Soils in Archaeological Research

by Holliday, Vance T.

• ISBN13: 9780195149654
• ISBN10: 0195149653
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-08-19
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Soils, invaluable indicators of the nature and history of the physical and human landscape, have strongly influenced the cultural record left to archaeologists. Not only are they primary reservoirs for artifacts, they often encase entire sites. And soil-forming processes in themselves are an important component of site formation, influencing which artifacts, features, and environmental indicators (floral, faunal, and geological) will be destroyed and to what extent and which will be preserved and how well. In this book, Holliday will address each of these issues in terms of fundamentals as well as in field case histories from all over the world. The focus will be on principles of soil geomorphology , soil stratigraphy, and soil chemistry and their applications in archaeological research.

Table of Contents

Introduction	1	(12)
Terminology and Methodology	13	(28)
Conceptual Approaches to Pedogenesis	41	(12)
Soil Surveys and Archaeology	53	(19)
Soil Stratigraphy	72	(25)
Soil Stratigraphy in Geoarchaeological Contexts	97	(42)
Soils and Time	139	(49)
Soils and Paleoenvironmental Reconstructions	188	(44)
Soils and Landscape Evolution	232	(29)
Soil Genesis and Site-Formation Processes	261	(29)
Human Impacts on Soils	290	(48)
Appendix 1: Variations on U.S. Department of Agriculture Field Nomenclature	338	(5)
Appendix 2: Soil Phosphorus: Chemistry, Analytical Methods, and Chronosequences	343	(20)
Appendix 3: Variability of Soil Laboratory Procedures and Results with Julie K. Stein and William G. Gartner	363	(12)
References	375	(60)
Index	435