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Micromorphology as a Tool for the Analysis of Urban Stratigraphic Sequences

par Devos, Yannick ;Nicosia, Cristiano ;Macphail, Richard
Référence Balkan Symposium on Archaeometry (4: 27th-30th September 2014: Nessebar, Bulgaria)
Publication Non publié, 2014-09

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Résumé :

In European urban archaeological contexts, micromorphology is often employed tostudy deposits known as “Dark Earth” (see Nicosia et al. 2013; Nicosia & Devos 2014).This term indicates dark-colored, poorly stratified units, often formed over severalcenturies, frequently rich in anthropogenic remains. More specifically, it is often used todefine units situated in between stratified deposits of Antique cities (between the 1st andthe 3rd-5th century AD) and medieval ones (from the 11th-12th century AD onwards).The lack of internal stratigraphy at the macro-scale is a particular problem for urbanarchaeologists. Therefore, Dark Earth deposits have often been dug away withoutfurther study. However, pioneering geoarchaeological investigations (involving soilmicromorphology and physico-chemical soil analyses) have successfully beenundertaken in UK since the early 1980s. Since then, such studies have also beenundertaken in France, Italy and Belgium (since the 1990’s), with a progressiveinvolvement of soil micromorphology. Such investigations aim at characterizing thecomponents of Dark Earth and the effects of post-depositional processes upon them.These analyses have then gone on to prove that in many cases Dark Earth represents apalimpsest of different activities and natural processes, which can still be identifieddespite Dark Earth being subject to thorough homogenization. Among the identifiedactivities, dumping, horticulture/agriculture, animal gathering, and digging can be cited.The micromorphological and geoarchaeological study of Dark Earths has helpedsignificantly in evaluating the continuity of occupation in post-Antique towns and inunderstanding their spatial organization.References:NICOSIA C., DEVOS Y. (2014). Urban Dark Earth. In: C. Smith (Ed.) Encyclopedia ofGlobal Archaeology, Vol. 11, pp. 7532-7540. New York: Springer.NICOSIA C., DEVOS Y., BORDERIE Q. (2013). The contribution of geosciences tothe study of European Dark Earths: a review. PCA - PostClassical Archaeologies 3(2013), 127-152.