Theme:
1. Artefacts, Buildings & Ecofacts
Session format:
Regular session
Title:
The Sediment as an Artefact: Interpreting Human Behaviour and Activities through Geoarchaeological Analysis
Content:
To obtain well-grounded interpretations of anthropogenic sediments as artefacts, recent geoarchaeological research calls for robust integration of different analytical methods exploring the archaeological context. These methods range from the geomorphological, geochemical, mineralogical, archaeometric and chronological methods at micro-, meso- and landscape scales.
This session explores the geoarchaeological approach to analysing sediments as artefacts. In addition to producing tools and refuse, humans produce, alter, and deposit sediments, acting as geological agents themselves. Thus, sediments can be viewed as unique artefacts which reflect past behaviours. This conception of archaeological sediments as artefacts has been previously proposed and is applied to a diversity of archaeological sedimentary features from different time periods and regions. Recent research highlights the benefit of integrating multi-scale geoarchaeological data with other related sources of behavioural information, such as data obtained through the technological, spatial, experimental, and archaeostratigraphic analysis of tools and refuse.
This session promotes a multiproxy, multiscale geoarchaeological analysis as a powerful tool investigating past human behavioural processes. The core theme is in the exploration of a wide variety of human activities and behaviours as they have been imprinted into the sediment itself. These processes need not be limited to a single time period or aspect of human behaviour but can reflect a wide variety of past human activities; such as the dynamics of human-environmental interaction, the socio-cultural pressures of class and gender, the development of pastoralism, the impact of colonialism, and how changing technologies can be reflected in the sediment.
Keywords:
Sediments, Geoarchaeology, Behavioural activities, Archaeometry, Landscape archaeology, Archaeological science
Session associated with MERC:
no
Session associated with CIfA:
no
Session associated with SAfA:
no
Session associated with CAA:
no
Session associated with DGUF:
no
Session associated with other:
Main organiser:
Enrique Fernández-Palacios (Spain) 1,2
Co-organisers:
Ada Dinckal (Spain) 1,2
Aspen Cooper (United States) 3,4
Diana Marcazzan (Germany) 3
Zaira García-López (Spain) 5
Affiliations:
1. Archaeological Micromorphology and Biomarkers Laboratory (AMBI Lab), Instituto Universitario de Bio-Orgánica “Antonio González”, Universidad de La Laguna, 38206, Tenerife, Spain
2. Departamento de Geografía e Historia, UDI Prehistoria, Arqueología e Historia Antigua, Facultad de Humanidades, Universidad de La Laguna, 38206, Tenerife, Spain
3. Institute for Archaeological Sciences, University of Tübingen, Hölderlinstr. 12, 72074 Tübingen, Germany
4. Anthropology Department, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
5. CRETUS, EcoPast (GI-1553), Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, 15782, Spain
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