Micromorphology of Earthen Architecture at Palaikastro, Crete

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Advances in Geoarchaeology and Environmental Archaeology Perspectives on Earthen-Built Constructions" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Recent geoarchaeological studies of earthen architecture have demonstrated the social and environmental information that may be gained from combined macroscopic, microscopic, and elemental analyses of mudbricks and degraded building materials. Micromorphology can elucidate construction and maintenance phases, identify technological changes, and differentiate and quantify manufacturing practices and techniques. Additionally, micromorphology can detect taphonomic and pedogenic processes impacting architectural preservation and other aspects of site activities. Earthen architecture and fragments of mudbrick have been found in various contexts among the Minoan structures at the Bronze Age town of Palaikastro, Crete. For example, mudbrick architecture from Building 5 (LM IB) has been extensively studied at the macroscopic level, yielding information on social aspects of mudbrick production practices at Palaikastro. Taking a new microscopic approach, this paper presents micromorphological analyses on mudbricks and degraded earthen architecture from recent excavations (2022; 2013–2015). The results demonstrate the additional socio-environmental data that micromorphology provides in identifying variations in manufacturing techniques, environmental resources, and abandonment and post-depositional processes.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Advances in Geoarchaeology and Environmental Archaeology Perspectives on Earthen-Built Constructions   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38874.0