Soils, Sediments, and Geoarchaeology

Abstract

This chapter reviews what soils and sediments can tell us about site-formation processes, taphonomic conditions, site environments and landscapes. It begins by distinguishing soils from sediments and lithostratigraphy from archaeological stratigraphy, and then moves on to sampling issues and ways to characterize texture, color, pH and other characteristics. Laboratory methods that are discussed include measuring particle-size distributions, pH, phosphate content, and preparing sediment blocks for micromorphological inspection. The chapter emphasizes what soils and sediments can tell us about the processes that deposited materials on sites, or removed or altered them, and there are brief introductions to their contribution to inferences of environmental change and identification of cultural earth-moving processes. The chapter rounds out with a case study on the use of spatial patterns in microremains (tiny fragments of lithics, pottery, groundstone, bone, charcoal, and other materials) to identify activity areas on room floors.