Geology has played a role in European archaeology since the eighteenth century and was promoted by the ongoing search for human antiquity. In the early 1700s, a geologist analyzed the geology of the stones which are part of the structure at Stonehenge, England. In the late 1700s, John Frere described the geological context of several Acheulian handaxes which he had discovered. Interdisciplinary work between archaeologists and geologists continued in the eighteenth century in Europe with various projects. The famous geologist Sir Charles Lyell participated in a number of these projects. In the second half of the eighteenth century, more attention to stratigraphy was apparent at archaeological excavations throughout Europe and around the Mediterranean (e. g., England, Greece, Rome, and Egypt). Such close collaboration between the geosciences and archaeology converged into the modern subdiscipline of geoarchaeology which continues and has a strong presence in European archaeology today.
In North America, the development of geoarchaeology is closely tied to the development of archaeology. From the mid-nineteenth to early twentieth centuries, archaeologists were mainly interested in describing and classifying artifacts and monuments. However, the analysis of geological stratigraphy and use of dating techniques were also incorporated into archaeological investigation. This period has been described as the phase in archaeology most concerned with the search for human antiquity. During this phase, it was common for archaeologists and geologists to collaborate in their research. One of the main reasons for this collaboration is that both disciplines incorporate stratigraphic analysis and geochronology.
During the early to mid-twentieth century, as archaeological techniques became more systematic and standardized, increasingly detailed studies of archaeological stratigraphy and reconstructions of the paleoenvironment began to appear. In North America, Late Pleistocene human occupation was finally confirmed with the discovery of the Folsom site in 1927. In the 1930s, human antiquity in the Americas was further reinforced by the discovery of Clovis artifacts found in a stratified unit older than overlying Folsom artifacts. In addition, it was determined that both of these sites were found in primary and undisturbed context. Kirk Bryan was one of the forerunners of modern geoarchaeology in North America. Bryan was a geologist for the United States Geological Service who studied palaeoenvironmental change at Chaco Canyon and the impact on human behavior. In the 1930s, Ernst Antevs also studied paleoenvironmental change and conducted work at a number of Clovis sites.
During the 1960s, processual archaeology became more prominent and this shift had a crucial impact on the development of geoarchaeology. As there was a shift toward use of more ecological approaches in archaeology, there was also interest in the impact of the paleoenvironment on human behavior and impact of formation processes on the archaeological record. Geological and archaeological studies became more integrated at this time as archaeology placed emphasis on using a more scientific and holistic approach to studying past human behavior. Studies on settlement patterns, the paleoenvironment, and context increased significantly. During the 1960s, C. Vance Haynes, Jr. was already conducting what most would consider to be modern geoarchaeology at various sites in North America.
The term ‘geoarchaeology’ was first coined in 1973 by Karl Butzer. In 1976, D. A. Davidson and M. L. Shackley published Geoarchaeology: Earth Science and the Past. In the preface of this book, C. Renfrew put forth that ‘‘...every problem in archaeology starts as a problem in geoarchaeology’’. As geoarchaeology began to come together as a true discipline, the Geological Society of America established the Division of Archaeological Geology in 1977. Over the next two decades, there was a series of important works published which has defined modern geoarchaeology and brought the field further into the forefront of archaeology. These works include: Archaeology as Human Ecology (1982) by K. Butzer; Site Formation Processes (1983) by M. Schiffer; Archaeological Geology (1985) by G. Rapp and J. A. Gifford; Archaeological Sediments in Context (1985) by J. Stein and W. Farrand; Geoarchaeology: An International Journal was first published in 1986; Geoarchaeology: A North
American Perspective by M. R. Waters; Geoarchaeology: The Earth-Science Approach to Archaeological Interpretation (1998) by G. Rapp and C. Hill; Earth Sciences and Archaeology (2001) by P. Goldberg, V. T. Holliday, and C. R. Ferring; and Practical and Theoretical Geoarchaeology (2006) by P. Goldberg and R. I. Macphail. Particularly, over the past 10 years, geoarchaeologists have made solid progress on clarifying the research objectives of geoarchaeology and refining methods used for both large-scale and site-specific geoarchaeological studies.
World History
