| Session Details | |
| Section | IG - Interdisciplinary Geosciences |
| Session Title | Geoarchaeology: an Interdisciplinary, Geoscientific Approach to Understanding Human Activity in the Past |
| Main Convener | Prof. Patricia Fanning (Macquarie University, Australia) |
| Co-convener(s) | Ms. Stacy Oon (Macquarie University, Australia) |
| Session Description | Interaction between the geosciences and archaeology goes back to the early nineteenth century, when geology and prehistoric archaeology developed essentially in parallel. However, as an identified discipline, geoarchaeology only developed in the 1960s as part of a growing perception that the data and perspectives of the sciences had to be more systematically incorporated into archaeology. The geoarchaeology of this time therefore focussed more on the application of geoscientific techniques to answering research problems in archaeology, rather than on changing the conceptual apparatus through which archaeological research was conducted. However, a geoarchaeological approach provides the means to move away from single dimensional characterisations of either the environment or culture and, instead, to consider the interaction of multiple processes, both natural and cultural, operating over different temporal and spatial scales. Thus, contemporary geoarchaeology is not simply geologists helping out archaeologists, but a coherent discipline with dedicated practitioners devoting themselves to deciphering the natural world and the ways in which humans in the past interacted with it. We invite papers for this session that focus on using geoarchaeological frameworks to illuminate human behaviour in the past. Preferably, they will have an Asia-Oceania geographical focus, but presentations on the latest research from anywhere in the world are welcome. |