Geoarchaeolog: The Human-Environmental Approach

Description

Geoarchaeology is traditionally concerned with reconstructing the environmental aspects of past societies using the methods of the earth sciences. The field has been steadily enriched by scholars from a diversity of disciplines and much has happened as the importance of global perspectives on environmental change has emerged. Carlos Cordova, provides a fully up-to-date account of geoarchaeology that reflects the important changes that have occurred in the past four decades. Innovative features include: the development of the human-ecological approach and the impact of technology on this approach; how the diversity of disciplines contributes to archaeological questions; frontiers of archaeology in the deep past, particularly the Anthropocene; the geoarchaeology of the contemporary past; the emerging field of ethno-geoarchaeology; the role of geoarchaeology in global environmental crises and climate change. Cover Half-title Title Copyright Contents Figures and Tables Acknowledgements Introduction 1. The Nature of Geoarchaeology The nature of geoarchaeology and its practitioners The three major traditions in geoarchaeology The field and its status in the scientific realm Practice, training, and the rapidly evolving subfields 2. Theoretical and Methodological Foundations Introduction Theory in geoarchaeology The geoarchaeological method Geoarchaeological models of inquiry and interpretation Reconstructing and reproducing the past The explanation of a complex and chaotic world Concluding remarks 3. The Geoarchaeological Record: Concept and Contexts An epistemological background An all-inclusive geoarchaeological record The interpretation of the record 4. The Geoarchaeological Record: Interpretation Issues Visualizing time, causality, and context Causality in natural and cultural transform processes Time-transgressive phenomena in the record Archaeological visibility, invisibility, and absence The virtues of off-site geoarchaeology Legacy effects, relicts, and palimpsests Modern analogs, reference analogs, and modern references Sampling and interpretation of the record Correlation and its issues 5. The Human-Environmental Tradition in Geoarchaeology Introduction The ecological paradigm The ecological context in geoarchaeology Geoarchaeology since Archaeology as Human Ecology Global climate change and the rise of the Anthropocene Perspectives on the human and non-human worlds Geoarchaeology and environmental history 6. Geoarchaeology and Human Evolution Introduction Geology, climate changes, and biogeography Geoarchaeology in paleoanthropological research Contexts and issues Case 6.1: Context and scale in the Olduvai hominin record 7. Geoarchaeology and the Anthropization of the World Introduction The proto-anthropic period as a “gray zone” Geoarchaeology and the pre- and proto-anthropic periods Case 7.1: Between paleoontological and archaeological sites: Geoarchaeological issues in Pre-Clovis mammoth localities Case 7.2: The geoarchaeology of early Australian human environments at Lake Mungo 8. The Geoarchaeology of Hunter-Gatherer Landscapes Introduction Hunter-gatherer societies and their environmental contexts Geoarchaeological approaches to hunter-gatherer landscapes Case 8.1: Epipaleolithic hunter-gatherers of the Eastern Levant: Sites, settings, and landscapes in a rapidly changing environment Case 8.2: The geoarchaeology of the Archaic period in the Great Plains of North America 9. The Record of Early Agriculture and its Diffusion Introduction Agricultural beginnings: Contextual models Neolithic impacts on the environment at different scales Geoarchaeological contexts and research strategies Case 9.1: Geoarchaeology of two Near Eastern Neolithic settlements: Ain Ghazal and Ain Abu-Nukhaila, and the first agricultural environmental crisis Case 9.2: The arrival of pastoralism around Lake Ngami: Records from sites and lake sediments 10. Complex Societal-Environmental Systems and the Collapse Phenomenon Introduction Complex societal-environmental systems The collapse phenomenon Research contexts Case 10.1: Ancient sustainability, risks, management, and centralization in large river basins: Three examples Case 10.2: The Classic Maya collapse and the degradation of soils in the Maya lowlands: Geoarchaeological models of landscape transformation 11. The Geoarchaeology of Rural Landscapes Introduction The rural landscape: Concepts and environmental approaches Geoarchaeological strategies in ancient rural contexts Case 11.1: The Ancient Greek rural landscape in southwestern Crimea Case 11.2: Xaltocan: The geoarchaeology of a complex lacustrine society before Tenochtitlan 12. Human-Environmental Approaches to Soils and Paleosols Introduction Thematic approaches to paleosols Natural and anthropic spectra in soil formation Case 12.1: Pastureland, cropland, and other past human activities in the geoarchaeological record below Brussels: A look into urban dark earths Case 12.2: The understated human influence on North American prairie soils: The concept of bison paleopastures 13. The Geoarchaeology of Natural Disasters Natural disasters in the human-environmental context Geoarchaeological approaches to natural disasters Contextual levels and issues of interpretation Case 13.1: The Xitle Volcano catastrophe and its impact on the Preclassic and Classic environmental contexts in the Basin of Mexico Case 13.2: The geoarchaeological record of Hurricane Katrina’s disaster in New Orleans 14. Environmental Crises in the Geoarchaeological Record Introduction Environmental crises and their relation to societal collapse What do environmental crises look like in the geoarchaeological record? Case 14.1: The Old World environmental crisis at the end of the Third Millennium BC as seen in the degradation of Levantine flood plains Case 14.2: The Dust Bowl in the (future) geoarchaeological record of the Great Plains of North America 15. Native and Colonial Landscapes Introduction Human-environmental interactions in the context of colonial encounters Environmental response and native and non-native legacies in the landscape Case 15.1: The Spanish colonial land system on an Aztec landscape: An example from the Basin of Mexico Case 15.2: The transformation of the South African landscapes through colonial encounters: A proposal for researching the geoarchaeological record 16. Geoarchaeology and Modern Traditional Societies Introduction Definition of concepts and research fields Ethnogeoarchaeology: Definition and scope Case 16.1: Modern and ancient irrigation systems in southern Mexico 17. Geoarchaeology of the Contemporary Past Introduction The contemporary past defined Human-environmental relations as continuous processes Towards a geoarchaeology of the contemporary past Case 17.1: The legacies of the Soviet period in the geoarchaeological record: The Crimean case References Index