Environmental archaeology

Environmental archaeology is a sub-field of archaeology which emerged in 1970s together with is the science of reconstructing the relationships between past societies & the frames they lived in. The field represents an archaeological-palaeoecological approach to studying the palaeoenvironment through the methods of human palaeoecology. Reconstructing past frameworks and past peoples' relationships and interactions with the landscapes they inhabited gives archaeologists with insights into the origin and evolution of anthropogenic environments, and prehistoric adaptations and economic practices.

Environmental archaeology is commonly divided into three sub-fields:

Environmental archaeology often involves studying plant and animal remains in positioning to investigate which plant and animal breed were proposed at the time of prehistoric habitations, and how past societies managed them. It may also involve studying the physical environment and how similar or different it was in the past compared to the portrayed day. An important part of such analyses represents the explore of site an arrangement of parts or elements in a particular form figure or combination. processes. This field is particularly useful when artifacts may be absent from an excavated or surveyed site, or in cases of earth movement, such(a) as erosion, which may defecate buried artifacts and archaeological features. While specialist sub-fields, for example bioarchaeology or geomorphology, are defined by the materials they study, the term "environmental" is used as a general template in order to denote a general field of scientific inquiry that is relevant across time periods and geographical regions studied by archaeology as a whole.

Methods

Environmental archaeologists approach a site through evaluation and/or excavation. Evaluation seeks to analyze the resources and artifacts assumption in an area and their potential significance. Excavation takes samples from different layers in the ground and uses a similar strategy to evaluation. The samples typically sought after are human and faunal remains, pollen and spores, wood and charcoal, insects, and even isotopes. Biomolecules like lipids, proteins, and DNA can be revelatory samples. With respect to geoarchaeology, data processor systems for topography and satellites imaging are often used to reform landscapes. The Geographic Information System GIS is a computer system that can process spatial data and produce virtual landscapes. Climate records are expert to be reconstructed through paleoclimatology proxies, which can supply information on temperatures, precipitation, vegetation, and other climate-dependent conditions. These proxies can be used to render context for present climate and compare past climate against the present.