Microscale Geoarchaeology in a Historic Context: Soil Micromorphology Analysis with the Fort Davis Archaeological Project

Summary

Microscale geoarchaeology, specifically soil micromorphology, has incredible potential for enriching archaeological understandings of the materiality of past experience through detailed information on the events, actions, and processes which create archaeological sites. Soil micromorphological analysis can parallel the strict time scales available through historic documentation with material evidence of specific human, non-human, and natural events. This paper shows how micromorphological approaches can be integrated into a historical archaeology project through examples from the Fort Davis Archaeological Project in Fort Davis, Texas. Micromorphological sampling during field season 2014 was crucial in understanding the development of archaeological sites excavated by the project, particularly in terms of deposition and the effects of water action on archaeological features. Furthermore, micromorphological analysis was incorporated into the analysis of living spaces and depositional practices at several sites analyzed by the project. Using these examples this paper shows how integrating microscale geoarchaeology within a historical archaeological framework provides a material and temporal correlate to historical and artifactual modes of analysis which are standard practice within historical archaeology.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• New Directions in Historical Archaeology: Theory, Method, and Practice   •
• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage