Geoarchaeology, Lecture 6

Human life is rooted in soil

Soil Formation
(Pedogenesis, or soil evolution)
• Soils: The Soil
unconsolidated portion
of the earth’s surface
that supports plant life
and is altered by
continuous chemical and
biotic activity and
weathering
• Weathered in place
• Weathering creates
horizons (layers) with
distinctive physical and
chemical characteristics
• Soil horizons and their
arrangement and
makeup compose the
soil profile
 Soils vs sediments
• Soils and sediments are
different things
• Sediments are produced
by weathering and are
transported as solid
organic and inorganic
particles; they are
accumulated or
precipitated by natural or
human action
• Soils are made, in part,
from sediments, and are Rugen Island, Germany
weathered in-place and
can be formed by natural
or human action.
• Diagnose climate
conditions, resource
productivity
• Inform us about natural
landscape formation
processes
• Provide an Sanyangzhuang
understanding of the
context of archaeological
sites
• Formation
• Deposition
• Artifact recovery

Feltus, Mississippi
 Soil Formation
• Soil formation is a
surface process that
involves:
• 1) the addition of
material to the
sediments from the
ground surface and
atmosphere;
• 2) transformation of
substances in the soil;
• 3) vertical transfer of
materials in the soil; and
• 4) removal of
constituents from the
soil
 Soil Formation
 The addition of material to the
sediments
 Introduction of organic material
(via decay of plants and animals)
 introduction of dissolved and solid
particles from the atmosphere
 transformation of substances in
the soil
 Decomposition and alteration of
organic and mineral constituents
in the soil by biological,
Loess plateau, Henan Province
mechanical, and/or chemical
processes
 Soil formation occurs only when
the rates of accumulation and
transformation exceed the rate of
deposition
 Soil formation diagnoses
landscape stability

Mound A, Poverty Point

 Downward (translocation)
movement of solid particles Soil Formation
and soluble parts of the soil
 Gravity transportation of solids
and dissolved chemicals by
water through pore spaces in
soil particles
 Also, fluctuation in water table
(redox) and the action of plants
and animals (bioturbation)
 When translocation stops
material is accumulated or
precipitated
 The zone where materials were
moved from is called the eluvial
horizon; the zone of deposition is
referred to as the illuvial horizon
(thus eluviation is the process of
removal of translocated particles
and solubles, while illuviation is
the process of deposition).
 E (eluvial) horizon

Core top (up)

Poverty Point, Mound E

Removal of constituents from soil Anyang

 Leaching: the removal of
soluble components of the
soil column
 Leaching occurs when
rainfall/water movement
exceeds evaporation and
there is free downward
movement of water in the
soil column
 Leaching is most active in
sandy soils with high
porosity and lowest in
fine-textured soils with
restricted pore space
 Salinization of soil is an
excessive accumulation of
water-soluble salts caused
when evaporation exceeds
precipitation and salts are
not leached but remain in
the upper soil layers.
Salinization can be natural
or driven by human
actions (often irrigation).
Typically, it is NaCl; often
the list of minerals is far
more extensive and
includes various
compounds of sodium,
potassium, calcium,
magnesium, sulfates,
chlorides, carbohydrates,
and bicarbonates.
Soil horizons
 ˆAub2

ˆAub3

E (eluvial) horizon
Bs (illuvial) horizon ˆAub4

Aub5
 Soil formation as historical process

 Soil formation processes alter

existing sediments and soil
structures and replace them
with new horizons, often
different from their original
structure
 Soil formation can develop new
horizons and it can obscure or
alter existing ones
 soil formation takes place in a
limited vertical zone (usually
controlled by the depth of water
percolation downward)
 Soil formation usually takes
place on stable land surfaces
 Soil formation processes often
record environmental and Sanyangzhuang site
historical events and patterns
 Soil Profile
 The soil profile is defined as a
vertical section of the soil from
the ground surface downwards
to where the soil meets the
underlying rock
 Soil profiles composed of
distinctive layers, termed
horizons
 Most soils will have three or
more horizons
 A
 B
 C
 Most soils have A, B and C
horizons; some, generally weakly
developed, soils may have A
horizons lying directly on C
horizons
 A
 A horizon: characterized by the
accumulation of humified organic B
material mixed with mineral grains and
usually expressed by a dark color
 B horizon: In some soils the B horizon
results purely from the weathering of ˆC
the underlying rock whereas in other
soils this weathering is supplemented by
the translocation of materials from
overlying horizons
 B horizons may have a number of
different subscripts to indicate the Poverty Point, LA
nature of the materials that have
moved into the horizon, e.g. Bh
indicates the translocation of humus
into the horizon, Bt, the
translocation of clays, etc.
 C horizon is often consistent with the
parent material and may have been little
altered from the material in which the
soil originally formed
 R horizon is the unweathered regolith
 Cultural horizons

Bridgewater, MA
 ^A/O
^A
2Ab
2Bw

3Ab1

3Ab2

3Bw1
3Bw2
3Ab3
3Ab4
3Bw3

4C
5C

6C
 CLORPT
Soil formation
processes are
affected by:
 (Cl) Climate (esp.
temperature and
precipitation)
 (O) Biological
Organisms
 (R) Relief
(Topography)
 (P) Parent material
 (T) Time
 Climate
 Climate (most commonly temperature and precipitation) influences the
nature and intensity of soil forming processes
 Climate has a direct effect
 (e.g., calcic and salic horizons are more likely to form in hot, arid environments
where the depth of leaching is relatively shallow. In contrast, in humid
environments calcium carbonate and salts can be completely removed via
intense leaching [Oxisols vs Ultisols])
 Climate also influences the
rate of soil formation, varying
the speed the formation of a
soil profile
 e.g., argillic B (Bt) horizons
form more readily in humid
environments than in arid
ones
 Changes in soil formation
processes may indicate
changes in climate over a given
unit of time

Exeter, MA
 Squirrel Island, ME
Climate also affects the formation and
extent of vegetation, and influences
biogenic activity (root penetration,
bioturbation, etc.)
 Biological Organisms
 Vegetation responds to parent material
and climate (and time) and effects soil
composition
 Vegetation influences animal life and is
a causal factor in bioturbation and its
extent
 Vegetation type and amount directly
influences the type and amount of
organic matter accumulation, and
thereby influences such soil chemical
properties as pH and nutrient supply
 Vegetation also influences rates of
weathering and erosion
 Certain soil types form mainly or only in
certain vegetation regimes (e.g., Albic
and Spodic horizons form only under
coniferous forests, while Mollic
epipedons form mainly under
grasslands)
 Humans are now the most influential of
all organisms
Paleosols (fossil soils), Sanyangzhuang
 Parent material
 Effects texture,
porosity, chemistry,
and mineral makeup
of the soil
 e.g., calcium
carbonate
accumulates more
rapidly in coarse
parent material (i.e.,
sands) than it does in
fine material
 Parent material is the
only factor that can
be considered Squirrel Island, ME
inherited (genetic) as
opposed to acquired
 Relief (Topography)
 Influences the thickness of
soil deposits and their rate
of accumulation (episodic
vs. cumulative on hill
slopes or other gradually
eroding features)
 Position relative to water
and drainage (well-drained
vs. poorly drained) are
important aspects that will
influence soil formation
and diagnosis (gleying as
example)
 Catena concept (a
connected series or chain)
Poverty Point
Core 2006-75; Madison Parish, LA (gley channel fill)
 Time
 Required to transform unaltered
sediments into a soil
 Shorter periods of time (usually)
indicated by a weakly developed
soil; in contrast, longer periods
are (usually) diagnosed by
strongly expressed horizons
 e.g., thicker A horizons are
generally an expression of
greater periods of time, all things
being equal, and they indicate
the existence of a stable CaCo3 filaments & coatings
environment
 Thicker Bt horizons require more
time
 Horizon thickness and soil
development are always relative
processes that are contingent on
the other listed factors

Tashbulak, Uzbekistan
 Texture
 The size distribution of primary
mineral particles, called soil texture,
has a strong influence on the
properties of a soil
 Particles larger than 2 mm in
diameter (usually not considered
part of “soil”):
 Boulder (>256 mm)

 Cobble (64-256 mm)

 Gravel (64-2 mm)

 Particles smaller than 2 mm in

diameter are divided into
 Sand

 Silt

 Clay

 These names vary depending

on classification being used
 The texture of soils is usually
expressed in terms of the
percentages of sand, silt, and clay
 The color of soils can be
Color
determined by minor
chemical/mineral components
 Generally, moist soils are
darker than dry ones and
organic components also
make soils darker
 Thus, surface soils tend to be
darker than subsoils
 Red, yellow and gray hues Munsell chart
reflect the oxidation and
hydration states of iron oxides,
which reflect (predominantly)
aeration and drainage
characteristics in subsoil
 Redox (reduction/oxidation)
features often diagnose water
movement
 Soil color charts (Munsell
Chart)
Poverty Point
 Structure
 The nature of the arrangement of primary
particles into naturally formed secondary
particles, called aggregates (or Peds), is soil
structure
 A sandy soil may be structureless because each
sand grain behaves independently of all others
 A compacted clay soil may be structureless
because the particles are clumped together in
huge massive chunks
 What causes aggregates to form and what holds
them together?
 Clay particles
 Wetting and drying, freezing and thawing, root and
animal activity, and mechanical agitation are
involved in the rearranging of particles into
aggregates Sanyangzhuang
 Organic materials, especially microbial cells and
waste products, act to cement aggregates
 On the other hand, aggregates may be destroyed
by mechanical practices, compaction, and
depletion of soil organic matter
 Structure is described in terms of the size and
stability of aggregates/peds
 Very weak, weak, moderate, strong, very strong
 Single-grained, massive, granular, blocky, platy,
prismatic/columnar
angular, blocky
(Haimenkou)

Massive
(Jaketown)

Platy (laminated)
(Sanxinzhuang)