Theme:
2. Archaeological Sciences, Humanities and the Digital era: Bridging the Gaps
Session format:
Regular session
Title:
More than Just Data: The Role of Archaeological Theory in Refining Geoscience-driven Research Questions
Content:
Since the establishment of humans as active ecosystem engineers, every performed action came with consequences. Whether intentional for improving subsistence opportunities in certain locations, or unintentional catalysts of novel geogenic processes in otherwise stable environments, landscape modifications and niches construction have had direct or downstream impacts on ecosystem evolutionary pathways. Notable examples include the diversion of rivers and the construction of canals, which may have stimulated new forms of farming; husbandry in semi-arid margins, which may have caused loss of inhabitable and cultivable land; intensive deforestation worldwide, which has caused slope instability and enhanced alluviation of valleys. In later times, the construction of dams in indigenous lands caused severe disruptions in the local economies of upstream and downstream population.
In past research, some instances of cause-and-effect were easily deciphered thanks to the magnitude of the land modifications, sometimes with iconography and historiography providing motives and precise time brackets. However, when examining data from events at smaller scales, causality and rationales attributed to past communities often were subject to environmentally deterministic and oversimplified interpretations. Such interpretations ultimately risk leading to flawed paradigms. Nowadays, in the light of post-processualism and the widely shared idea that human agency is ultimately driven by composite and cumulative individual experiences, geoarchaeologists are tasked with tackling interpretational riddles acknowledging the full spectrum of theories belonging to the archaeological and social sciences at large. This session welcomes novel studies, review works and paradigmatic challenges throughout all ages and across geographies and climates. We aim to showcase the full and real potential of applied geosciences in solving variously-paced complex entanglements between human agency, landscape modifications and societal changes, when supported by solid and sensible theory.
Keywords:
geoarchaeology, environmental sciences, archaeological theory, human agency, niche construction, societal evolution
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:
Stefano Costanzo (Italy) 1
Co-organisers:
David Wright (Norway) 2
Emma Loftus (Germany) 3
Federica Sulas (Sweden) 4
Paul Jeremy Lane (United Kingdom) 5
Affiliations:
1. Department of Earth Sciences, University of Milan
2. Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History, University of Oslo
3. Institute for Prehistory, Ludwig Maximilian University Munich
4. Department of Historical Studies, University of Gothenburg
5. University of Cambridge
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