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Modern and Ancient Soils at Some Archaeological Sites in the Valley of Mexico*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2017

V. P. Sokoloff  and
J. Luis Lorenzo
V. P. Sokoloff
Affiliation:
Isaiah Bowman School of Geography, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland
J. Luis Lorenzo
Affiliation:
Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia, Mexico, D.F.
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Extract

Impressions of past climates on 1 soils and soil materials are not easily obliterated by time. Morphological and chemical features of the weathering record may be of considerable aid in reconstructing the past environments as well as in understanding the present ones. It should be possible not merely to recognize the qualitative aspects of the past climates, by the morphological-geochemical analysis, but also to attempt establishment of semi-quantitative time scales, of indices of the duration of this or that component of the climatic sequence. This analytical approach to the study of ancient soils, palaeopedology, is now at its beginning. The large but disorganized body of observations and data in this field is still lacking in perspectives and interpretations. The tentative conclusions developed herein are subject to revision and change, and it is our hope to verify and to enlarge this study in the near future, time and opportunity permitting.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 19 , Issue 1 , July 1953 , pp. 50 - 55
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1953 

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Footnotes

*

Thanks are due to the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, New York, for the support of this investigation, to the Office of Naval Research, Washington, D.C., and G. F. Carter, Director of the O.N.R. 248(27) Project, for the allotment of the available time; to P. de Borbolla, Director of the Institute Nacional de Antropologia e Historia, Mexico, to Pablo Martinez del Rio, Director of the Escuela Nacional de Antropologia, Mexico, to A. R. V. Arellano, Instituto Geologico, Mexico, and to Arturo Romano, Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia, Mexico, for their interest, participation, and many courtesies in the investigation.

Editor's Note. This comment constitutes an abridgment of a much longer article. The portions deleted were concerned chiefly with techniques and highly specialized pedological descriptive notes.

References

Carter, G. F. and Sokoloff, V. P. 1951. A Study of Soils and Land Forms in the Chesapeake Bay Margins. O.N.R. Report. The Bowman School of Geography, the Johns Hopkins University.Google Scholar
Hunt, C. B. and Sokoloff, V. P. 1950. Pre-Wisconsin Soil in Rocky Mountain Region. U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 221-G.Google Scholar
Sokoloff, V. P., and Carter, G. F. 1952. Time and Trace Metals in Archeological Sites. Science, Vol. 116. No. 3001.Google Scholar