Geoarchaeologists Everywhere: “Those Artifacts are Floating in Thin Air. Throw Us a Lifeline, We Can Help Guide that Paradigm Shift in a Better Direction.”

Summary

This is an abstract from the "United States Archaeology at Crossroads Part 1: The Obstacles, the Failures, and the Victories" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

An endangered species? A climate scientist trying to explain global warming? An exhausted social media advocate? All three. Due to an archaeological paradigm in the US perpetuated by academia then carried into cultural resources management and regulatory agencies, geoarchaeologists are hamstrung by the pervasive belief that geoarchaeology is a subdiscipline (and optional). We are dumbfounded when we try to share the good news: Geoarchaeologists Take the Guesswork Out of a Landscape. If one doesn’t understand where buried sites could be, how do they know how to shovel test or deep test a landscape? Without any training in geoarchaeology, how do archaeologists know how to write guidelines on how landscapes within their state should be properly tested? How do archaeologists or regulators know whether a site’s eligibility has been sufficiently evaluated without understanding a site’s geomorphic context? Integrating geoarchaeology at all phases of a project enhances project efficiency without sacrificing ethical responsibilities by providing interpretations based on sound geoscientific data. Two solutions: 1) Required training in geoarchaeology for archaeologists in all academic programs and 2) standardization of guidelines across the US for the greater integration of geoarchaeology into cultural resources management practices.

Geoarchaeology is archaeology.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• United States Archaeology at Crossroads Part 1: The Obstacles, the Failures, and the Victories

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 51593