Le paysage géo-archéologique de collectivité

Abstract

The geoarchaeology studies the pedosedimentary archives. It aims to better understand the genesis of the landscapes and the relations between the past societies and their environments, which constitute our own heritage.Thus the geoarchaeological practice is particularly adapted to local communities, where it takes a whole part in the rescue archaeology process but also in planned archaeological researches. Moreover the archaeological offices of communities are allowed in France to proceed to archaeological diagnostic investigations. Thus they can access to a huge amount of data, which override time-laps and space scales of limited excavations. In this framework the geoarchaeologist can deal with many different space time scales from the field to the country and from the Pleistocene to today. Those scales are essential when questioning the history of the landscapes, because the answers can only be found by asking the pedosedimentary materiality of long term relations between the societies and their environment. It concerns the genesis of landscapes, the preservation of the archaeological record, the anthropisation and artificialisation of the landscape, the geologic raw materials, and the way of life of past societies. Furthermore those works take part in an interdisciplinary approach, integrating all the paleoenvironmental data.From the north of France to the Midi, the practical examples of working procedures, research programs, promotion actions and scientific results testify in the vitality of the geoarchaeology in local communities. Moreover they show how geoarchaeology is necessary in the practice of community archaeology and how those communities can be advantaged with such a skill. Indeed, the subjects treated give clues to better appreciate actual questions like soil erosion, waste and risk management, resources depletion, and climatic change.

Keywords

• geoarchaeology
• geomorphology
• territory
• public service
• community