An Overview of the Dos Hombres to Gran Cacao Archaeology Project Soil Testing and Methodologies

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This paper aims at emphasizing the importance of soil science practice to archaeology thus adding a

scientific analytical nature to the cultural nature of archaeology. This report explores this field application

of pH and NPK testing in the Dos Hombres to Gran Cacao Archaeology Project area located in

northwestern Belize. These types of testing are of great use in specific contexts such as determining

activity use areas. Taken all together, when reinforcing other characterizing methods, soil chemistry has

an immediate theoretical advantage in that it provides another method to complement, refine or even

negate prior analyses in ways that merely visually-dependent field methods cannot. In addition, soil

chemical analysis strengthens the case for practice theory as an appropriate theoretical framework for

explaining the various uses of social and physical space. How and why cultures manipulate the

environment is closely tied to the manner in which individuals in the culture’s past engaged in the same

activities.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36838.0