ADVANCES IN GEOARCHAEOLOGY

Geoarchaeology, traditionally defined as applying Earth science techniques to archaeological problems, has emerged as a nexus science that encompasses nearly all subfields of the geosciences. Today, the breadth of technological advances in geoscience methods available to answer archaeological questions warrants discussion. Concerns of today’s geoarchaeologists include not only how to keep up with changing technology, but also technological availability and affordability, and how to choose techniques pragmatically. These challenges are compounded by increasing specialization of specific laboratory or instrumentation techniques by individuals outside of the discipline. While these concerns are effectively solved through collaboration, new methodological exposure is important for recognizing when techniques are suitable for a given project or research question. Geoarchaeology has advanced to the point where our imagination is our only limit; we no longer need to rely on outside techniques as we develop our own. Advancement in the discipline no longer requires “borrowing” from geoscience subfields, but creating our own geoarchaeological solutions to geoarchaeological problems. Now more than ever, geoarchaeologists are pushing the boundaries of the discipline to include the use of new field, laboratory, and technological approaches to understand the human past. We see this emergence in questions of scale related to human-environment interactions, forcing the way we consider constructing climate models. The newly coined term “space archaeology” refocuses the processing, analysis, and interpretation of satellite imagery for the prospection and protection of archaeological sites. Advances in geochronology are sought where context is critical for teasing out site formation processes and interpreting controversial sites, e.g. pre-Clovis sites in North America. Within cultural resources management, geoarchaeologists are creating landform age and geochronology databases to better predict the potential of encountering buried sites – a time and money-saving approach for clients, and one that guides field-testing and mitigation decisions. Finally, as we look toward the future, we can use our advances to expand our own pedagogical innovations that will continue to advance geoarchaeology.