Environmental Archaeology: Principles and Practice

618 Pages·2000·9.71 MB·English

by  Dena F. Dincauze

EnvironmentalArchaeology
PrinciplesandPractice
Archaeologiststodayneedawiderangeofscientificapproachesinordertodelineate
andinterprettheecologyoftheirsites.DenaDincauzehaswrittenanauthoritativeand
essentialguidetoavarietyof archaeologicalmethods,rangingfromtechniquesfor
measuringtimewithisotopesandmagnetismtothesciencesofclimatereconstruc-
tion,geomorphology,sedimentology,soilscience,paleobotany,andfaunalpaleoecol-
ogy. Professor Dincauze insists that borrowing concepts from other disciplines
demandsacriticalunderstandingof theirtheoreticalroots.Moreover,themethods
thatarechosenmustbeappropriatetoparticularsetsofdata.Theapplicationsofthe
methodsneededforaholistichuman-ecologyapproachinarchaeologyareillustrated
by examples ranging from the Paleolithic through Classical civilizations, to recent
urbanarchaeology.
Dena DincauzeisProfessorofAnthropologyattheUniversityofMassachusettsat
Amherst. Throughout her distinguished career she has written and thought about
paleoenvironmental and epistemological issues. Her research area is northeastern
NorthAmerica,withaspecialinterestinthePleistocene–Holoceneboundary.

Environmental
Archaeology
Principles and Practice
dena ferran dincauze
UniversityofMassachusetts,
Amherst
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo
Cambridge University Press
The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK
Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York
www.cambridge.org
Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521325684
© Dena Dincauze 2000
This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception
and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
no reproduction of any part may take place without the written
permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published 2000
Fifth printing 2006
A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data
Dincauze, Dena Ferran.
Environmental archaeology: principles and practice /
Dena Ferran Dincauze.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0 521 32568 4 (hbk.) – ISBN 0 521 31077 6 (pbk.)
1. Environmental archaeology. I. Title.
CC81.D56 2000
930.1–dc21 99-39090 CIP
ISBN 978-0-521-32568-4 hardback
ISBN 978-0-521-31077-2 paperback
Transferred to digital printing 2008
Thisvolumeisdedicatedto
CharlesB.M.McBurney,RichardB.
Woodbury,andJ.GrahameD.Clark,
extraordinaryteachersandvisionaries
whoseenthusiasmforourcomplex
worldinspiredandsustainedme.

Contents
Listoffigures pagexii
Listoftables xv
Preface xvii
Acknowledgments xx
Glossary xxii
Parti Introduction 1
1 environmentalarchaeologyandhumanecology 3
Organizationofthisvolume 4
Interdependence 5
Elaboratingculture 8
Goalsofpaleoenvironmentalstudies 17
2 conceptsforpaleoenvironmentalreconstruction 20
Paleoenvironmentalreconstructioninarchaeology 23
Causationandsystemicrelationships 31
Theemergingchallengetocausalthinking 33
3 mechanismsofenvironmentalchange 36
Geographicconcepts 37
Climaticconcepts 37
Environmentalchangeinexternalfactors 41
Environmentalchangeinthefivespheres 48
vii
viii contents
4 humanresponsestoenvironmentalchange 63
Scalesofenvironmentalchange 67
Humanstrategicoptions 72
Implicationsforenvironmentalarchaeology 77
Partii chronology 81
5 introductiontochronometryandcorrelation 83
Measuringtime 85
Calibration 87
Seasonalclocksandbiologicalrhythms 91
Stratificationandstratigraphy 96
Chronometrybasedondiageneticchanges 101
Summary 106
6 measuringtimewithisotopesandmagnetism 107
Chronometrybasedonradioactivedecay 107
Chronometrybasedonradiationdamage 121
Chronometrybasedoncosmogenicnuclides 125
ChronometrybasedontheEarth’smagneticfield 126
Summary 130
CaseStudy:Theelusivenessoftime 132
Partiii climate 137
7 climate:thedrivingforces 139
Scalesintimeandspace 140
Factorsoperatingatlarge(mega-andmacro-)scales 144
Factorsatmacro-tomicro-scales 148
Mechanismsinvolvedinameso-scaleclimaticreversal 158
Coda 162
8 climatereconstruction 163
Definingclimateatlargescales 164
Definingclimateatmeso-andmicro-scales 176
Coda 187
CaseStudy:Whenisanenvironmentalchangeaclimaticchange? 188
contents ix
Partiv geomorphology 193
9 landforms 195
Introductiontogeomorphology 197
Scalesoflandformanalyses 198
Processesandconceptsinlandformanalyses 201
Basicgeomorphologicalmethods 213
Landformsatmega-andmacro-scales((cid:1)104km2;106–9years) 217
Landformsatmeso-scales((cid:2)104km2) 219
Landformsatmicro-scale((cid:2)1km2) 225
10 landformsofshoresandshallowwater 227
Coastalgeomorphicconceptsandprocesses 227
Methodsoflandformreconstruction 237
Coastallandformswitharchaeologicalsites 243
Coda 250
CaseStudy:LandformreconstructionatLaetoli,Tanzania 251
Partv sedimentsandsoils 255
11 basicprinciplesofsedimentologyandsoilsscience 257
Introductoryconcepts 257
Studytechniquesinsedimentology 262
Pedogenesisanddiagenesis 279
Soilscience 288
Coda 290
12 archaeologicalmatrices 291
Messagesinthematrix 291
Terrestrialmatrices 296
Wetandfrozensiteenvironments 314
Coda 318
CaseStudy:DidtheClassicalcivilizationsdestroytheirown
agriculturallands? 320
Partvi vegetation 327
13 conceptsandmethodsinpaleobotany 329
Macrobotanicalremains(PlantaeandFungi) 332