THE HISTORY AND ROLE OF GEOARCHAEOLOGY IN THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL SCIENCES: LESSONS LEARNED ANDFUTURE GOALS IN CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT

Geoarchaeology has been an established subdiscipline within both he archaeological and geological sciences for the last 50 years or more. However, there are few advanced courses within academic programs across the United States that focus on the important intersection between archaeology and landscape interpretation, soils, geomorphology, and paleoenvironments. Even more discouraging is the lack of college level coursework focused on practical training in geoarchaeology. This lack of training is a major gap for the archaeological workforce, especially now as at least 90% of archaeology in the United States is carried out in cultural resource management (CRM), according to most current estimates. Starting in 2022, annual spending on CRM efforts has increased and is expected to continue to rise due to US economic growth and the new Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which invests $350 billion in highway programs and was passed in 2021. This presentation provides a short history of the Geoarchaeology subdisciplines, including key players and research concentrations. We also provides a framework by which we can better develop curriculum at the collegiate level that prioritizes the needs of CRM archaeological training. The goal of this summery is to lay the groundwork for future discussions and curriculum development that prioritizes comprehensive training on geoarchaeology students poised to join the CRM workforce in the 2020s and beyond.