record. The key criterion is that archaeological interpretations are produced using earth-science-based ideas or methods. Because geo- modifies archaeology, geoarchaeology must be defined as a type of archaeology, one in which the fundamental goal of archaeology is understood to be the study of the artifactual record and where any physical object, feature, or landscape either made or altered by humans (including extinct hominids) is considered an artifact. We are aware that this is a rather strict, bare-bones definition of archaeology, designed to accommodate research focused on inferring past anthropological behavior as well as research that seeks to evaluate nonbehavioral features of the archaeological record. In our view a major goal of archaeology is to evaluate and understand past human behavior, but a broader goal is to understand all the processes that contribute to the final artifactual context available for observation and study.

Where geoarchaeology fits in relation to other disciplines and subdisciplines has been the subject of a surprising amount of discussion. When viewed from the broad perspective, geoarchaeology would include many aspects of archaeometry, environmental archaeology, archaeological science, Quaternary geology and geography (including geomorphology, physical geography, geoecology, and biogeography), taphonomy, and bridging (middle-range) theory. From another perspective, geoarchaeology is principally a part of the framework for an ecologic or contextual approach to archaeology (not to be confused with the very different "contextual archaeology" as an aspect of postprocessual archaeology). There have even been those who would classify archaeology as a subdivision of the natural sciences or natural history or as a branch of Late Quaternary geology, where geology is understood, following Amadeus W. Graubau, as "the science of the entire earth." The viewpoint expressed by Frederick H. West supports such an archaeogeologic perspective: "Archaeology ... is an earth science."

Waters has thoughtfully proposed applying the terms geoarchaeology and archaeometry for different aspects of the geoscience-archaeology connection. Whereas the scope of geoarchaeology would include documenting site stratigraphy, determining site formation processes, and reconstructing landscape-human interaction, archaeometry would include the application of the geosciences to archaeological prospecting, provenance, and dating.

It could be proposed, then, that geoarchaeology represents a particular focus of archaeology that may be considered, along with climatology, hydrology, lithology, and ecology, as a subdivision of earth science in the broadest sense. Indeed, it has been suggested that archaeological sites are really geologic sites containing remains that are of interest to archaeologists. Aspects of geoarchaeology, in turn, can be considered from the viewpoints of "dynamics," "structure," and "chronology" (when archaeology is viewed as one of the historical natural sciences). Dynamics deals with the effects of physical and chemical forces and is process-oriented. Structure deals with composition and arrangement of materials. Chronology and history are concerned with time, origins, and development. Archaeology has been considered a natural science of the archaeological record,11 and it can be viewed as a division of the earth sciences, especially in terms of some methodological practices. However, the archaeological record can be evaluated and interpreted even more thoroughly by considering dynamics, structure, and history (both chronology and development through time). In contrast to most other physical and natural sciences, geology (in the restricted sense), paleontology, and archaeology share these concerns.

The behavioral aspects of archaeology are the focus of anthropological archaeology-which is a traditional field of interest in the United States and Great Britain. From a geoarchaeological perspective the goals of anthropological archaeology -that is, inferring past human behavior from the artifactual record-can be attained only by examining the contextual association of the artifacts and developing models to infer the behavioral and nonbehavioral factors that have produced the record. Under these circumstances, even the application of such terms as culture for what is in reality a collection of items that may or may not reveal patterns created by past human activity may not be always appropriate.

The terms geoarchaeology and archaeological geology have also been used since the 1970s to designate the earth-science aspects of archaeological studies, with the recognition that evaluations of prehistoric human behavior rely on contributions from the earth sciences. Throughout this period Karl Butzer advocated an ecologic or broadlycon-textual approach to archaeology that emphasized the application of what he called geoarchaeology: "It has been said that archaeology is anthropology or it is nothing.... I beg to differ with this view. Archaeology ... has been equally dependent on geology, biology, and geography ... during its development ... [and] is heavily dependent on ... the natural sciences."

This is similar to the point of view expressed earlier, in the 1950s, by Mortimer Wheeler, when he wrote: "Archaeology is increasingly dependent on a multitude of sciences and is itself increasingly adopting the methodology of a natural science. It draws today upon physics, chemistry, geology, biology, economics, political science, sociology, climatology, botany."

Another, more restricted use of geoarchaeology would make it analogous to zooarchaeology. From this viewpoint, geoarchaeology is focused primarily on soils, sediments, and stratigraphy (instead of life-forms). This general view is expressed in the writings of both Bruce Gladfelter and Michael Waters. Gladfelter characterizes geoarchaeology as primarily geomorphology and sedimentary petrography, whereas Waters considers the most fundamental aspects of geoarchaeology to be the field aspect of stratigraphy, site formation processes, and landscape reconstruction. David Cremeens and John Hart take a similar position, stating that geoarchaeologists attempt to answer two broad questions: (1) why were particular locations selected by prehistoric people, and (2) what events have transformed the original record of prehistoric human activity? Fekri Hassan sees the study of site formation processes as a way of interpreting the "cultural" significance of archaeological remains by elucidating the role cultural and natural factors played in shaping the archaeological record. He argues that the study of formation processes has proven that archaeologists cannot assume that artifact collections correspond to a settlement, ethnic group, or cultural activity. The study of formation processes should convince archaeologists to be careful about making cultural interpretations on the basis of the archaeological record. Broader connections between the earth sciences and archaeology such as dating techniques, provenance of artifacts, site location, and the like have been assigned by some practitioners to the realm of archaeometry. In the broader geoarchaeological approach that we advocate, such aspects of archaeometry as dating, provenance, and site location become part of geoarchaeology when they represent the application of earth-science methods to archaeological problems.

The fluidness of the definition of geoarchaeology is a manifestation of the classification process within science. One can consider geoarchaeology as a component of prehistoric archaeology that, in turn, may be considered a part of geoecology or paleogeography, which is an aspect of Quaternary geology, and so on. These research fields and subdisciplines can be considered "facies" within a broader framework of natural history and natural science focused on the evaluation of the complete Late Cenozoic record. The primary connecting point may be that these research areas attempt to observe systematically the dynamic processes that occur on the earth and to apply these observations to the inference of past conditions. In this sense archaeology is an aspect of the historical sciences much as paleontology is. Archaeology is distinct from cultural anthropology, by contrast, in the sense that past processes cannot be directly observed but must be inferred from the available record. Both ethnological anthropology and physical geology allow direct observation of dynamic processes, which in turn can be applied to an interpretation of the structural matrix of the archaeogeologic record. From this matrix the chronological and contextual sequence of events that form prehistory can be inferred.

Archaeology and the Earth Sciences

The historical connections between archaeology, especially prehistoric archaeology, and the geosciences extend back at least through the nineteenth and eighteenth centuries. Several phases in this interaction, which fit into three overlapping periods, can be identified.

The first of these periods was characterized by an integrative approach to prehistory; it can be viewed as a period where the primary concern was human antiquity. The nineteenth century traditionally has been characterized as a time when interest focused on evidence concerning the early human occupation of Europe and North America during the Ice Age. From about the 1840s through the 1920s, geology and archaeology were united in the study of evidence for human antiquity. In addition to the interest in relative chronologies, archaeosedimentary sequences (strata containing artifacts) were studied to determine what processes were involved in their formation and how to evaluate associations among artifacts and remains of extinct fauna.

(Continues...)

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Dettagli dell?edizione

• Editore: Yale Univ Pr
• Data di pubblicazione: 2006
• Lingua: Inglese
• ISBN 10: 0300109660
• ISBN 13: 9780300109665
• Rilegatura: Copertina flessibile
• Numero edizione: 2
• Numero di pagine: 339
• Contatto del produttore: non disponibile
• Persona responsabile: non disponibile