Geoarchaeology:Environmental

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Environmental Studies and Geoarchaeology
Used in combination with other palaeoenvironmental analyses, geoarchaeology can provide valuable information about the conditions of deposition and preservation associated with the formation of the surrounding sediments. This can be extremely useful in:

For example, pollen in lake sediments can come from direct deposition of pollen rain on the lake surface or from pollen washed into the lake from the streams that feed it. Analysis of the alluvial sediments could distinguish between deposition from standing water or moving water and hence help to identify potential source areas for the pollen those sediments contain.
 * Identify source areas for palaeoenvironmental remains.


 * Identifying areas of high preservation potential and understanding taphonomic biases in environmental assemblages.


 * Understanding the role of soil processes on the distribution of environmental remains. Because of the possibility of pollen being washed down profile or being carried by earthworms an understanding of the soil environment and the processes operating is vital to the interpretation of soil pollen.


 * Identifying sealed contexts suitable for sampling.


 * Understanding accumulation rates and identifying standstills and periods of erosion that could account for gaps in the record.

An example of an integrated geoarchaeological and palaeoenvironmental study is:
 * Holocene Coastal Change in Northumberland

External websites

 * English Heritage, environmental archaeology guidelines
 * Association for Environmental Archaeology

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