Costanzo Stefano, Pappalardo Marta, Starnini Elisabetta, Rossoni-Notter Elena, Notter Olivier, Moussous Abdelkader, Soares-Remiseiro Miguel, Fermo Paola, Cremaschi Mauro, Zerboni Andrea
Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra "Ardito Desio", Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy.
Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università di Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
MethodsX. 2024 Aug 9;13:102897. doi: 10.1016/j.mex.2024.102897. eCollection 2024 Dec.
We present a review of the latest framework achievements in geoarchaeological sciences applied to microstratigraphic and biomolecular studies of prehistoric archaeological contexts, highlighting the importance of musealized archaeological stratigraphies. We assess how today's scientific and technological accomplishments can be tailored for archaeological human ecology studies with analytical ensembles that provide unprecedented results. Sampling and processing workflows originating from resin consolidation and thin section micromorphology of undisturbed blocks of archaeological soils and sediments, guarantee subsampling accuracy at the micrometre scale granting access to individual components otherwise impossible to target: the achievable information yield makes even the smallest soil samples potential sources of pioneering discoveries. Yet, archaeological excavations are still the primary mode of retrieving new soil samples. We argue that, when dealing with archaeological sites that were excavated and partially musealised in the past, the exploration of related museum collections should be prioritized as perspective source of new study samples. Analysing old and potentially very informative samples, with an approach that we define as "Green Archaeology", may represent a source of well-structured primary data as well as a means for planning new excavations, delivering novel discoveries while safeguarding site integrity and promoting Third Mission valorisation of sites and heritage dormant collections.
我们对地质考古科学在史前考古背景的微地层学和生物分子研究中的最新框架成果进行了综述,强调了博物馆化考古地层学的重要性。我们评估了如何通过提供前所未有的结果的分析组合,将当今的科技成就应用于考古人类生态学研究。源自考古土壤和沉积物未扰动块体的树脂固结和薄片微形态学的采样和处理工作流程,保证了在微米尺度上的二次采样准确性,从而能够获取单个成分,否则这些成分是无法靶向的:可实现的信息产出使得即使是最小的土壤样本也有可能成为开创性发现的潜在来源。然而,考古发掘仍然是获取新土壤样本的主要方式。我们认为,在处理过去已发掘并部分博物馆化的考古遗址时,应优先探索相关博物馆藏品,将其作为新研究样本的潜在来源。采用我们定义为“绿色考古”的方法分析旧的且可能非常有信息价值的样本,可能代表了一种结构化原始数据的来源,也是规划新发掘的一种手段,在保护遗址完整性的同时提供新发现,并促进遗址和遗产休眠藏品的第三次使命价值提升。