Dear all,

A quick heads up to all geo/environmental archaeologists concerning a session at the EGU in Vienna next April.

European Geosciences Union

General Assembly 2013

Vienna | Austria | 07 – 12 April 2013

GM4.6/SSS10.13

Where earth scientists meet Cleopatra: Geoarchaeology of rocks, sediments, soils and climate

Convener: Sjoerd Kluiving 
Co-Conveners: Max Engel , Andy Howard , Matthieu Ghilardi , Vanessa Heyvaert , Kosmas Pavlopoulos , Helmut Brückner

Modern research into geoarchaeology can be described as the interaction between modern humans, our ancestors and the physical environment and as a discipline it is strongly rooted in the earth sciences. Early case studies from the geographical nuclei of human evolution and socio-technical advances in the circum-Mediterranean helped to characterise both the timing and scale of anthropogenic influence on natural sedimentary environments, the intensity of associated geomorphological processes as well as the wider impact on ecosystems. However, whilst landscape change attributed to human impact is recorded on a range of temporal scales during the Holocene epoch, the spatial evidence for change is still rather limited. Furthermore, the impacts of extreme events on ancient societies and landscapes, as well as human response are under-researched themes.
For this session, we invite case studies of human-environment interactions undertaken at any spatial scale and time period (i.e. early prehistory through to the historic archaeological period). We would particularly welcome interdisciplinary contributions that link cultural archaeological approaches (including anthropology and historical geography) with those from the geoarchaeological sciences (i.e., geomorphology, environmental archaeology, palaeoclimatology, geophysics, sedimentology, bioarchaeology, geoecology, soil science, hydrology, geochemistry and archaeometry). We would also welcome papers focused on methodological approaches and advancements (e.g. in the fields of predictive modelling, airborne remote sensing, radiometric dating and isotope studies etc.). We intend to select the best abstracts for the production of special volumes of peer reviewed journals.

Further details at: http://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU2013/session/12210

BW

A

Dr Andy J. Howard,

Institute of Archaeology & Antiquity (IAA),

The University of Birmingham,

Edgbaston,

Birmingham,

B15 2TT, UK

Tel. +44 (0)121 414 8564

Fax. +44 (0)121 414 3595

Mobile: 07791 840205

Chair, Association for Environmental Archaeology (http://envarch.net/)