Landuse and landscape
Thursday 3rd July: 16:00 - 18:002 hour session: 5-10 minute position papers followed by discussion to conclude
Melissa Goodman-Elgar (Washington State University)
Helen Lewis (University College Dublin, UCD School of Archaeology)
Charles Frederick (Independent Consulting Geoarchaeologist-Geologist)
Abstract
In this session, we will address the significant contributions of geoarchaeological research to the understanding of anthropogenic landscapes and landuse practices. Geosciences methods are particularly well suited to the study of landscape evolution in general and human landuse activities in particular. However, in their own fields (i.e. soil science, environmental studies), these methods are often applied narrowly to contemporary farming practices and recent changes to natural systems. Archaeological research expands both the temporal and behavioral range of case studies. For instance, recent research provides significant contributions to the processes of anthrosol formation and the temporality of human impacts in both plaggen and terra preta contexts.
Within archaeology, the reconstruction of paleolandscapes and the roles human agents played in their creation have long been central to archaeological interpretation, particularly for complex societies with intensive landuse practices. The explosion of interest in landscape archaeology in the last 10 years has yet to be linked up with concomitant geoarchaeological studies. These rich data sources are an important potential for the development of landscape approaches. In addition, geoarchaeological research is creating a more complex understanding of aboriginal landscape management in non-farming societies, further dispelling the myths of pristine unaltered landscapes before European colonization. We invite researchers to present their work on these and related themes in this session. We hope that contributors will draw out both the specifics of their methodologies as well as the theoretical implications of their results.
Papers
- Experimental archaeology of palaeosols in the UK
Martin Bell - Assessing the personal space of the metalworker
Effie Photos-Jones, Allan Hall - Social contexts of anthropogenic soil formation in Ireland
Thomas Cummins - The geoarcheology and archeobotany of archaeological site JpEi-10, Igloo Island, Quaqtaq, Nunavik, Canada
Najat Bhiry, Marguerie Dominique - Archaeological site Cangas I: geoarchaeological survey in the Araguaia River valley, Brazil
Rosicler Silva, Julio Rubin de Rubin, Olivia Rosa, Eric Faustino - Ecological histories and contingencies from northern Ethiopia: Aksumite cultures in context
Federica Sulas - Land-use and landscape: geoarcheological approaches to understanding Etrusco-Campanian sites in south Italy
Alfonso Santoriello, Amedeo Rossi, Francesco Scelza - Complexity on the margin: environmental change and socio-economic transformation in the Tehran Plain and the development of water management
Gavin Gillmore - The Green Desert: pre-Islamic landscapes of southern Arabia
Julien Charbonnier - Agricultural landuse and landscapes in the Argentinean Andes
María Korstanje, Patricia Cuenya, Verónica Williams - A geoarchaeological study on rice agriculture in South Korea during the Bronze Age
Heejin Lee - The Angkorian hydrological landscape: reconstructing the causes and effects
Sam Player - Misinterpreting and reinterpreting the earthworks of Tikal, Guatemala
Jay Silverstein
- A Landscape Classification System for Archaeologists
- Hydraulic systems of the Bronze Age in the Po plain (Northern Italy): a multidisciplinary approach
- Middle-Pleistocene to late Holocene exploitation of the Kufra area (SE Sahara, Libya)
- Shielings in the Gråfjell area - an almost 1000 year old tradition
- Soil use from late Chalcolithic to the Middle Bronze age. New data from buried soils of the middle Po plain (northern Italy)
- The Gråfjell Project, Eastern Norway. Investigations of archaeological sites and monuments
Associated Posters
