Research that incorporates scientists or studies from a number of disciplines. Basically, it is research that includes the ideas and has studies in many different fields, for example in archaeoastronomy and paleoethnobotanists. The idea of multidisciplinary research is really not restricted to a specific time period; rather, as long as people have participated in research they have included research from other fields in their studies. Some time context for the example below, however, is around the 1950's at the Braidwood site. The Images of the Past textbook gives the example of the Koobi Fora project as an example of multidisciplinary research, in which approaches from the fields of geology, geography, zoology, ethnoarchaeology, and ethology have been employed to understand the site. The work of Robert Braidwood is relevent, in that his archaeological dig and study on early agriculture in the natural habitat of the Near East used multidisciplinary research.
Composed by Patrick Findlay, Sara Jones, Sally McIver, Joseph Billeaud, and Ted Weiman.
Last updated 25 February 1997