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Newsletter of the Association for Environmental Archaeology Latest edition: Newsletter 90 November 2005 ISSN 1363-6553 Submit information to the newsletter |
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Edited by Wendy Carruthers and Vanessa Straker Copy dates for Items for the Newsletter may be submitted by e-mail or on disk. Newsletter: 20th of the following months - January / April / July / October. Short typed manuscripts can be sent to Wendy Carruthers. (e-mail addresses: wendy.carruthers@virgin.net; vanessa.straker@english-heritage.org.uk AEA Membership Secretary;Jane Richardson, Archaeological Services WYAS, PO Box 30, Nepshaw Lane South, Morley, Leeds LS27 0UG, Tel: 0113 3837509; e-mail: membership@envarch.net
Glynis Jones and Carol Palmer have retired from the AEA committee after several years of sterling work on behalf of the AEA membership, as Journal Editor and Secretary respectively. Glynis has worked tirelessly to establish Environmental Archaeology as a well-regarded, high quality and useful journal. All Carol's efficient hard work has helped the association to run smoothly. Very many thanks to them both. We have included information about several conferences - please note that the 2006 AEA conference will be held on 28-30 March in Exeter. Registration is required by 6th January. It's almost the end of the year, so please note Jane Richardson's reminder about subscriptions, due in January 2006, on page 2. Finally - we wish you festive greetings for Christmas and the New Year! BABY CONGRATULATIONS Our very best wishes go to Dana Challinor and David Jennings on the birth of twin daughters (Ophelia and Vianne). Apologies for leaving your good news out of the last Newsletter, and double congratulations!
MEMBERSHIP RENEWALS The time is fast approaching to renew your AEA membership! A renewal form for 2006 is printed at the back of the Newsletter. You do not need to complete this if you have arranged to pay your membership fee by standing order. If you do not already have one and would like to set up a standing order to renew your membership automatically each year, please complete the standing order form at the back of the Newsletter, which will be forwarded to your bank. The completed form should be sent to JANE RICHARDSON by 9th December at the address below. If you have internet banking, you can set up a standing order yourself online, but we still need the form for our records. The first payment should be made for 1st January 2006. In this case, please send in the completed form no later than 31st December 2005. Dr Jane Richardson, Archaeological Services WYAS, PO Box 30, Nepshaw Lane south, Morley, Leeds, LS27 0UG. E-mail: membership@envarch.net PAYMENT OF MEMBERSHIP FEES IN THE EUROZONE see HOW TO PAY
LATEST JOURNAL ISSUE Environmental Archaeology 10.2 will be distributed soon. It contains the following papers: Peta J. Mudie, Andre Rochon and Elisabeth Levac Decadal-scale sea ice changes in the Canadian Arctic and their impacts on humans during the past 4,000 years Colin Amundsen, Sophia Perdikaris, Thomas H. McGovern, Yekaterina Krivogorskaya, Matthew Brown, Konrad Smiarowski, Shaye Storm, Salena Modugno, Malgorzata Frik and Monica Koczela Fishing Booths and Fishing Strategies in Medieval Iceland: an Archaeofauna from the of Akurvík, North-West Iceland Rebecca A. Nicholson, Pauline Barber and Julie M. Bond New Evidence for the Date of Introduction of the House Mouse, Mus musculus domesticus Schwartz & Schwartz, and the Field Mouse, Apodemus sylvaticus (L.), to Shetland Anton Ervynck Detecting the Seasonal Slaughtering of Domestic Mammals: Inferences from the Detailed Recording of Tooth Eruption and Wear David N. Smith, John Letts and Mike Jones Modern Coleoptera from Non-cereal Thatch: A Poor Analogue for Roofing Material from the Archaeological Record Mike J. Church, Símun V. Arge, Seth Brewington, Thomas H. McGovern, Jim M Woollett, Sophia Perdikaris, Ian T. Lawson, Gordon T. Cook, Colin Amundsen, Ramona Harrison, Yekaterina Krivogorskaya and Elaine Dunbar Puffins, Pigs, Cod, and Barley: Palaeoeconomy at Undir Junkarinsfløtti, Sandoy, Faroe Islands Oren Ackermann, Hendrik J. Bruins, Pariente Sarah, Helena Zhevelev and Aren M. Maeir Landscape Archaeology in a Dry-Stream Valley near Tell es-Safi/Gath (Israel): Agricultural Terraces and the Origin of Fill Deposits
SUMMARY OF THE AEA AGM MEETING, 19 NOVEMBER 2005, UNIVERSITY OF HULL At the AEA AGM in Hull, a review of the committee's activities was presented, along with the Treasurer's report and elections for new committee members. A summary is presented below: CONFERENCES UPDATE: Publications: The latest conference monograph to be published is: Fertile Ground: Papers in honour of Susan Limbrey (2005) edited by David N Smith, Megan Brickley and Wendy Smith. AEA Symposia volume 22. Oxbow Books. This contains papers from the one-day meeting held at Birmingham University in 2001. The monograph from the joint AEA/NABO conference held in Glasgow 2001 was published at the end of 2004: Atlantic Connections & Adaptations: Economies, Environments and Subsistence in the North Atlantic Realm (2004) edited by Rupert Housley and Geraint Coles. AEA Symposia volume 21. Oxbow Books. Both volumes can be purchased for a discounted price from the AEA Books Service. Please contact Allan Hall (biol8@york.ac.uk) to order your copies. Papers from the 25th Anniversary conference held in Bad Buchau in September 2004 will be published as a 'special jubilee issue' of the journal, Environmental Archaeology. The volume, Economic and Environmental Changes during the 4th and 3rd Millennia BC, is edited by Ralf Baumeister, Sabine Karg, Helmut Schlichtherle, and David Earle Robinson. Meetings in 2005: Thanks are warmly extended to Keith Wilkinson and Robin Bendrey for organising a successful spring conference on Environmental Archaeology in Landscape Archaeology at University College, Winchester on the 31 March this year. The AGM was held at the AEA conference 2005 in Hull, Visualising Past Environments: new directions in palaeo-landscape studies, and Jane Bunting and her team were thanked for organising this very much enjoyed and innovative event. Upcoming events in 2006: The next conference, Novel Environmental Archaeology: Integrating new lines of evidence and rethinking established techniques, organised by Alan Outram at the University of Exeter, will take place 28-30 March 2006. Further details and registration forms are available at: http://www.sogaer.ex.ac.uk/archaeology/AEA2006.shtml Participants are reminded that they must register by 6 January 2006. Details of the 2006 one-day meeting to be held in Portsmouth on Tuesday 26 September 2006 are given below. The meeting is timed to coincide with the Maritime IFA Conference 27-28 September 2006, and the theme is Environmental Archaeology in Marine and Coastal Zones. Two events are already planned for 2007: There will be a one-day meeting at University College Cork (UCC), Ireland, in February 2007 (date to be confirmed). The theme is Environmental Archaeology in Ireland and the meeting organisers are Meriel McClatchie and Mick Monk. Further details will be provided in due course. The AEA committee is delighted to announce that the 2007 annual conference will be held in Poland, 1215 September 2007 with the theme Eurasian Perspectives on Environmental Archaeology. The conference organisers are Mirek Makohonienko (Adam Mickiewicz University of Poznań, Poland), Mayke Wagner (Deutsches Archaeologisches Institute, Eurasien Abteilung, Berlin) and Pavel Tarasiv (Alfred Wegener, Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Potsdam).
JOURNAL UPDATE Professor Glynis Jones retires this year as Co-ordinating Editor, having completed 10 volumes. Her last volume, EA 10.2, is due to be distributed soon (for a contents list, see above). In acknowledgement of her contribution to the AEA in establishing and developing the journal, Glynis has been awarded Honorary Membership of the AEA, becoming the Association's sixth Honorary Member. The new Co-ordinating Editor of the journal to whom all new submissions should be sent is: Dr Ingrid Mainland, Co-ordinating Editor of Environmental Archaeology, Department of Archaeological Sciences, University of Bradford, Bradford, BD7 1DP, UK. Tel: +44 [0]1274 23 3541; Fax: +44 [0]1274 23 5190; E-mail: i.l.mainland@bradford.ac.uk NEW PUBLISHER for Environmental Archaeology From 2006, Maney Publishing will publish Environmental Archaeology. The new publishing agreement is the result of the AEA committee's desire to publish the journal online. Maney Publishing is an independent publisher, established in Leeds in the early 20th century. From 1945 onwards, Maney began offering specialist services to societies and, for example, has a long relationship with the Goethe Society. It has two UK offices: one at Carlton House Terrace in London, the office for the editors and production staff and, the second, in Leeds, which deals with marketing, subscription, and there is a warehouse in Leeds. The US office is in Boston. In 1997, Maney started offering its imprint to societies and currently has c. 60 journals under its imprint, including Medieval Archaeology, Post-medieval Archaeology, Industrial Archaeology Review, The Antiquaries Journal, and the Palestine Exploration Quarterly. For more information about Maney, please visit their website: From 2006 Environmental Archaeology will be available online via IngentaConnect. Institutional subscription is £78 and includes online access to the full text. The first issue will be the 'special jubilee issue' with papers from the 25th Anniversary Conference in Bad Buchau. For further details and a full list of contents, please visit: http://www.maney.co.uk/env-badbuchau Please recommend Environmental Archaeology to your institution! If your institution already subscribes, please check with your library representative that they are aware of the change of publisher and that the journal is available online from 2006. Benefits to members:
WEBPAGE UPDATE This continues to be maintained by Rob Craigie at the University of Sheffield. In order to keep the website as up to date as possible, please keep sending items and comments to the Webmaster: r.craigie@sheffield.ac.uk.
NEWSLETTER UPDATE The committee is grateful to Wendy Carruthers and Vanessa Straker for their continuing good work on the Newsletter. Please keep on sending your announcements, news and conference reports to the Newsletter Editors. Last year a series was started on environmental archaeology worldwide. If you would like to contribute to this series, please contact the Newsletter Editors.
MEMBERSHIP UPDATE Details of the AEA euro account are given above. This allows members of the Eurozone to pay their membership in euros by direct bank transfer for a very small fee and has been established through the good offices of Meriel McClatchie and Jacqui Huntley. Overseas members, including those in the Eurozone, continue to be able to pay their membership fee in sterling using a credit card. The AEA is grateful to Jane Richardson for her continuing work as Membership Secretary. However, due to increased work and family commitments Jane would like to step down as Membership Secretary. If you are interested in joining the AEA committee and serving on the AEA Managing Committee in this capacity, please contact Meriel McClatchie: m.mcclatchie@ucc.ie
TREASURER'S REPORT The accounts for 2004 were presented at the meeting and are published in this Newsletter. At the end of 2003, the balance in the account was relatively low due to the production of two issues of the journal while maintaining the old membership fee. When the membership fee was raised in 2004, the committee undertook to keep the fee at the same level for the next five years. In order to do this, a slight surplus is anticipated at first, but this is expected to be used up by the end of the period. This is part of the reason why the AEA bank account appears relatively healthy at the end of 2004, but the end of year assets are artificially high because they exclude payment for EA 9.2, which was paid early in 2005. The Books Service has been very active with discounted books from Oxbow Books sold at cost and this is reflected in the accounts. Credit card charges have increased largely due to card payments for books. The web maintenance charges include the cost of making Circaea volume 5 available online in 2004. Conference related income and expenditure relate to the AEA offering a service whereby members could pay in sterling to attend the Bad Buchau conference and the AEA transferring this money en bloc in euros, the AEA bearing the cost of a single transfer fee.
ELECTION OF NEW COMMITTEE MEMBERS Biographies of the nominated candidates were given in the August Newsletter. Meriel McClatchie was elected Secretary and Gianna Ayala, Jen Heathcote, Mirek Makohonienko, and Peter Hambro Mikkelsen elected as ordinary committee members. The new committee structure (www.envarch.net/aea/committee.html) is as follows: ELECTED COMMITTEE MEMBERS (elected term in [ ]) Gianna Ayala (Sheffield) - [2005-2009] CO-OPTED COMMITTEE MEMBERS Wendy Carruthers (Llantrisant, Wales) - Co-editor of the Newsletter Vanessa Straker (English Heritage, Bristol) - Co-editor of the Newsletter Thanks were extended to retiring ordinary committee members Andy Howard, Tim Mighall and Ruth Pelling for their contribution to the AEA, and especially Ruth for her previous service as Membership Secretary. Special thanks were extended to Carol Palmer for her contribution to the AEA as Secretary. Glynis Jones has now formally stepped down from the committee as a co-opted member.
Association for Environmental Archaeology Spring Conference 28th - 30th March, 2006 Hosted by the Department of Archaeology, University of Exeter Novel Environmental Archaeology: Integrating New Lines of Evidence and Rethinking Established Techniques The core of environmental archaeology has revolved around zooarchaeological, archaeobotanical and geoarchaeological data sets: bones, insects, seeds, pollen and soils. However, in recent years many new techniques have been developed and some are not yet well integrated into mainstream environmental archaeology. Some of these new techniques come from hard science, whilst others are quirky new ways of gaining a better understanding of past environments and human exploitation of plants and animals. At the same time others have come up with completely new angles to approach exploration of more traditional lines of evidence. This conference theme is all about thinking outside the envelope and promoting genuinely integrated research between specialists both within and outside what we normally see as being environmental archaeology. The theme is deliberately very inclusive. Whilst it has a distinct theme it does not exclude any specialism or period of study. Call for Papers for the Following Sessions (please submit papers by the end of November 2005) Bones, seeds and biomolecules: integrating old and new lines of evidence Organiser: Dr Anna Mukherjee (Anna.Mukherjee@bristol.ac.uk) Quantitative reconstruction of past landscapes from palaeoecological data Organisers: Dr Ralph Fyfe (R.M.Fyfe@exeter.ac.uk) Prof Chris Caseldine (C.J.Caseldine@exeter.ac.uk) Palaeopathology: social, environmental and evolutionary perspectives Organised in co-operation with BABAO. Dr James Steele (T.J.M.Steele@soton.ac.uk) The role of environmental analysis in integrated investigations of ritual deposits Organisers: James Morris: (morrisj@bmth.ac.uk) Dr Mark Maltby: (mmaltby@bmth.ac.uk) General Session Organiser: Dr Alan Outram (A.K.Outram@ex.ac.uk) For further details, there is a conference website: http://www.sogaer.ex.ac.uk/archaeology/AEA2006.shtml For any queries, please contact the conference organizer: Dr Alan K. Outram, Department of Archaeology, University of Exeter, Laver Building,
AEA ONE DAY MEETING FIRST CALL FOR PAPERS Sea Changes: Environmental Archaeology in the Marine Zone, From Coast to Continental Shelf. Tuesday 26th September 2006 at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard In 2002 English Heritage took on responsibility for maritime archaeology in England's coastal waters. As result of these changes there has been a greater emphasis on maritime archaeology within England, with a number of maritime archaeology projects being funded through the Aggregates Levy Sustainability Fund and the Historic Environment Enabling Programme. This therefore seems an ideal time to examine the vital part environmental archaeology plays in understanding coastal archaeology, from estuarine landscapes to coastal defences, and underwater sites, such as wrecks and submerged landscapes. It is hoped that this one day meeting will allow us to compare approaches, results and experiences, not only from a British perspective but also from Europe and beyond. The conference has been organised to run in conjunction with the Maritime Affairs Group Conference "Managing the Marine Cultural Heritage: The Significance" which will take place on 27th and 28th September 2006, also at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard (see below). A field trip is offered on the 27th of September to look at the maritime archaeology, cultural heritage and natural history of Chichester and Langstone harbours. The conference will also host the annual general meeting of the Association for Environmental Archaeology. Offers of papers on any aspect of environmental archaeology within the maritime zone are welcomed. A selection of the papers from the conference will be offered for publication in a future issue of Environmental Archaeology. Please contact Zoë Hazell or Andy Hammon, at English Heritage, Fort Cumberland, Fort Cumberland Road, Eastney, Portsmouth, PO4 9LD tel: 02392 856700 (email: zoe.hazell@english-heritage.org.uk, or andy.hammon@english-heritage.org.uk)
AEA One-Day Spring Meeting, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland 'Environmental Archaeology in Ireland: new perspectives and recent research' February 2007 It is envisaged that the Cork meeting will provide a discussion forum for workers carrying our environmental research in Ireland, as well as updating the wider archaeological community of latest research. A call for papers and posters will be issued at a later date. Organisers:
Prehistoric Society and Cardiff University Conference Land and People; conference in honour of John G Evans Cardiff, 24th-26th March 2006 The conference will explore a wide range of issues dear to the interests and life-time research of John. Sessions will reflect those interests and will embrace topics such as Neolithic people and landscapes, Wessex chalklands, Coastal sand dunes, Northern European wetlands, snails in archaeology, Pleistocene environments. Offers of papers on these and other topics specific to John's research interests are welcome. Papers of 30 minutes length are invited, colleagues who would prefer to offer a poster are invited to contact the Organisers. Conference organisers inc.: Niall Sharples, Mike Allen, Terry O'Connor, Paul Davies, Alasdair Whittle c/o N. Sharples, School of History and Archaeology, Cardiff University, PO Box 909 Cardiff, CF10 3XU
The Second MAG International Conference: Managing the Marine Cultural Heritage: The Significance 27-28 September 2006 In September of 2004 the Maritime Affairs Group of the Institute of Field Archaeologists organised and ran a very successful International conference entitled Managing the Marine Cultural Heritage. The principal behind the conference was the recognition that recent decades have witnessed an expansion of archaeological activity under water and in the coastal zone, which has raised awareness of the potential and importance of the resource. But it has also lead to the realisation of the threats to this material are widespread and ongoing (Satchell, 2004). The Conference invited speakers of an International calliper, and was attended by an equally International audience. Part of its success was due also to the funding received from English Heritage, the British Academy and a number of commercial and academic sponsors. MAG therefore on the success of 2004 event, is organising the Second Conference on Managing the Marine Cultural Heritage and it will debate the topic of The Significance in the maritime archaeological world. Giving the international value of the event, MAG Committee members have been inviting speakers to present their experiences from different countries and backgrounds. Amongst these: Pieter Marnex (VIOE Flanders Marine Institute - Brussell) L.N. Santhakumaran (Kerala State, India), Nic Flemming (UK), Fozzati Luigi (ArcheoMar Project - Italy), Jonathan Moore (Parks Canada - Canada), Sutcliffe Ray (UK), Brunenko Ivana (Dubbrovnik University - Croatia), Ole Varmer (Titanic Team -US), Staninforth Mark (Flinders University - Australia), Marek Jasinski (Norwegian University of Science and Technology Norway). The Second edition of the Conference will take place once more in the Auditorium of Action Station - HM Naval Base in Portsmouth on 27-28 September 2006. For more information please visit the Conference website:www.magconference.org or email p.palma@maryrose.org. Paola Palma, Dave Parham
GEOARCHAEOLOGY 2006 A Conference at the University of Exeter, 10th-13th September 2006 CALL FOR PAPERS AND POSTERS The conference will cover all aspects of geoarchaeology but sessions will include:
. New techniques in geoarchaeology In addition there will be a session devoted to recent Aggregate Levy Sustainability Fund (ALSF) Projects Invited keynote speakers include Karl Butzer, Greame Barker and Jim Rose Further details will be sent out by email and will be available at http://www.ex.ac.uk/sogaer/ Either fill out the form and send it to Geoarch 06, SoGAER, Amory Building, Rennes Dr, University of Exeter, Exeter EX4 4RJ or preferably email it to a.g.brown@exeter.ac.uk
Obituary - Professor John G. Evans (1941-2005) Members will have been saddened to hear of the death of John G. Evans earlier this year following a short illness. John had a considerable influence on the development of environmental archaeology in Britain over the last four decades and he had been a member of the AEA since its inception. John's most sustained contribution was in the application of sub-fossil snail analysis to archaeology which began while undertaking a PhD at The Institute of Archaeology in London (1964-7), and was later introduced to the wider archaeological community as Land Snails in Archaeology, published in 1972. While perhaps best known for his work on environmental change in the Neolithic and Bronze Age as deduced from buried soils and ditch fills associated with monuments, his work on snails also led to consideration of the wider landscape with considerable contributions on blown sand sequences in western and northern Britain and on the environmental history and archaeology of river valleys, particularly in central and southern England. Always, his intention was to integrate environmental evidence with wider archaeological data. More widely, as well as introducing environmental archaeology to several generations of undergraduates and postgraduates at Cardiff University, his textbooks The Environment of Early Man in the British Isles (1975) and An Introduction to Environmental Archaeology (1978) had a wider influence on embedding the discipline within academic curricula generally, and on introducing the subject to a wider readership. His recent collaboration with Terry O' Connor on Environmental Archaeology: Principles and Methods (1999 and revised in 2005) continued the pattern of producing general texts essential for any student reading list on courses concerned with the environment in archaeology. In his later career he also more explicitly addressed the social meaning and construction of the environment in people's lives in both Land and Archaeology (1999) and in Environmental Archaeology and the Social Order (2003), the latter in particular being a sustained attempt to show that archaeological theory and environmental archaeology are not, and can not be, divorced from one another. John was inspirational to those he taught and to those he worked with, and his many dozens of published works stand as testimony to his enthusiasm and knowledge for his subject as well as his desire to convey the subject to a wide readership. His interests were many and varied, and a single walk in the park with him could encompass conversations ranging in scope from the occurrence of Pupilla muscorum in blown sand deposits in northern Europe to the significance of graffiti daubed upon public buildings. Always there was a sense of fun, and warmth and generosity to those around him. He will be sadly missed, but fondly remembered. Paul Davies Bath Spa University
EH ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES GROUP English Heritage's 'Environmental Studies' group (Fort Cumberland, Portsmouth) is pleased to announce the existence of its new web site: www.english-heritage.org.uk/environmental_archaeology The 'Environmental Studies' group is comprised of seven environmental archaeologists. Disciplines include archaeobotany, geoarchaeology, human skeletal biology/osteology, palaeoecology and zooarchaeology. The website includes a group description, staff profiles and bibliographies, laboratory facilities, archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological reference collection lists, training opportunities, gallery and downloadable English Heritage guidelines. The site also hosts of the 'Professional Zooarchaeology Group'. Andy Hammon (Zooarchaeologist) Environmental Studies English Heritage Fort Cumberland Fort Cumberland Road Eastney Portsmouth, PO4 9LD +44 (0)2392 856789 andy.hammon@english-heritage.org.uk
An appraisal of Environmental Archaeology in Australia Andrew Fairbairn Until Jan 11th 2006: Dept. of Archaeology and Natural History, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Coombs Building, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia. Email: From Jan 2006: School of Social Sciences, University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia (email to come) I write the following brief and highly personal appraisal with a certain amount of trepidation: I am an outsider to the Australian archaeological scene and as "another bloody pommie import" will certainly raise the hackles of some Australian colleagues who read this. For the record, I have lived and worked in Australia as an archaeologist for 5 years at the time of writing. I brought with me 12 years of experience from the UK of both university and commercial-based environmental archaeology (hereafter EA), especially archaeobotany, having worked across Europe and the Middle East in projects large and small. Firstly, a précis of archaeology in Australia: Australia has a small though highly active archaeological community. The country itself is vast, environmentally diverse with an unpredictable climate and continuous human occupation for at least 40,000 years through many periods of cultural and environmental change. Archaeological work is dominated by survey and excavations are often small-scale. Australian archaeologists are at the forefront of several areas of archaeological work, including lithic analysis and in establishing dialogues with indigenous people. As well as investigating the great southern continent itself, archaeologists in Australia are key players in the archaeology of the Indo-Pacific and have trained many regional practitioners. The university sector is relatively small, with no single department in Australia employing more than 10 permanent archaeology teaching/research staff. A number of universities focus almost exclusively on the archaeology of Australia, but most have a noticeable bias in teaching and research towards other geographical areas, notably the Indo-Pacific (Southeast Asia to the eastern Pacific), and the Near East, especially Classical archaeology. The commercial sector, which can be very lucrative, is firmly focused on Australia and tends towards parochialism in both theory and practice. A few large consultancy firms dominate the sector, though often they retain few permanent staff and operate within a universe of lone consultants. There is little or no legal requirement to undertake environmental archaeology as part of development mitigation works and the university sector lacks access to the science funding that revolutionised university-based EA in the UK. These two factors make for a very different archaeological environment (excuse the pun) to that of the UK with which I am most familiar. Where does EA fit within this milieu? 1) University teaching and research: Archaeology or cultural heritage is taught in approximately 18 universities in Australia in 23 departments or other academic centres (based on the Australian Archaeological Association website (http://www.australianarchaeologicalassociation.com.au/index.php) and other research). Six of those explicitly state that they teach or research some aspect of EA, mainly geoarchaeology. In addition, many departments and centres, as well as geography and geology departments, maintain active researchers in EA fields and there are several recognised centres of EA research: Centre for Geoarchaeology and Palaeoenvironmental Research at Southern Cross University (http://www.scu.edu.au/schools/esm/palaeo/); The Centre for Palynology and Palaeoecology at Monash University (http://www.arts.monash.edu.au/ges/research/Cpp/); The Australian National University under the banners of the Centre for Archaeological Research (http://car.anu.edu.au/index.htm) and Palaeoworks (http://palaeoworks.anu.edu.au/). Teaching EA is usually confined to one or two courses in degree programs, or more often elements in geographical or period-focused courses. There are no lecturers with the title of "Lecturer in environmental archaeology", or specialist sub-fields for that matter. There are perhaps 1-2 permanent university archaeology positions advertised every year in Australia and rarely do academics gain lectureships because of EA skills - usually they have to broaden their interests to "mainstream archaeology" to be competitive in the jobs market. EA disciplines are often taught by natural or geological scientists who have an interest in archaeological questions or timescales. Teaching and research positions in archaeology have been squeezed by cuts to tertiary sector government funding in the last 20 years and academic positions are generally short-term. Overall, EA has low visibility in undergraduate courses, but maintains a moderate-sized, active, but rather dispersed and financially insecure research community. In spite of this the EA community includes world-leaders in vegetation history, geoarchaeology, plant microfossil research, geochronology and. 2) Commercial sector: There is little compulsion to include EA in mitigation works, hence it is almost absent from the commercial sector. Some consultancies do commission specialist analysis, which almost always enters the grey literature. Published works are rare and are of variable, often low quality. A relatively small group of EA consultants, mainly archaeobotanists, are sustained by this work; others, such as myself, get occasional contracts. In short, EA as formulated in the Old World is poorly understood in Australian-based archaeology and is neither fully recognised nor encouraged as a sub-discipline. Most work is done outside archaeological departments by researchers with natural science backgrounds and in some cases limited knowledge of global trends in EA. This gives the work a distinctly non-human theoretical bent. Many archaeological practitioners have highly developed expertise in some areas of geoarchaeology, archaeobotany or zooarchaeology; however, these areas are generally not considered subjects worthy of dedicated study as the basis for one's archaeological career. Rather, they are part of a suite of techniques applied by the archaeologist in question, sometimes under the advice of external experts, often not. In Australia there is a well-developed tradition of the archaeologist, and by that I mean a narrow definition of someone who directs excavations, confidently completing all manner of analyses, including geoarchaeology and bioarchaeology, on the basis of self-tuition or limited external training. In addition there is also a tradition of using self-trained honours and postgraduate students to complete such work for the excavator, who is most cases retains intellectual property rights over results. In many cases techniques lag behind other geographical regions. Specialisation in any EA field is often considered "suicidal for your career", and I quote directly from a senior colleague talking to a PhD candidate, both of whom shall remain nameless. This tradition of EA, combined with a chronic shortage of funds in the university sector, means that many EA techniques suited to Australian circumstances, such as starch and phytolith analysis, have been developed much more slowly than many would have hoped by an underfunded, but dedicated and admirably determined group of researchers. More damagingly, many suits of possible EA data from excavations are not adequately collected by an archaeological population who mostly do not understand what is possible by applying EA techniques, never mind how to recover the material during excavation. An example of the invisibility of EA can be seen in an otherwise excellent recent textbook on field methods for Australian archaeologists, The Archaeologists Field Handbook by Helen Burke and Claire Smith. Scouring the index for references to any EA technique I had to make do with "sampling" and "sieving", the former almost totally dedicated (6 of the 7 pages) to radiocarbon sampling and the latter (3.5 pages) mainly dealing with artefacts. From personal experience this is an accurate reflection of how archaeologists conceptualise EA - as a means of dating or something external to the field process. What about flotation, wet-sieving, extensive sampling procedures, sub-sampling? These are all issues that require a modification of field strategy and careful consideration when planning field projects. Now, before I hear Australian colleagues tell me that this oversight was due to good reasons and I simply don't understand the preservational problems in Australian sites, let me say that I have looked at material from several sites in Australia and that floral and faunal remains are not only preserved but can be recovered if the correct techniques are applied. In addition I have run comprehensive sampling and processing programs in excavations in Papua New Guinea, which like Australia has been assumed to have little potential for EA, and have recovered significant new assemblages of floral and faunal material. The problem lies with the assumptions and methods applied, not the archaeological sites. Interestingly, EA field techniques are discussed in another Australian produced book describing archaeological analytical sub-disciplines (Archaeology in practice: A student guide to archaeological analyses edited by Jane Balme and Alasdair Paterson). The consideration of such issues in a book about specialist sub-disciplines and not in a core archaeological field methods book underscores how most here see EA as an external field. We are a peripheral, if not external interest - environmentalists not real archaeologists - to be drawn on when necessary, but not a core part of the archaeological process. I could not disagree more and without changing this key misconception EA will not advance in Australia. The marginalisation of EA in mainstream Australian archaeology is, to say the least, rather surprising, as human-environment relations are a key area of concern, not just in the archaeology of Australia's deep past but in managing Australia's future. These concerns were famously summarised in Tim Flannery's Future Eaters and have more recently featured in Jared Diamond's doom-laden popular science book Collapse. Popular accounts are the tip of a huge and acrimonious iceberg of debates concerning the prehistory of extinctions, pre-European human impact on the environment, the agricultural status of the first Australians and the effect of El Niño on human settlement, to name a few of the more important areas of research. Archaeologists here want to discuss, and frequently argue, about these issues, but they seem unprepared to invest in the expertise and techniques to provide convincing answers to them. Methods have been developed in many places that could provide key data to address these issues from archaeological sites to complement those from natural sediments. I have to be fair to my colleagues as say that ideologically driven government funding shortages have played a major part in stunting archaeology's growth and the development of relatively "new" disciplines such as EA. But for how long will important data vital for understanding past human-environment relations continue to be ignored and lost from excavations, along with the research opportunities they represent? Of course, the impact of this situation is felt more widely as Australia has a great influence on the techniques used in the Indo-Pacific region, where with notable exceptions (Philippines and Polynesia), EA is almost invisible. Recent experience of teaching undergraduate archaeology students about EA, in both lecture theatre and lab, convinces me that things can and must change. A recent large class of students at my host university relished the opportunity to learn about and gain practical experience of archaeobotany, zooarchaeology and geoarchaeology. There was a clear appetite for this work and the insights it brings and surprise from several students that these techniques had not been discussed in other courses. To quote one Archaeology Major student: ".environmental archaeology should be a compulsory unit for anyone majoring in archaeology.. There were many points that came up that really highlighted to me how the environmental remains play an important part in the interpretation of a site. I am a bit of a bone and pottery buff but this course has opened my eyes to other avenues in archaeology." That interest is not an isolated occurrence. It seems to me that the Australian university sector in particular has missed a golden opportunity to further archaeology's great mission to understand our collective pasts by ignoring EA. In a time of competitive academia, a squandering of potential new courses, students, research projects and publications (which = money) is odd indeed. The well-funded commercial sector will have an important role to play in changing things here, as it did in the UK. But much of the work has to be done by the universities: if our techniques are not extensively taught and developed, then they will neither be widely used nor seen as relevant by the graduates who ultimately become archaeological practitioners and staff statutory regulatory bodies that determine national policy. For the good of the profession and the further understanding of both this amazing country and the region in which it sits I hope that the current situation changes soon. See Bibliography to view and download
To download right click on link and select Save Target As...(IE) or Save Link As...(Netscape) AEA Spring Conference (aea-spring-conference-2006.pdf) Geoarchaeology 2006 (geoarchaeology.pdf) For AEA membership forms see Download an AEA membership form and/or standing order form |
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