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Good Practice in Archaeological Diagnostics pp 245–252Cite as

The Geoarchaeological Approach

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Part of the book series: Natural Science in Archaeology ((ARCHAEOLOGY))

Abstract

‘Geoarchaeology’ can be defined as a major discipline of environmental archaeology applied to archaeological issues, together with palaeoecology, archaeobotany and archaeozoology. In this sense, the definition mainly relies on the study of the soils and sediment. From a broader perspective, in fact, archaeology can be described as a general earth sciences discipline which associates the palaeoenvironmental studies on a given archaeological site and at the same time investigate the landscape surrounding the site. A rather similar understanding of the term was proposed by Butzer (Archaeology as human ecology: method and theory for a conceptual approach. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1982), who distinguishes geological archaeology or geoarchaeology – which tries to solve archaeological issues thanks to the methods and techniques of earth sciences – from archaeological geology or archaeogeology, which is inspired by geological and geomorphological issues, the results of which may be used in archaeology. In this chapter, we will present the state of the art and the principles of the discipline, and we will discuss the methodological and applicative frameworks, in the light of the most recent developments and achievements.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Université Paris Sorbonne Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

    Eric Fouache

  2. UMR 8385 ENEC, CNRS Université Paris Sorbonne, Paris, France

    Eric Fouache

Authors
  1. Eric Fouache
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Correspondence to Eric Fouache .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Humanities, University of Cassino, Cassino, Italy

    Cristina Corsi

  2. Department of Archaeology, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Božidar Slapšak

  3. Department of Archaeology, Universiteit Gent, Ghent, Belgium

    Frank Vermeulen

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Fouache, E. (2013). The Geoarchaeological Approach. In: Corsi, C., Slapšak, B., Vermeulen, F. (eds) Good Practice in Archaeological Diagnostics. Natural Science in Archaeology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-01784-6_14

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