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Analysis of Carbon, Nitrogen, pH, Phosphorus, and Carbonates as Tools in Geoarchaeological Research

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Encyclopedia of Geoarchaeology

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series ((EESS))

Introduction

In the context of archaeological research soil/deposit chemical analysis should be viewed as an additional data set or tool for interpreting the archaeological record. Because chemical signatures are not exclusively anthropogenic (they are not uniquely of human construction like artifacts), there is always a non-anthropogenic component or effect. Human activity either indirectly modifies a soil’s chemical characteristic, as with pH, or it directly adds or subtracts material creating an anomaly by altering the amount of carbon, phosphorus, nitrogen, or carbonates in the deposits. Anomalies can only be detected if there is baseline data that characterizes the deposits prior to human intervention. This is accomplished by setting up control sampling locations or, if that is not possible, obtaining background data from preexisting sources (e.g., from sources like Shacklette and Boerngen, 1984). Interpretation of chemical data in archaeological contexts involves comparisons to...

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    Michael F. Kolb

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Kolb, M.F. (2017). Analysis of Carbon, Nitrogen, pH, Phosphorus, and Carbonates as Tools in Geoarchaeological Research. In: Gilbert, A.S. (eds) Encyclopedia of Geoarchaeology. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-4409-0_11

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