from Part IV - Environmental Archaeology
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 December 2019
In its broadest definition, geoarchaeology is the study of the archaeological record using any geoscience-based technique, method, concept, or knowledge (Rapp and Hill 2006). However, since archaeometry is a well-defined field focusing on the application of physical sciences to archeological prospecting, dating, and provenance (Waters 1992), it could be proposed that geoarchaeology has a more narrow definition, actually closer to the original coining of the term (Renfrew 1976) and to its modern main application. In this approach, geoarchaeology is the discipline that studies site stratigraphy and site formation processes, and the interaction of human and nature in shaping the landscape (Butzer 1982; French 2003; Goldberg and Macphail 2006; Waters 1992;). The history of this approach goes back several hundred years, as can be seen in the 1863 monograph of Sir Charles Lyell: Geological Evidences of the Antiquity of Man. However, it was not until 1976 that Colin Renfrew introduced and defined the term “geoarchaeology” in the preface of an edited volume by Davidson and Shackley (1976). Indeed, Renfrew (1976) defined precisely what should be the main concern of geoarchaeology, concisely summed up by Goldberg and Macphail (2006: 3): “geoarchaeology provides the ultimate context of all aspects of archaeology from understanding the position of a site in a landscape setting to a comprehension of the context of individual finds and features.”
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.