Environmental Archaeology

Catalog description

Delving into the research questions, methods, and findings of current human-environmental relationships, this course introduces the battery of collaborative scientific approaches focuses on paleoenvironments, nutrition, human adaptations and impacts to the environment, and cultural change. The applications of radiocarbon (and other chronometric) dating, geomorphology, ethnobotany (seeds, charcoal, pollen, phytoliths, starch grains), zooarchaeology (animal remains), isotopic bone chemistry, and other markers will be explored. Attention will also be given to anthropogenic modifications and maintenance of landscapes, soils, forests, animal populations, and other resources, over the short and long-term.