Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Glossary
- PART I INTRODUCTION
- PART II CHRONOLOGY
- PART III CLIMATE
- PART IV GEOMORPHOLOGY
- 9 LANDFORMS
- 10 LANDFORMS OF SHORES AND SHALLOW WATER
- Case Study: Landform reconstruction at Laetoli, Tanzania
- PART V SEDIMENTS AND SOILS
- PART VI VEGETATION
- PART VII FAUNA
- PART VIII INTEGRATION
- References
- Index
9 - LANDFORMS
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 January 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Glossary
- PART I INTRODUCTION
- PART II CHRONOLOGY
- PART III CLIMATE
- PART IV GEOMORPHOLOGY
- 9 LANDFORMS
- 10 LANDFORMS OF SHORES AND SHALLOW WATER
- Case Study: Landform reconstruction at Laetoli, Tanzania
- PART V SEDIMENTS AND SOILS
- PART VI VEGETATION
- PART VII FAUNA
- PART VIII INTEGRATION
- References
- Index
Summary
Geology … is a historical science concerned with past configuration of the Earth, dealingwith successions of unique strictly unrepeatable events through time.
HALLAM 1981: 11For as long as the Earth has had an atmosphere, its surface has been continually shaped by air, water, and ice disaggregating, transporting, and depositing mineral matter. Human lives are lived on surfaces, but archaeological surfaces are not necessarily those on which the archaeologist walks. Depending on their age and situation, ancient surfaces have been buried or lost to erosion.
Conceptual reconstruction of past landforms and surfaces is an essential aspect of modern archaeology because the spatial context of a site is crucial to its interpretation, and to understanding its relationships to other sites. Space and landscapes define the resources available to any human group, and landform changes through time are related variously to changes in other elements of the environment – climate, hydrography, and biota (mainly vegetative). The mechanisms by which landforms, as elements of the geosphere, are shaped by processes originating in the hydrosphere, cryosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere are imperfectly known although believed to be determinable. Because of these interdependencies, landform reconstruction informs about the past states of variables in all five spheres. However, as with all complex dynamical systems, our ability to predict future states or understand past states and conditions is limited by the element of chance influencing combinations of mechanisms in several scales of space and time.
The “reconstruction” of ancient landforms is not done with earth-moving equipment; it is, rather, a conceptual exercise based on the study of remnants available for observation in the present.
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- Environmental ArchaeologyPrinciples and Practice, pp. 195 - 226Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2000