Congratulations to Justin, Alicia, Ilaria, and Dan for a great presentation of innovative geoarchaeological research at Boston University
Frontiers in Geoarchaeology
Geological Society of America’s Annual Meeting:
Baltimore, MA
November 1 – 4, 2015
Presided by Dr. Laura Murphy (Far Western Anthropological Research Group)
and
Justin A. Holcomb (Boston University)
At this year’s annual meeting of the Geological Society of America, Justin A. Holcomb (GRS ’19) co-presided a session titled: “Frontiers in Geoarchaeology” which combined 14 paper and 12 poster presentations on a variety of new field, laboratory, quantitative, and technological approaches for better understanding the archaeological record through geoarchaeological frameworks around the world. Moreover, the session explored understudied environments, confronted theoretical and methodological issues of scale, discussed geoarchaeological pedagogy, and exemplified how geoarchaeologists are building new models and paradigms to address the human and environmental past. Invited keynote speakers included Dr. Rolfe Mandel (University of Kansas), Dr. Carlos Cordova (Oklahoma State University), and Dr. Kathleen Nicole (University of Utah).
Several Boston University graduate students contributed to the symposium including graduate students Ilaria Patania (GRS ’16), Daniel Fallu (GRS ’16) and Alicia Sawyer (GRS ’15). Justin and Alicia co-authored a paper titled, “Quantifying Context: Integrating pXRF Chemostratigraphy and Thin-Section Micromorphology at Skagafjöður, Northern Iceland”. Ilaria presented a portion of her doctoral research in a paper titled, “Micromorphological Analysis of the Late Upper Paleolithic Layers of Xianrendong Cave”. Finally, Dan discussed his research in Greece in a paper titled, “Earthquakes, Landslides, and the Perfect Storm: Geoarchaeology of Complex Landscape Interactions at Mycenae, Greece 3.2 – 2.8 ka”. Other contributions included paper topics that discussed: geoarchaeological pedagogy, mathematical modeling, fecal sterol biomarkers, XRF, GIS, archaeological geophysics, three-dimensional scanning and modeling, and isotopic provenance.