On Thursday 25th of September 2014 Henk Kars (VU University Amsterdam) and Sjoerd
Kluiving (VU University Amsterdam) will give a talk in the ACASASS series with the topic:
Geoarchaeology: looking back and forward. The talks will be followed by a reception.
*Time: Thursday 25-09-2014, 15.30-16.30 hrs.
*Place: VU, Main Building, room 06A04, De Boelelaan 1105, 1081HV Amsterdam
*Abstracts:
Henk Kars
Fifteen years of Geoarchaeology at VU: what has been reached and what is left?
Geoarchaeology originally is the multi- to interdisciplinary field of study which uses
geoscientific methods, methodologies and knowledge to answer archaeological questions.
These questions are on level of the artifact, the site or the landscape. Examples of artifact
studies are provenancing of raw materials, using mineralogical and geochemical methods. On
site level, geographical and geophysical prospection techniques are used to discover and
evaluate archaeological sites. Geoarchaeologists in particular investigate the relation of the
site to its natural and cultural paleo-environment seen in a wider geographical and
geomorphological context.
With regard to archaeological heritage management, research questions are how specific
artifacts will survive in soils, what are the post-depositional processes that have had effect on
the preservation state of sites, and how can archaeological sites be integrated in future
landscapes.
It is also noticed that research questions of the earth sciences can benefit from archaeological
knowledge: archaeoseismology, for instance, uses information gained from written sources
and from archaeological field data to study the occurrence and magnitude of seismic
activities in antiquity.
All these aspects of geoarchaeology have been taught and studied at VU in the knowledge
that geoarchaeology is an essential field of study to advance understanding of humanenvironment interactions in the past. Seen in light of this conclusion it is wondered why
geoarchaeology is still in its infancy if compared to existing main stream geoscientific and
archaeological disciplines.
Sjoerd Kluiving
How geoarchaeology and landscape archaeology make a contribution to Human Niche
Construction (HNC)
A review is given of examples of geoarchaeological and landscape archaeological research
from various locations throughout Europe. Water as an example of small (and large) scale use
of the natural landscape and/or topography is discussed with implications for HNC and how
research in the future makes a better contribution to HNC: 1) scales of landscape research and
the importance of landscape gradients, 2) are landscape gradients the starting points where
organisms (humans) are altering its own selective environment (inceptive change)? 3) is it the
lack of landscape gradients that initiate humans to respond to a (deteriorated) selective
environment (counteractive change)? Examples of landscape gradients are: high/low,
sand/clay, freshwater/seawater, land/water, loam-rich soil/loam poor soil etc. The
Netherlands, North Sea Region, and case studies from the Mediterranean area are presented
to illustrate the potential of geoarchaeology and landscape archaeology to HNC. Unintended
consequences of human impact on large scale natural processes will be considered. In the
discussion a gradient driven occupation pattern will be presented, as well as transitions of
high to low attractiveness of sites of human occupation.