HR: 0800h
AN: P41A-0203    [Abstracts]
TI: Archaeology and Planetary Science: Entering a New Era of Interdisciplinary Research
AU: * McGee, B W
EM: mcgee@temporaldynamics.org
AF: Institute of Temporal Dynamics, Inc., 809 Overview Drive, Las Vegas, NV 89145,
AB: Recent studies highlight the widening intersection between planetary and archaeological investigations, which will provide new avenues of funding and research for planetary scientists in the coming decades. Emergent research areas fall into five primary categories: 1) Enhancing anthropological investigations by utilizing planetary remote sensing techniques; 2) Mining archaeological sites and/or the anthropological record for data in support of planetary events, (e.g. asteroid or comet impacts,); 3) Industrial archaeology as it relates to planetary exploration (e.g. Apollo-era spacecraft design and the Atomic Energy Commission's Nuclear Rocket Development Station); 4) Archaeoastronomy, as historical and pre-historical astronomical artifacts relate to planetary axial orientation and pleistocene/holocene climatology; and 5) The nascent field of astrobiological xenoarchaeology, which centers on the proposed methods of investigation should ongoing planetary exploration yield evidence of astrobiological life. Recent research projects are reviewed, the implications for current planetary/archaeological research are addressed, and directions for future interdisciplinary research are discussed.
DE: 0473 Paleoclimatology and paleoceanography (3344, 4900)
DE: 4946 Milankovitch theory
DE: 5200 PLANETARY SCIENCES: ASTROBIOLOGY
DE: 5464 Remote sensing
DE: 6022 Impact phenomena (5420, 8136)
SC: Planetary Sciences [P]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting