Archaeological geology and Geoarchaeology

[Jacques Cinq-Mars]

For your information:

I take the liberty of passing on a note received, via GARCH-L@LISTSERV.TAMU.EDU, from Ellery E. Frahm, one of the Forum members.

Colleagues,

For those who do not know me, I am one of the student representatives on the Management Board of the Archaeological Geology Division (AGD) of the Geological Society of America (GSA).

The current foci of AGD includes recruitment and retainment of student members in the division.  The division's meeting last year at the GSA conference in Philadelphia reaffirmed this as a central goal.  One of the recent tools created for students in archaeological geology and geoarchaeology is an on-line database of funding, grants, awards, and studentships for graduate students in relevant fields:

http://web.mac.com/elleryfrahm/iWeb/Geoarch/

This funding database has been very well received, and we ask for your continued submissions to keep the database up-to-date.  In particular, I encourage faculty members to announce studentships on this page, which has been viewed over 1600 times within the last eight months.

I am writing today, though, to advertise a new listserver for student members of AGD.  This listserver is a moderated e-mail-based forum, giving the students in the division a way to interact both professionally and socially.  Students can get to know one another, share information and experience, organize field trips and sessions, connect at conferences, sell books, vent frustrations, and talk about other subjects subscribers would like to discuss.  Hopefully subscribers will find the list both useful and enjoyable.  This came about as an excellent suggestion from Laura Murphy at the University of Kansas.  For additional information about the listserver, including how to subscribe, please visit the site below:

http://web.mac.com/elleryfrahm/iWeb/Geoarchlist

If you are a student, either graduate or undergraduate, interested in the earth sciences and archaeology, but you are not a member of GSA and/or AGD, please do consider membership so you can gain the benefits of membership and contribute to the society and division.  If you are not yet a student member but are interested in learning more or meeting people using the listserver, please feel free to send me an email.  You should also check out the division's website:

http://www.geosociety.org/arch/

Also feel free to forward this email to any students who might be interested.

Best,
Ellery

--------------------
Ellery E. Frahm
Doctoral Candidate, Department of Anthropology
Research Fellow, Department of Geology & Geophysics
University of Minnesota - Twin Cities campus
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~frah0010/

Jacques

PS It would be nice if someone -- Ellery Frahm, perhaps -- could explain to me what is the difference between "archaeological geology" and "geoarchaeology".

[Ellery Frahm]

PS It would be nice if someone -- Ellery Frahm, perhaps -- could explain to me what is the difference between "archaeological geology" and "geoarchaeology".

Someone said my name?

Geoarchaeology, as I and some others define it, is the application of geological theories, approaches, and techniques to address archaeological research questions, particularly when incorporated into the initial research design.  Having a soil and sediment specialist on an archaeological site during the excavations to aid in interpretation would be an example of geoarchaeology.

Archaeological geology, again as I and some others define it, refers to using geological data, collected previously and independently, to address archaeological research questions.  An example would be, say, using geoscience research on ancient shorelines to, some time later, go out and look for archaeological sites.

I should acknowledge that there are (of course) different opinions about these definitions and what exactly differentiates geoarchaeology and archaeological geology, if anything at all in reality.  Also there clearly can be studies which involve both of the research paradigms described here.

Some people ask, "Okay, Ellery, which do you do?"  Because sourcing obsidian and native copper relies on both approaches and doesn't involve soils or sediments, I like to use the term "petroarchaeology" to describe what I do.  And, of course, I have a link for that too...

http://web.mac.com/elleryfrahm/iWeb/Petroarchaeology/Petroarchaeology.html

Best,
Ellery