The role of geoarchaeology in Japanese archaeology

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  • Sato Hiroyuki
    Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology, The University of Tokyo

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  • 地考古学が日本考古学に果たす役割
  • チ コウコガク ガ ニホン コウコガク ニ ハタス ヤクワリ

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Geoarchaeology, which is not wellknown in Japan yet, has produced excellent results as one of the major research design methods in archaeological research projects in Europe and the USA. While geoarchaeological practices in those countries mainly emphasize geological and geomorphological site formation processes (natural transforms), it is appropriate to aim also to take cultural site formation processes, which are developed in processual archaeology, into consideration, because both cultural and natural factors influence the archaeological site formation processes systematically.<BR>This paper explains the history and substance of geoarchaeology, and its positioning in modern archaeology, from the viewpoint of the human ecosystem. We cannot gain basic information on site formation processes accurately without geoarchaeological analyses. Although geoarchalogy and geosciences hold analytical methods in common, there are critical differences between them. The former aims at the construction of general processes and mechanisms of landscape, geomophological, and geological settings, while the latter sets the comprehension of each site formation process as the starting point. These differences in scientific methodology and philosophy are explained clearly in this paper.

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