Geoarchaeology:Environment

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Environmental Reconstruction
Environment changes through space and time and the reconstruction of these varying environments requires knowledge of when human activities at a site took place and the climate at that time. A reliable dating method and chronology is therefore necessary. Evidence from pollen and other plant remains can give further information about the vegetation cover, which also contributes further data about the climate. Some animals such as insects, snails and rodents are sensitive to climate change and can be used as environmental indicators at sites.

Both the surface and buried soils can preserve features which allow us to obtain information about past environmental conditions. This may be in the form of either fossil pedological characteristics, which relate to past conditions under which the soils developed, or biological material preserved in the soil from the time when these conditions prevailed. Pedological characteristics include: red coloration can represent iron oxidation and dehydration under moist, tropical conditions; and albic (bleached) horizons can indicate the occurrence of well drained sites within a well drained waterlogged plain. Of the biological material it has to be taken into consideration that pollen can be transported by wind for a considerable distance and molluscs can be washed from one site to another, a problem in soils formed in fluvial deposits. Secondly, certain types of fossil may not preserve well such as bone and shell in acid soils.

Analytical Techniques
Geoarchaeological techniques in combination with other palaeoenvironmental studies can be a powerful tool in the reconstruction of past environments. Click on the links below to find out more about some of the geoarchaeological analytical techniques commonly used in the reconstruction of past environments:
 * Micromorphology
 * Magnetic Susceptibility
 * Soil pH

Case Study

 * The palaeohydrology of Iron Age sites in the Mun River Valley, NE Thailand.
 * Socio-environmental Holocene Landscapes of Numundo, West New Britain, Papua New Guinea.