Environmental archaeology: Interpreting practices-in-the-landscape through geoarchaeology

Environmental archaeology is concerned with “the physical and biological elements and relationships that impinge on” the activities of people in the past (Dincauze 2000: xxiv). Although defi nitions vary, environmental archaeologists consider human activities in the past within their environmental contexts and apply techniques and interpretations derived from the biological and geophysical sciences to archaeological problems. Thus the term “environmental archaeology” encapsulates geoarchaeology, which is concerned with the “application of concepts and methods of the geosciences to archaeological research” (Waters 1992: 3).