Human impacts on ancient environments

This updated and expanded second edition of a much lauded work provides a current overview of the impacts of climate change on tropical forests. The authors also investigate past, present and future climatic influences on the ecosystems with the highest biodiversity on the planet. Tropical Rainforest Responses to Climatic Change, Second Edition, looks at how tropical rain forest ecology is altered by climate change, rather than simply seeing how plant communities were altered. Shifting the emphasis on to ecological processes, e.g. how diversity is structured by climate and the subsequent impact on tropical forest ecology, provides the reader with a more comprehensive coverage. A major theme of the book is the interaction between humans, climate and forest ecology. The authors, all foremost experts in their fields, explore the long term occupation of tropical systems, the influence of fire and the future climatic effects of deforestation, together with anthropogenic emissions. Incorporating modelling of past and future systems paves the way for a discussion of conservation from a climatic perspective, rather than the usual plea to stop logging. This second edition provides an updated text in this rapidly evolving field. The existing chapters are revised and updated and two entirely new chapters deal with Central America and the effect of fire on wet forest systems. In the first new chapter, the paleoclimate and ecological record from Central America (Lozano, Correa, Bush) is discussed, while the other deals with the impact of fire on tropical ecosystems.

ABSTRACT: Archaeological investigations demonstrate that peoples first settled the Caribbean islands approximately 6000–7000 years ago. At least four major, and multiple minor, migrations took place over the next millennia by peoples from Mesoamerica and South America who practised various subsistence strategies and had different levels of technology. For decades, researchers have been interested in investigating how these groups adapted to and impacted insular environments through time.

Sand is a crucial resource for the development of a nation. It is the second most consumed natural resource in the world after water: humanity swallows 15 billion tons of it every year. This article presents a synthesis of current knowledge on the various impacts related to its exploitation, which is constantly increasing in the world today. The methodology used is based on documentary research and consisted in the analysis of scientific publications, thesis and books on the activity of sand dredging and its impacts. Several works focused on the bio-ecological and socio-economic impacts of this activity on aquatic ecosystems. These studies cover more than 98% of the work carried out in the marine environment. A research orientation aimed at exploring these issues in the lagoon and estuarine ecosystems of southern Benin would contribute to safeguarding the environment and conserving biodiversity.

This dissertation examines changes in Haida economic adaptations during the late pre-contact and early contact periods in Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands, British Columbia). This was primarily achieved through the analysis of faunal and artifactual assemblages recovered from archaeological excavations at eight village sites in Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve and Haida Heritage Site (southernmost Haida Gwaii). In addition, extensive syntheses of early historic accounts, ethnographic descriptions, and previous archaeological work provide context for the interpretation of the archaeological data and complementary data on the economic responses of the Haida to European contact and the maritime fur trade.

The new archaeological data presented in this dissertation, combined with previously published results, form the basis of a detailed description of the nature of Haida economic adaptations during the late pre-contact period (ca. 500 AD to 1774 AD). Most notably, these data clarify a previously recognized shift from a more generalized, rockfish-oriented economy to a more specialised, salmon focused economy between 1,200 BP and 800 BP. These distinct economic adaptations, now widely demonstrated for southern Haida Gwaii, have been formalized as an earlier Xyuu daw Phase (ca. 2,000 BP to 1,000 BP) and a later Qayjuu Phase (ca. 1,000 BP to contact), both within the previously described late Graham Tradition.

While the maritime fur trade and the incorporation of the Haida into the European capitalist world system increased the focus of the Haida on the hunting of sea otters, altered the Haida seasonal round, and introduced new items of material culture, it had relatively little impact on the Haida subsistence economy. Salmon continued to dominate Haida subsistence, while the majority of the introduced material culture was non-utilitarian or was incorporated into existing cultural practices. In contrast, European traders were forced to adopt a degree of Haida tradition into trade practices, and in many cases were dependent on the Haida to meet their own subsistence needs. More profound changes to Haida culture, including the rise of Haida economic dependency on the world economy, arose during the subsequent period of increasing European encroachment and settlement.

Dal lake is known as jewel of Kashmir valley and it work as a pull factor for lakhs of tourists every year. However Dal lake has lost its beauty what it had until 1980’s. Several reasons are responsible for miserable condition of Dal lake. Data were collected by multi-methods approach both primary and secondary resources were involved. Locals and students were interviewed in Srinagar city and several news portals, journals was also observed.  The findings of the research indicate that most of politicians had made misuse and made lot of money on the name of development of Dal lake. This case study will provide useful findings for policymakers to improve the existing condition policies for lake.

In mining operations carried out below the water table, mine area could potentially affect the surrounding. With further deepening of the mine and quarry, the drawdown can impact on water supply wells and base flow. The variation in radius of influence under confined and unconfined aquifer condition is assessed using a hypothetical case study with three operational quarry sites. Average pit-wise radius of influence (R0) for the pit mine, under unconfined and confined aquifer conditions is 963 m and 61 km, respectively, whereas effective radius (Re) for total (cumulative) excavated mine area is 1.7 and 146 km, respectively. It means that the maximum and minimum value of overall impact/influence for the unconfined aquifer lies in-between 963 m and 1.7 km. Similarly that the maximum and minimum value of overall impact/influence for the confined aquifer lies in-between 61 and 146 km. Meanwhile, Re or effective radius for total (cumulative) excavated area seems more appropriate from evaluation viewpoint due to the overlapping (superposition) concentric mining quarries. Thus, assessment of quarry-wise and total radius of influence is of importance to fulfil targeted production, economically with minimum interruptions as part of the mine planning. Moreover, it helps us to assess, monitor and regulate the impact of a mine-dewatering program in the area. Also, the pumping test is often used to estimate radius of influence; it can trigger the inflow or radius of influence. Estimate of the radius of influence using analytical equation mainly independent of discharge/abstraction from the aquifer stands as a preferred choice for the prediction of radius of influence at the quarry/mine pit. There is a strong rationale that policies should be informed by such analytical assessment because it helps us to prevent or minimize negative impacts as part of regulation and pit-mining management and are useful tools for practitioners to design economically efficient and cost-effective in situ groundwater remediation systems, to contain contaminant plumes, to evaluate the surface–subsurface water interaction and to verify numerical models.

A geoarchaeological coring survey of the Forum Boarium has shed considerable light on Rome’s archaic landscape. We present the rst empirical evidence that substantiates ancient and modern assumptions about the existence of a river harbour and ford in early Rome. Prior to the growth of the city, the riverbank — reconstructed as a high ledge at the base of the Capitoline Hill and a low-lying shore north of the Aventine — was particularly advantageous for river-related activities. However, the river valley changed signicantly in the sixth century B.C.E., as a result of complex uvial processes that were arguably spurred by urbanisation. Around the beginning of the Republic, Rome’s original harbour silted up, and a high, wide riverbank emerged in its place. The siltation continued until the Forum Boarium was urbanised in the mid-Republic. In order to build their city and maintain river harbour operations, the Romans therefore had to adapt to dynamic ecological conditions.

In this chapter, we compile archaeological data on the distribution of pinnipeds and sea otters from archaeological assemblages along the coast of southern British Columbia. We evaluate the spatial and temporal extent of human hunting and explore the possible influence humans may have had on this aspect of the marine environment and, conversely, discuss the potential significance that hunting these animals had to First Nations cultures in the region.

Resource stress is often considered a cause of changes in human behavior, including changes in settlement patterns. This study examines the role of food stress in the dramatic depopulation of large, long-occupied villages in the Mimbres region of the U.S. Southwest. Current approaches to understanding this change suggest human impacts on wild resources, a period of decreased precipitation, and social pressures may all have contributed to decisions to move from aggregated villages to smaller, dispersed hamlets at the end of the Classic Mimbres period (A.D. 1000-1130). The degree to which potential sources of resource stress negatively affected prehistoric farmers, however, has been difficult to assess.

This study examines archaeological evidence and models of environmental conditions in the eastern Mimbres area of southwest New Mexico to assess the magnitude and periodicity of food stress from a combination of reduced precipitation and prolonged human farming and hunting activities on the landscape. Archaeological data on settlement patterns and faunal assemblages indicate the degree to which temporal changes in resource use suggest responses to food stress. A discrete time dynamic model of artiodactyl population change in response to human hunting pressure is used to estimate annual prehistoric resource availability. Finally, productive agricultural land availability is examined as a function of rainfall and human land use based on runoff catchment area, soil moisture characteristics, and considerations of human impact on soils.

Results indicate that levels and frequencies of food stress were unlikely to have been a major influence on decisions to change settlement and land use strategies. There were no changes in access to large game at the time of the settlement reorganization, although earlier human impacts on these species were probably severe. The availability of prime productive agricultural land in the areas closest to villages was somewhat reduced, but productive land was still widely available. Environmental explanations focused on long term population-resource imbalances may have been overemphasized in accounting for dramatic cultural changes in the area. Some changes around the time of transition to hamlets, however, suggest that farmers’ perceptions of increased risk may have influenced changes in demography and settlement patterns.

In this paper the significance of the analysis of archaeological wood charcoal macro-remains as a tool for the reconstruction of woodland vegetation and its exploitation is discussed. Drawing from both older and more recent publications a number of theoretical and methodological approaches are examined. It is suggested that greater integration of charcoal and archaeological data is needed when evaluating charcoal preservation and sample composition, and that a more coherent theory of the complex ecological and cultural processes affecting species availability and firewood management needs to be developed.

The sedimentary infilling of the moat surrounding the Villaggio Piccolo of the Terramara Santa Rosa di Poviglio was analysed in order to obtain palaeoenvironmental inferences from sediments and pollen assemblage. The high-resolution stratigraphic sequence preserves evidence of the environmental changes that occurred in the Po Plain, in Northern Italy, during the Late Holocene. Our interdisciplinary approach permitted to study climatic and anthropic contributions to the environmental changes in this region. The relationships between these changes and land-use changes were investigated focussing on adaptive strategies of the Terramare people during the Middle and Recent Bronze ages (1550e1170 yr BC). The Terramare are archaeological remains of banked and moated villages, located in the central alluvial plain of the Po river. The Terramara of Santa Rosa consists of two adjoining settlements (Villaggio Grande and Villaggio Piccolo); the moat that separates the two parts of the site is c. 23 m large and reaches a maximum depth of 4 m from the extant ground level. The stratigraphic sequence VP/VG exposed by archaeological excavation inside the moat was sampled for pedosedimentary, thin section, and pollen analyses. Chronology is based on archaeological evidence, stratigraphic correlations and radiocarbon dating. Pedosedimentary features and biological records (pollen of aquatics and algal remains) demonstrate that shallow water, probably subjected to seasonal water-level oscillations, has always been present in the moat. In the lower units of the sequence, the laminations indicate standing water, while occurrence of reworked pollen testified the supply of sediments to the plain from catchment zones located in the Apennine. Open vegetation was widespread; economy was based on wood management, fruit collection on the wild or from cultivated woody plants, crop fields with a fairly diversified set of cereals especially increasing in variety during dryness or phases of water crisis. Probably, grapevines were cultivated near the moat, where the wet habitat was favourable to the growing of wild plants. The extraordinary high-resolution of this sequence makes visible the management of woods (including coppicing) at the Middle Bronze and early Recent Bronze ages. The economy of Santa Rosa di Poviglio should have been probably less based on animal breeding than it was in the other Terramare villages already studied for pollen. This research also confirms the chronological correspondence between an environment stressed by dry conditions and the collapse of the Terramare civilization.

This paper aims at reconstructing the population dynamics during the Neolithic and Bronze Age, c. 4500–500 cal. BC, in north-western Central Europe. The approach is based on the assumption that increased population density is positively linked with human activity and human impact on the environment, respectively. Therefore, we use archaeological 14C dates and palaeoenvironmental data from northern Germany and south-western Denmark to construct and compare independent proxies of human activity. The latter involves relative quantification of human impact based on pollen analysis and soil erosion history inferred from summarizing of dated colluvial layers. Concurring patterns of changes in human activity are frequently recorded on a multi-centennial scale. Whereas such multi-proxy patterns are interpreted to indicate relative population changes, divergent patterns are discussed in the context of proxy-related uncertainties and potential biases. Patterns of temporal distribution of incr...

In the face of environmental uncertainty due to anthropogenic climate change, islands are at the front lines of global change, threatened by sea level rise, habitat alteration, extinctions and declining biodiversity. Islands also stand at the forefront of scientific study for understanding the deep history of human ecodynamics and to build sustainable future systems. We summarize the long history of human interactions with Polynesian, Mediterranean, Californian and Caribbean island ecosystems, documenting the effects of various waves of human settlement and socioeconomic systems, from hunter–gatherer–fishers, to agriculturalists, to globalized colonial interests. We identify degradation of island environments resulting from human activities, as well as cases of human management of resources to enhance productivity and create more sustainable systems. These case studies suggest that within a general global pattern of progressive island degradation, there was no single trajectory of human impact, but rather complex effects based on variable island physiographies, human subsistence strategies, population densities , technologies, sociopolitical organization and decision-making.

Abstract In this paper I review a host of natural and cultural processes that have affected the preservation and integrity of archaeological sites on islands in the West Indies, many of which are located in low-lying coastal areas. Given the position of the Caribbean lithospheric plate—juxtaposed between four others—it is no surprise that by its very nature the region is volcanically active and frequently associated with earthquake and tsunami events.

This paper analyzes Lucan’s use of future memory (BC 7) to characterize the pollution that infects Pharsalus after civil bloodshed there in 48 BCE and that subsequently spreads across the Roman empire, a condition that continues to Lucan’s present-day. First, this paper argues that Lucan’s apocalyptic discourse draws on philosophical-scientific thinking as he reflects on the interlocking material and moral fallout from the battle. In Lucan’s telling, the masses of dead at Pharsalus will empty Italy’s towns and farmland down to his own time. The Pharsalian landscape itself, now completely denatured, would have become a Chernobyl-like ‘no-go’ zone if subsequent civil bloodshed had not polluted the entire empire, removing the rationale to avoid any one place as polluted. As he crafts this portrait, Lucan draws on Stoic and Epicurean theory to moot how the unburied dead will decay while his narrative of concatenating physical and social contaminations of the natural order relies on the concept of Stoic sympathy.

Second, I argue that Lucan’s vision of present and enduring civil-war pollution constitutes an early, two-fold instance of the environmental concept solastalgia*, here inflected by imperialism (*a nostalgia-like yearning for a place that one presently occupies prompted by environmental degradation that impairs one’s connections to it). Lucan mourns the pollution of Pharsalus and subsequently of Rome’s empire, which estranges him from both. Such a situation, he argues, stems from Rome’s failure to channel its violent impulses into further imperial expansion abroad, a condition devoid of pollution. Yet this perspective merely outsources solastalgia - the likely result of imperialism - to non-Romans and ignores it. Lucan’s proleptic narrative of enduring contamination thus offers an imperialist approach to solastalgia that prefigures blinkered first-world responses to the same condition that see a solution in exporting pollution (again) to the post-colonial periphery, where it will ‘disappear’ from view.

During the Pleistocene, Australia and New Guinea supported a rich assemblage of large vertebrates. Why these animals disappeared has been debated for more than a century and remains controversial. Previous synthetic reviews of this problem have typically focused heavily on particular types of evidence, such as the dating of extinction and human arrival, and have frequently ignored uncertainties and biases that can lead to misinterpretation of this evidence. Here, we review diverse evidence bearing on this issue and conclude that, although many knowledge gaps remain, multiple independent lines of evidence point to direct human impact as the most likely cause of extinction.

Ecologists have increasingly turned to history, including human history, to explain and manage modern ecosystems and landscapes. The imprint of past land use can persist even in seemingly pristine areas. Archaeology provides a long-term perspective on human actions and their environmental consequences that can contribute to conservation and restoration efforts. Case studies illustrate examples of the human history of seemingly pristine landscapes, forest loss and recovery, and the creation or maintenance of places that today are valued habitats. Finally, as archaeologists become more involved in research directed at contemporary environmental issues, they need to consider the potential uses and abuses of their findings in management and policy debates. 43 Annu. Rev. Anthropol. 2005.34:43-65. Downloaded from arjournals.annualreviews.org by Dr Frances Hayashida on 09/23/05. For personal use only.

Zooarchaeological data provide direct evidence of long-term human resource utilization relevant to the modern study of sustainability and conservation. On the northwest coast of North America, prehistoric aboriginal communities relied heavily on nearshore marine fish species, many of which have life history characteristics that make them vulnerable to overexploitation. This study examines temporal trends in the abundance and distribution of nearshore fish from skeletal remains recovered from three separate areas of a prehistoric coastal village on the west coast of Vancouver Island (ca. 1800–250 yr BP). Over the course of 1500 years, site inhabitants from these contemporaneously occupied areas regularly utilized Sebastes spp. (rockfish), with varying impacts on abundance and total length. Contrasting temporal trends in Sebastes spp. total length in separate village areas suggest different consequences to prehistoric harvesting practices, differences that can be linked to ethnographic and archaeological evidence of lineage-based territories. These long-term zooarchaeological data provide unique insights into the context and challenges of sustainable resource use in prehistory and can inform contemporary conservation efforts focused on similar species in this modern-day marine protected area.

This paper was a contribution to a special Issue on "Sustainable Use and Zooarchaeology" guest edited by Jack Frazier (Smithsonian Institution) which resulted from a 2006 International Council of Archaeozoology symposium in Mexico City. To view the contents of the full issue (which sits behind a paywall) visit:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/16171381/15/3

Sea turtles are one of the largest vertebrates in the shallow water ecosystems of Remote Oceania, occurring in both sea grass pastures and on coral reefs. Their functional roles, however, over ecological and evolutionary times scales are not well known, in part because their numbers have been so drastically reduced. Ethnographic and archaeological data is analysed to assess long-term patterns of human-sea turtle interactions (mainly green and hawksbill) prior to western contact and the magnitude of turtle losses in this region. From the ethnographic data two largescale patterns emerge, societies where turtle capture and consumption was controlled by chiefs and priests versus those where control over turtle was more Xexible and consumption more egalitarian. Broadly the distinction is between societies on high (volcanic and raised coral) islands versus atolls, but the critical variables are the ratio of land to shallow marine environments, combined with the availability of refugia. Archaeological evidence further highlights diVerences in the rate and magnitude of turtle losses across these two island types, with high islands suVering both large and rapid declines while those on atolls are less marked. These long-term historical patterns help explain the ethnographic endpoints, with areas that experienced greater losses apparently developing more restrictive social controls over time. Finally, if current turtle migration patterns held in the past, with annual movements between western foraging grounds and eastern nesting beaches, then intensive harvesting from 2,800 Before Present in West Polynesia probably aVected turtle abundance and coral reef ecology in East Polynesia well before the actual arrival of human settlers, the latter a process that most likely began 1,400 years later.

The excavations carried out between 1992 and 2005 by the Archaeological Heritage Office of the Autonomous Province of
Trento at the site of “La Rupe” in Mezzolombardo made it possible to identify a terraced settlement complex falling chronologically
between the Early Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age.
The slope of “La Rupe” cone is the result of a complex system of rock face accumulation of debris, controlled by gravitational
processes affected by precipitation. The terraced area was created in the central band of the cone, an area in which the risks
for the settlement were attenuated.
Specifically, the less steep areas were exploited in the Early Iron Age, in order to create larger terraced areas contained by
lower walls.
Different types of dry stone walls were found. The method of construction was influenced by the slope and the raw material
available on the cone. The original technique adopted at the site consisted of laying the surface on an incline rather than horizontally.
The scope was to break down the force due to gravity into two less intense vectors, which were compensated for
using techniques depending on local conditions and specific for each work.
In this way the thrust of the slope, as well as being compensated for by the incline of the face, is broken down into two less
intense vector components.

SUMMARY: Lecture 5 examines the Neolithic period in the Aegean, looking at the end of the Ice Age, transition to the Neolithic, and emergence of the Neolithic in the Aegean (including the settlement of some Aegean islands, such as Crete, and the adoption of domesticated fauna and crops from the Near East). This lecture is designed mainly as an educational resource for college students (i.e., normally posted only on my institution's course website), the public (e.g., people auditing my course), and interested colleagues from other disciplines (to whom I provide copies privately).  I am posting it here, both as a broader access, educational tool, and especially to promote the study of this region and its past societies.  For further knowledge about this region and period, I refer interested parties to the textbooks and other sources from which the materials were extracted (see syllabus), and/or the bibliographies in these works and my online resource guides (see other files in my academia folders).  The lecture summarizes the pertinent materials in the course textbook(s), adding in other data, and furnishing numerous images to clarify information encountered within the textbook(s).  Some generic imagery (usually indicated as such) is posted to aid in transmitting various concepts visually, and/or when a specific image remains not located (temporarily).  I update and revise such lectures each time, with such elective courses normally being taught once every two years.  I try to cover the most current, mainstream views, and usually place summary notes at the end of each lecture alongside some of the key sources used for compiling the ppt.  Over time, each lecture is improved, errors rectified, and additional data placed within the lecture.  These ppt. lectures take many hours to compile, but they have proved useful to many of my more serious students and I hope they can be of benefit to others as well.  My apologies for any errors I may have made, and my liberal usage of educational imagery from professional sources and vetted internet sources (revised Jan., 2024).

This paper aims at reconstructing the population dynamics during the Neolithic and Bronze Age, c. 4500–500 cal. BC, in north-western Central Europe. The approach is based on the assumption that increased population density is positively linked with human activity and human impact on the environment, respectively. Therefore, we use archaeological 14C dates and palaeoenvironmental data from northern Germany and south-western Denmark to construct and compare independent proxies of human activity. The latter involves relative quantification of human impact based on pollen analysis and soil erosion history inferred from summarizing of dated colluvial layers. Concurring patterns of changes in human activity are frequently recorded on a multi-centennial scale. Whereas such multi-proxy patterns are interpreted to indicate relative population changes, divergent patterns are discussed in the context of proxy-related uncertainties and potential biases. Patterns of temporal distribution of incr...

This paper presents the results of dendroanthracological analyses conducted on the anthracological assemblage retrieved from Neolithic and Chalcolithic occupations excavated at Çatalhoyuk (central Anatolia, Turkey). Besides standard botanical identification of the charcoal macroremains, a range of anatomical features were also recorded including the presence of fungal decay, traumatic growth, tyloses and discontinuous growth rings. The qualitative assessment of growth ring curvature (following Marguerie and Hunot, 2007) was supplemented by quantitative estimations of minimum wood diameter (following Paradis et al., 2013) alongside sequential ring width measurements. Botanical identifications, dendroanthracological features and quantitative measurements obtained from individual charcoal fragments, were analysed using multivariate statistical techniques. These permitted assessing the relative importance of wood size, type and species in prehistoric fuel selection, and obtaining a detailed view of environmental and management impacts on prehistoric woodland growth conditions. The results of this work indicate the deep antiquity of woodland management practices in the semi-arid continental regions of Southwest Asia dating as early as the Neolithic period.

NEW PALAEOECOLOGICAL DATA PROVIDED BY THE PREMERY FOREST CLOSED DEPRESSIONS (BURGUNDYFRANCE)
The closed depressions (CDs) located in the Premery forest on the Nivernais Plateau (Burgundy, France) are suitable natural
archives for palaeoecological studies as formerly demonstrated in the sixties. New pollen and non-pollen palynomorphs (mainly
algal and fungal remains) analyses performed on two  sequences, give complementary information about the context of the CDs infilling formation, and the vegetation dynamics on the Nivernais Plateau. The two cores chronologically complete each other: the first one concerns the Late Glacial and the Early Holocene (from 16 000 to 10 000 cal. yr BP), but it is less suitable for Mid- and Late Holocene because of hiatuses in the sedimentation. The second one documents only the end of the Late-Glacial period (Younger Dryas), but it continuously covers the whole Holocene. Concerning human impact, the indicators of agro-pastoral activities are very scarce and punctual during Prehistory and Bronze Age (from ca 5 000 to 800 BC). Even after this date, and despite further deforestation phases occurring during the Iron Age (800-50 BC), the classical Middle Ages (around 1000 AD) and the Modern period, the woodland remains dominant, and proximal pollen and fungal indicators of human activity are only present in one core, from the 16th to the beginning of the 19th century. However, the forest might be affected for other reasons than agro-pastoral purpose, such as fire wood, timber wood, palaeo-industries… If these two CDs have comparable evolutions during Late-Glacial and Early Holocene, running from a state of small pond to small peat bog, their later histories are different. This fact shows the role of the catchment area variability for each CD infilling process, and it highlights the very local value of each of the palaeoecological information they provide.

This study presents isotopic data (d13C and d15N from bone collagen) for 104 samples representing 29 vertebrate taxa from late pre-contact through to contact era (ca. 2000 – 100 BP) Haida Gwaii (British Columbia, Canada) from a wide variety of mostly marine organisms. The results demonstrate the considerable isotopic variability that characterizes potential prey items in coastal contexts and underscores the need for baseline faunal data to interpret human subsistence practices. Based on these data, a detailed marine food web was constructed, which provides insight into local ecological conditions. We present a simple method for quantifying the trophic level of ancient fauna using d15N of bone collagen. Finally, we discuss the implications of this study for the reconstruction of human diet.

Abstract: In the Sierra de Carondio is one of the largest megalithic burial grounds in Asturias. It forms a complex of special interest, because it could offer new data about forms of seasonal settlement of megalith builders groups. The construction of a wind farm in this area serves to raise some reflections on Heritage Management and the relationship between Archeology and Society.

This paper aims at reconstructing the population dynamics during the Neolithic and Bronze Age, c. 4500–500 cal. BC, in north-western Central Europe. The approach is based on the assumption that increased population density is positively linked with human activity and human impact on the environment, respectively. Therefore, we use archaeological 14C dates and palaeoenvironmental data from northern Germany and south-western Denmark to construct and compare independent proxies of human activity. The latter involves relative quantification of human impact based on pollen analysis and soil erosion history inferred from summarizing of dated colluvial layers. Concurring patterns of changes in human activity are frequently recorded on a multi-centennial scale. Whereas such multi-proxy patterns are interpreted to indicate relative population changes, divergent patterns are discussed in the context of proxy-related uncertainties and potential biases. Patterns of temporal distribution of incr...

RUIZ, F., GONZÁLEZ-REGALADO, M.L., GALÁN, E., GONZÁLEZ, M.I., PRUDENCIO, M.I., DIAS, M.I., ABAD, M., TOSCANO, A., PRENDA, J., GARCÍA, E.X.M. (2012). Benthic foraminifera as bioindicators of anthropogenic impacts in two north African lagoons: a comparison with ostracod assemblages . Revista Mexicana de Ciencias Geológicas, 29(3), 527-533.

Although the shifting of deltaic river branches (avulsion) is a natural process that has become increasingly influenced by humans, the impact of early human activities as a driver of avulsion success has remained poorly explored. This study demonstrates how two important avulsions in the downstream part of the Rhine-Meuse delta, The Netherlands, were stimulated by human activities in the first millennium CE, before historic embankment constrained the river courses. Peatland reclamation induced land subsidence in the lower delta. This effect, together with a human-induced increase in suspended fluvial sediments and tidal backwater effects, allowed for a gradual ingression of tidal creek channels and progradation of fluvial crevasse channels into human-occupied and drained peatlands, where they eventually connected. We reconstructed the initial situation and identified the feedback loops among overbank sedimentation, tidal incursion, and land drainage subsidence that led to avulsion success. The processes and feedbacks resulting from human activities are generic and hence relevant to many other deltas today where human-induced subsidence results in tidal ingression, potentially connecting to rivers and causing unexpected avulsions.

Systematic collection of shellfish has been increasingly recognized as an important component of human adaptation to aquatic environments and as part of the archaeological evidence found in association with the appearance of early Homo sapiens. Over the last forty years, South Africa has played a prominent role in recording the earliest evidence of shellfish in and substantial expansion of the early human diets as shown by several Middle Stone Age (MSA) coastal sites along the west and south coasts. In this paper, we report on the abundance of marine invertebrate species from PP13B cave and interpret these abundances in terms of paleoenvironmental changes, the likely shellfish procurement behaviors involved in both rocky and sandy shore contexts, and the significance of the collection of marine shells for purposes other than food collection. Possible cognitive implications of shellfish gathering as a reflection of modern behavior are also suggested.

Modern human-induced climate change will have a particularly adverse impact on coastal non-industrial societies. Understanding how such changes have occurred in the past can provide better tools to address social vulnerability in these contexts. The main goal of this thesis is to consider how past non-industrial societies responded to environmental change and which conditions affected their sustainability. Here I investigate Mid-Holocene climate change and its relationship to the earliest human occupations in the Caribbean Archipelago (pre-Arawak period), using the site of Angostura (Puerto Rico) as a case study. On-site geoarchaeological tests – including microartefact and bulk-sediment analyses – were selected to study site-formation processes. Off-site sediment cores were collected and studied to address sea-level and landscape change. Archaeomalacological analysis assessed subsistence behaviour and landscape ecology. An assemblage of 18 radiocarbon dates was used to provide chronological context. To consider the dynamic and complex relationship between people and the environment, I apply the Theory of Adaptive Change (TAC) as a model to articulate scale-shifting and facilitate intra-scale comparison of biotic, abiotic and cultural elements. The various analyses show that significant environmental changes occurred during the pre-Arawak, but this had no negative effect on cultural systems. Long-distance webs of interaction, diet diversification, and landscape domestication enabled flexibility to adapt and respond successfully to change. Increasingly inflexible ‘home range’ boundaries and enhanced meso-scale rigidity lowered overall resilience of the cultural system, increasing its sensitivity to long-term landscape change. This vulnerability, however, was social; not an innate effect of changes in the environment. This observation helped identify four aspects that condition social vulnerability to change: territorial boundaries, ecosystem biodiversity, dependence on spatial configuration of landscapes, and knowledge. Understanding the interconnection between systems and their multiple nested inter-relations can help develop a better understanding of the complexity of change and the meaning of sustainability within socio-natural systems.

The final proofs (with the final proofs of the cover) to the Introduction in E. Mataix Ferrándiz & A. Lampinen (eds.), Seafaring and Mobility in the Late Antique Mediterranean Contexts (ca. 150-700 CE), Bloomsbury 2022, 1-9. For reference purposes, please consult the final, published form of the chapter!