The existing set of pedogenic features in soils and pedosediments can be used as environmental indicators based on the process-oriented paradigm: factors -- processes -- features. In a stratigraphic context, those features in their relation to the environmental setting play a key role for paleoenvironmental reconstruction. The clarification of the formation of relic and buried soils as well as the formation of pedosediments from deposits hosting archaeological materials (fluvial, colluvial, cave, etc.) gives major information about the setting of the ancient cultures from palaeolithic sites to medieval settlements. This session focuses on the combination of established and new methods from macro- to microscale applied for the analysis and interpretation of soils and pedosediments as paleoenvironmental proxies and their correlation with other geological archives to better understand the climatic, ecological and environmental changes particularly since the Middle Pleistocene.