How-Do-You-Know about the Environment

Our understanding past environments is greatly enriched by the study of the following.

1. Sediments that entomb an archaeological deposit. The study of the sediments and stratigraphy of an archaeological site is often the first step in understanding the environments that existed when the site was occupied. A trained eye may often be able to quickly identify the type of depositional environment in which the sediments at an archaeological site accumulated. Floodplain, backwater lake, stream channel, lake, colluvial and alluvial fan, sand bar depositional environments can all be differentiated with careful examination of the characteristics of individual deposits (e.g., size of particles, color of the deposit, etc.). Knowledge of the landscape and geomorphic position of a site is often critical to this assessment.
2. Geomorphology and landscapes of the study area. Even a general knowledge of the type of geomorphic features in an area will help you understand the main types of geological processes that may have contributed to the formation of sedimentary deposits at a particular site. We can expect, for example, that depositional environments commonly found in modern river valleys, will also be represented in the deposits of ancient river systems.
3. Animal Remains. The remains of mammals, birds, mussels, snails, amphibians, and even insects are particularly useful in identifying the environments represented at a site or in a region. This is because many animals have rather specific habitat preferences including attributes such as available food, cover, temperature, humidity, soil moisture, and sediment type. Thus, identifying the animals present at an archaeological site provides information of the types of habitats exploited by the human population.
4. Plant Remains the archaeological deposit and other nearby sites. Like animal remains, plant remains such as carbonized (burned) wood and nuts, and seeds from storage pits are also preserved in archaeological sites. Pollen and macrofossils (fragments of leaves and twigs) from lake deposits also provide detailed information about the past environment. Again, because plants often have highly specific needs and climatic tolerance limits, their presence/absence and abundance at a site can inform us about the past environment.

• General
  The following selection of references provide excellent introductions to understanding past environments.

  Aitken, M.J. 1990. Science-Based Dating in Archaeology. Longman, London & NY.

  Butzer, K.W. 1982. Archaeology as Human Ecology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, MA.

  Dictionary of Geological Terms. 1976. Anchor Press, Garden City, NY.

  Evans, J.G. 1978. An Introduction to Environmental Archaeology. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY.

  Gladfelter, B.G. 1981. "Developments and Directions in Geoarchaeology." In Advances in Archaeological Method and Theory, 4:343-364, edited by M.B. Schiffer. Academic Press, NY.

• Geology

  Flint, R.F. 1971. Glacial and Quaternary Geology. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., NY.

  Stafford, C.R. and E.R. Hajic. 1992. "Landscape scale: Geoenvironmental Approaches to Prehistoric Settlement Strategies." In Space, Time, and Archaeological Landscapes, edited by J. Rossignol and L. Wandsnider. Plenum Press, NY.

  West, R.G. 1977. Pleistocene Geology and Biology. Longman, London & NY.

• General Ecology

  Whittaker, R. 1975. Communities and Ecosystems. MacMillan Publishing Co., Inc., NY.

• Paleobiology

  Davis, S.J.M. 1987. The Archaeology of Animals. Yale University Press, New Haven & London.

  FAUNMAP. 1994. Faunmap: A Database Documenting Late Quaternary Distributions of Mammal Species in the United States. Illinois State Museum Scientific Papers, Vol. XXV, No.s 1 & 2. Illinois State Museum, Springfield.

  Graham, R.W., H.A. Semken, Jr., and M.A. Graham (editors). 1987. Late Quaternary Mammalian Biogeography and Environments of the Great Plains and Prairies. Illinois State Museum Scientific Papers, Vol. XXII. Illinois State Museum, Springfield.

  Kurten, B. and E. Anderson. 1980. Pleistocene Mammals of North America. Columbia University Press, NY.

• Geomorphic and Environmental Histories of Midwest River Valleys
  The following selection of references provide detailed information on the environments of midwest river valleys.

  Graham, R.W. et al. 1986. Quaternary Records of Southwestern Illinois and adjacent Missouri. American Quaternary Association, Field Guide. University of Illinois, Urbana.

  Hajic, E.R. 1993. "Geomorphology of the northern American Bottom as Context for Archaeology. In Highways to the Past: Essays on Illinois Archaeology in Honor of Charles J. Baeris, edited by T.E. Emerson, A.C. Fortier, and D.L. McElrath. Illinois Archaeology 5:54-65.

  Hajic, E.R. et al. 1989. Archaeological Geology and Geomorphology in the central Mississippi Ð lower Illinois River Valley Region, Illinois and Missouri. Guidebook, Geological Society of America, Archaeological Geology Division Field Trip.

  Pauketat, S.L. and T.R. Pauketat. 1998. "Environment." In An Archaeological Survey of the Horseshoe Lake State Park, Madison County, Illinois, by T.R. Pauketat, M.A. Rees, and S.L. Pauketat, pp. 5-9. Illinois State Museum Reports of Investigations, No. 55. Illinois State Museum, Springfield.

  White, W.P., S. Johannessen, P.G. Cross, and L.S. Kelly. 1984. "Environmental Setting." In American Bottom Archaeology: A Summary of the FAI-270 Project Contribution to the Culture History of the Mississippi River Valley, edited by C.J. Bareis and J.W. Porter, pp. 15-33. University of Illinois Press, Urbana.

  Wiant, M.D., E.R. Hajic, and T.R. Styles. 1983. "Napoleon Hollow and Koster Site Stratigraphy: Implications for Holocene Landscape Evolution and Studies of Archaic Period Settlement Patterns in the lower Illinois River Valley." In Archaic Hunter and Gatherers in the American Midwest, edited by J.L. Phillips and J.A. Brown, pp. 147-164. Academic Press, NY.

• Online (off-site) Resources
  United States Geological Survey
  Glaciers at Rice University
  Quaternary Studies at the University of Cincinnati

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