Definitions

The archaeosphere is:

"the totality of all archaeological strata and anthropogenic ground, considered on a global scale...still being formed today, growing in volume and extent at ever increasing rates" [1]

The archaeosphere consists of:

“Occupation debris, landfill, urban artificial ground, quarried materials, ploughsoils, other cultivation soils, dumps of industrial waste, more ancient strata containing cultural material – all these together now form an enveloping and rapidly growing layer or set of layers over a large proportion of land surfaces" [2]

It includes:

"not only ... artificial terrains composed of the dirt and rubble moved and accreted by human activity, but also layers of the techno-sphere (cables, pipes, machinery…etc.), as well as biotic elements (bacteria, fungi, critters, roots)" [3]

Research on the archaeosphere:

" deals with, on one hand, the study of the archaeosphere's formation, expansion and permutation on both local and global scales, and on the other, its constitutive role in shaping the world physically, biologically and culturally" [4]

1.Everybody Wiki here

2. Edgeworth, Matt. 2016. Grounded objects. Archaeology and speculative realism, Archaeological Dialogues 23 (1), 93-113. doi:10.1017/S138020381600012X Available on ResearchGate

3. Masoud, Fadi. 2021. "Terra-Sorta-Firma: Reclaiming the Littoral Gradient.” ‍Actar: Barcelona – New York (2021). Read introductory chapter here

4. Nativ, Assaf & Lucas, Gavin. 2020 Archaeology without antiquity. Antiquity 94 (376): 852-863. doi:10.15184/aqy.2020.90 open access

In a nutshell: more definitions

The material residue of human existence

The stratigraphic trace of human geological agency

A new geological layer, which started forming thousands of years ago, still forming today

A growth form, expanding both upwards and downwards, and spreading out in lateral directions

An umbrella term for the various forms of human-modified ground (reclaimed land, landfill, archaeological cuts and deposits, anthropogenic soils, etc)

Stratigraphic evidence of human geological agency for the most part NOT considered relevant and is therefore not considered by the AWG in their highly reductive definition of the Anthropocene epoch.

Stratigraphic evidence supporting the argument for the larger, unfolding, intensifying Anthropocene Event.