The Black Sea Flood Hypothesis was published by William Ryan and Walter Pitman.
They argued that the evidence pointed to a catastrophic change from a smaller freshwater lake to a large salt sea at that point in time.
This saltwater sea today covers an area larger than the state of California.
The change in mollusk shells is used as evidence for the hypothesis.
Radiocarbon dates from these mollusk shells were consistently around 6500 B.C.
The Black Sea Flood Hypothesis was very popular, but apparently incorrect.
Various lines of powerful evidence are contrary to the hypothesis.
These data demonstrate that the depth of the Black Sea was much higher at the time of the proposed flooding.
Other evidence documents continuous flow between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean for the last 10,000 years.
Geology is an essential aspect of the human past.
Archaeological research concerned with geology and the earth sciences is called geoarchaeology.
Geoarchaeologists work with archaeologists to examine the geological aspects of the archaeological record.
The geological context of archaeological finds is very important.
Many of the raw materials used in the past came from geological deposits.
Geomorphology
Geomorphology is a branch of geology concerned with the study of the shape of the earth's surface.
The classification, description, origin, and development of landforms are investigated.
Geomorphology can also tell us about the events that form, preserve, and destroy archaeological sites.
Geomorphologists follow the principle of uniformitarianism.
Geomorphological changes over time will determine the survival of archaeological materials.
Information on changes in the landscape allows archaeologists to evaluate the completeness of the archaeological record.
Sediment is any particulate matter that can be transported by water or other fluids.
Clay, sand, silt, gravel, leaves, shell, and other materials would all be included in sediment.
Sediments are eventually deposited as a layer of solid particles.
Sediments make up all of the earth's surface that is not water or rock.
Virtually all buried archaeological materials are found in sedimentary deposits.
Soil is a special kind of sedimentary deposit produced in situ by the weathering of the earth's surface.
Weathering refers to the processes that operate change the surface of the earth.
These processes include rainfall, frost, and plant and animal activity as major forces of change.
There are many different kinds of soils depending on the type of parent material and the conditions of weathering.
Pedologists use a standard system to describe the various strata found in soil.
The O horizon is dark in color and contains dust, leaf litter, and other organic materials that accumulate on the surface.
The A horizon is also dark with organic matter and is a zone of generally loose and crumbly sediment.
The B horizon is the subsoil and contains various minerals and nutrients leached through the topsoil.
The C horizon is the transition zone where the breakdown of the parent material is initiated.
The scope of geomorphology is enormous.
Geomorphology provides a means for archaeologists to understand the local landscape of a site or region.
Example: Geomorphology and Homer's Troy
The authenticity of Homer's Iliad and the location of Troy have been debated for centuries.
Homer's manuscript was probably completed around 800 B.C.
The Greeks who besieged the Trojans and finally tricked them into defeat lived around 1200 B.C.
By the beginning of the European Renaissance the location of Troy had been lost and the existence of the city denied.
Heinrich Schliemann went in search of Troy.
He excavated at the ancient tell of Hisarlik, 5 km inland from the coast of the Dardanelles in Turkey.
Here the layers he exposed revealed a series of fortified cities and earlier towns going back 5000 years in time.
Scholars doubted that Schliemann had found Troy because the city was supposed to be on the coast.
Recent excavations have documented repeated attacks during the city's history and a major episode of destruction around the reputed date of the Trojan War.
Resolving the question of Troy's location is a good lesson in geoarchaeology.
John Kraft studied this part of northwestern Turkey intensively for many years.
Kraft and his colleagues have documented dramatic geomorphological changes in the landscape since 3000 B.C.
At that time a large bay of the sea opened to the north of Hisarlik and continued to the south another 5 km.
By the time of Homer's Troy, at least half the bay had filled and the coastlines were being reshaped by tectonic activity.
By the time of Schliemann's visit, the bay was completely filled and Hisarlik was an inland site.
Stratigraphy
The term stratigraphy is used for the sequence of layers, or strata, in the ground.
Stratigraphy has been a fundamental basis for understanding the past in archaeology since its inception.
Stratigraphy provided essential information long before sophisticated dating methods became available.
The thickness of a layer is not determined so much by the length of time that it took to accumulate, but by the natural or human activities involved in the deposition of the materials.
Archaeologists have traditionally recorded the layers they dig through in great detail, using drawings, photographs, and written descriptions.
Drawings of stratigraphic sections take a great deal of time and study.
Each layer is numbered and characterized in terms of texture, color, moisture, contents, and so forth.
Soil color is often recorded using a Munsell soil color chart.
Sediments in each layer are distinguished as to size.
Soil texture refers to the mixture of sand, silt, and clay particles in a soil.
Pedologists use the percentage of sand, silt, and clay to define the texture of soils.
The soil triangle is used to determine the texture.
The processes of deposition and erosion by ice, wind, water, and waves are largely responsible for the development of stratigraphic sequences.
Humans are a major force in the movement and redeposition of sediments, complicating the stratigraphy.
Archaeological Thinking: The Harris Matrix
The Harris Matrix is a method for describing intricate stratigraphy in a schematic way.
The matrix is a kind of diagram or flow-chart of stratigraphy.
The "matrix" is a chart of lines linking numbered boxes, which represent individual layers, deposits, features, and interfaces in the profile.
Its purpose is to document the sequence of layers, features, and their connections at the site in time, not their physical relationships.
The Harris system emphasizes the kinds of stratigraphic elements that are found where people live.
Layers are sedimentary deposits that accumulate through cultural or natural processes.
Features are made by digging and building and doing.
An interface is the term Harris uses for surfaces at a site that were areas of activity before they were buried.
The Harris Matrix differs from traditional stratigraphic methods which invoke the law of superpositioning.
Constructing a Harris Matrix involves boxes and lines and the relationships between them.
Boxes are used to assign numbers to layers, features, and interfaces.
Micromorphology
Micromorphology involves the study of anthropogenic sediments at a microscopic level.
Undisturbed blocks of sediment are removed from a site and taken to a laboratory.
The block is embedded with polyester resin to harden it.
A thin slice is then cut and polished so it can be examined at 20–200 magnification under a microscope.
Important observations include composition, texture), and especially the fabric of the constituents.
Science in Archaeology: The Petrographic Microscope
Petrographic microscopes are used for micromorphology, ceramic analysis, and mineral identification.
A petrographic microscope is specifically designed for the study of thin sections.
This slice, or section, is so thin that light passes through the material.
Example: Keatley Creek
The site is an unusually large prehistoric village of hunter-gatherers located in British Columbia, Canada.
The site is visible today as a concentration of more than 100 large depressions or pits that mark the location of the houses of the former inhabitants.
There was a total of 120 houses at the site.
The first house pits appear to have been dug shortly time after 800 B.C.
The major period of occupation ran from AD 300 to 1200 with some interruption.
Population at that time is estimated to have been approximately 1200 people.
There were clear differences in the size of houses.
The living floors of the houses provided substantial information on both contents and context.
Several techniques were used to study the house floors, including micromorphology.
The amount of anthropogenic material (bone, ash, burned stones, or fine charcoal) in the thin sections of the house floors was surprisingly low.
There was usually a 1-2 mm thick deposit of salmon bones directly on top of the living surface of the floor.
Excavations of this house revealed further details of construction and artifact contents.
The significant architectural features in the house include the two sleeping platforms.
These are raised earthen benches where members of the co-residential group slept and did a variety of other things.
The hearth and cache pit are two other important features.
The excavations provided information on differences among the houses and households.
The larger houses belonged to elite families who lived with hereditary servants.
The wealthy owners lived on one side of the large house, and their servants or poor relations inhabited the other side.
The foods consumed by the elites and non-elites in a household varied.
Elite families appeared to control some economic spheres of the culture.
Large households probably owned or restricted access to some of the more lucrative fishing and hunting areas.
Elite families or individuals were also in control of long-distance trade and prestige goods in the region.
Geoarchaeology and environmental studies can also tell us about the demise of Keatley Creek.
Climatic warming and environmental richness may have been associated with the rise of larger villages and social hierarchy in this region after AD 300.
Climatic deterioration is a possible cause of the disappearance of other sites throughout this region around AD 800.
Science in Archaeology: The Chemistry of House Floors
A soil chemistry study of the Keatley Creek site was carried out.
Phosphorus levels are higher in areas of ash, food remains, and body wastes.
Catastrophe
Major catastrophes are recorded in various ways in the archaeological record.
Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floods, tidal waves, major conflagrations usually leave stratigraphic and geomorphological traces.
Some of these can be very dramatic.
The Roman towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum are famous examples.
