A Sediment Granulometry Approach to Anthropogenic Landscape Impacts

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Sediment granulometry, also known as Particle Size Distribution Analysis (PSDA), is the analysis of the frequency of differently sized particles present in a sediment sample. I present a new workflow for applying PSDA to understanding past human impacts at the landscape scale. The workflow combines PSDA of both the fine (0.1 to 1,000 microns) and coarse (>1,000 microns) fractions of sediment to document the frequency of particles from the clay to cobble size ranges. PSDA of fines is conducted via the Electical Sensing Zone technique using a Beckman Coulter Multisizer 3 particle size analyzer. PSDA of the coarse fractions is conducted via mechanical sieve separation. Important changes in landscape dynamics are identified by analyzing the changing frequency of different particle size classes at depth in columns of sediment gathered at strategic points on the landscape. These patterns are linked to changes in human land-use practices that altered the dynamics in surface water flow, and, thus, also altered the dynamics in particle transport and deposition. We will use the results from a set of initial exploratory case studies (California, Kazakhstan, Jordan) to demonstrate the challenges and validity of the approach.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• SAA 2021: General Sessions

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 33603