Landscape and Land Use in Postglacial Greece

Landscape and Land Use in Postglacial Greece PDF Author: Paul Halstead
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 0567077187
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 177

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Book Description
Collaboration between prehistorians and palaeoecologists is radically changing our understanding of the relationship between landscape, land use and human settlement in Greece. The chapters in this volume include case studies and broader syntheses, developments of both on-site and off-site field methodology, explorations of palaeoecological and archaeological evidence, and discussions of how the palaeoecological and archaeological records are formed. Contributions range geographically over the contrasting natural and cultural landscapes of northern and southern Greece and the lowlands and highlands, and chronologically over the whole postglacial period, including studies of plant and animal ecology and of palaeoecological formation processes in the present. The difficulty of disentangling climatic and anthropogenic causes of palaeoecological change is a recurrent theme.

Landscape and Land Use in Postglacial Greece

Landscape and Land Use in Postglacial Greece PDF Author: Paul Halstead
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 0567077187
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 177

Get Book Here

Book Description
Collaboration between prehistorians and palaeoecologists is radically changing our understanding of the relationship between landscape, land use and human settlement in Greece. The chapters in this volume include case studies and broader syntheses, developments of both on-site and off-site field methodology, explorations of palaeoecological and archaeological evidence, and discussions of how the palaeoecological and archaeological records are formed. Contributions range geographically over the contrasting natural and cultural landscapes of northern and southern Greece and the lowlands and highlands, and chronologically over the whole postglacial period, including studies of plant and animal ecology and of palaeoecological formation processes in the present. The difficulty of disentangling climatic and anthropogenic causes of palaeoecological change is a recurrent theme.

Old Fields

Old Fields PDF Author: Richard J. Hobbs
Publisher: Island Press
ISBN: 1610910982
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 347

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Book Description
Land abandonment is increasing as human influence on the globe intensifies and various ecological, social, and economic factors conspire to force the cessation of agriculture and other forms of land management. The “old fields” that result from abandonment have been the subject of much study, yet few attempts have been made to examine the larger questions raised by old field dynamics. Old Fields brings together leading experts from around the world to synthesize past and current work on old fields, providing an up-to-date perspective on the ecological dynamics of abandoned land. The book gives readers a broad understanding of why agricultural land is abandoned, the factors that determine the ecological recovery of old fields, and how this understanding contributes to theoretical and applied ecology. Twelve case studies from diverse geographical and climatic areas—including Australian rainforest, Brazilian Amazonia, New Jersey piedmont, and South African renosterveld—offer a global perspective on the causes and results of land abandonment. Concluding chapters consider the similarities and differences among the case studies, examine them in the context of ecological concepts, and discuss their relevance to the growing field of restoration ecology. Old Fields is the first book to draw together studies on old fields from both a theoretical and practical perspective. It represents an important contribution to the development of theory on old field dynamics and the practice of ecological restoration on abandoned farmland, and the broader implications of old field dynamics to ecology and restoration.

Archaeological Landscapes of the Near East

Archaeological Landscapes of the Near East PDF Author: Tony J. Wilkinson
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
ISBN: 9780816521739
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 282

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Book Description
Many fundamental studies of the origins of states have built upon landscape data, but an overall study of the Near Eastern landscape itself has never been attempted. Spanning thousands of years of history, the ancient Near East presents a bewildering range of landscapes, the understanding of which can greatly enhance our ability to infer past political and social systems. Tony Wilkinson now shows that throughout the Holocene humans altered the Near Eastern environment so thoroughly that the land has become a human artifact, albeit one that retains the power to shape human societies. In this trailblazing bookÑthe first to describe and explain the development of the Near Eastern landscape using archaeological dataÑWilkinson identifies specific landscape signatures for various regions and periods, from the early stages of complex societies in the fifth to sixth millennium B.C. to the close of the Early Islamic period around the tenth century A.D. From Bronze Age city-states to colonized steppes, these signature landscapes of irrigation systems, tells, and other features changed through time along with changes in social, economic, political, and environmental conditions. By weaving together the record of the human landscape with evidence of settlement, the environment, and social and economic conditions, Wilkinson provides a holistic view of the ancient Near East that complements archaeological excavations, cuneiform texts, and other conventional sources. Through this overview, culled from thirty years' research, Wilkinson establishes a new framework for understanding the economic and physical infrastructure of the region. By describing the basic attributes of the ancient cultural landscape and placing their development within the context of a dynamic environment, he breaks new ground in landscape archaeology and offers a new context for understanding the ancient Near East.

The Archaeology of Mediterranean Landscapes

The Archaeology of Mediterranean Landscapes PDF Author: Kevin Walsh
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 052185301X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 381

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Book Description
Reviews the palaeoenvironmental evidence and its incorporation with landscape archaeology across the Mediterranean, from the Early Neolithic to the end of the Roman period.

An Archaeology of Land Ownership

An Archaeology of Land Ownership PDF Author: Maria Relaki
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135050449
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 325

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Book Description
Within archaeological studies, land tenure has been mainly studied from the viewpoint of ownership. A host of studies has argued about land ownership on the basis of the simple co-existence of artefacts on the landscape; other studies have tended to extrapolate land ownership from more indirect means. Particularly noteworthy is the tendency to portray land ownership as the driving force behind the emergence of social complexity, a primordial ingredient in the processes that led to the political and economic expansion of prehistoric societies. The association between people and land in all of these interpretive schemata is however less easy to detect analytically. Although various rubrics have been employed to identify such a connection – most notable among them the concepts of ‘cultures,’ ‘regions,’ or even ‘households’ – they take the links between land and people as a given and not as something that needs to be conceptually defined and empirically substantiated. An Archaeology of Land Ownership demonstrates that the relationship between people and land in the past is first and foremost an analytical issue, and one that calls for clarification not only at the level of definition, but also methodological applicability. Bringing together an international roster of specialists, the essays in this volume call attention to the processes by which links to land are established, the various forms that such links take and how they can change through time, as well as their importance in helping to forge or dilute an understanding of community at various circumstances.

Pseira IX

Pseira IX PDF Author: Philip P. Betancourt
Publisher: INSTAP Academic Press
ISBN: 1623030994
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 457

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Book Description
Richard B. Seager excavated the Minoan town and cemetery at Pseira in 1906-1907, but the work was not fully published. The Temple University excavations (1985-1994) under the direction of Philip P. Betancourt and Costis Davaras conducted an intensive surface survey of the island. The results of the survey on the small island off the northeast coast of Crete are published in two volumes. Pseira VIII presents the results from the corollary studies that accompany the surface survey. Pseira IX presents the results from the intensive surface survey.

Confronting Scale in Archaeology

Confronting Scale in Archaeology PDF Author: Gary Lock
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9780387757018
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 298

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Book Description
Without realizing, most archaeologists shift within a scale of interpretation of material culture. Material data is interpreted from the scale of an individual in a specific place and time, then shifted to the complex dynamics of cultural groups spread over time and place. This book discusses the cultural, social and spatial aspects of scale and its impact on archaeology, and shows how an improved awareness of scale offers new and exciting interpretations.

Housing in the Ancient Mediterranean World

Housing in the Ancient Mediterranean World PDF Author: J. A. Baird
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108845266
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 519

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Book Description
Explores the possible dialogues between textual and archaeological sources in studying housing in the ancient Mediterranean world.

The Oxford Handbook of Neolithic Europe

The Oxford Handbook of Neolithic Europe PDF Author: Chris Fowler
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191666890
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 1303

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Book Description
The Neolithic --a period in which the first sedentary agrarian communities were established across much of Europe--has been a key topic of archaeological research for over a century. However, the variety of evidence across Europe, the range of languages in which research is carried out, and the way research traditions in different countries have developed makes it very difficult for both students and specialists to gain an overview of continent-wide trends. The Oxford Handbook of Neolithic Europe provides the first comprehensive, geographically extensive, thematic overview of the European Neolithic --from Iberia to Russia and from Norway to Malta --offering both a general introduction and a clear exploration of key issues and current debates surrounding evidence and interpretation. Chapters written by leading experts in the field examine topics such as the movement of plants, animals, ideas, and people (including recent trends in the application of genetics and isotope analyses); cultural change (from the first appearance of farming to the first metal artefacts); domestic architecture; subsistence; material culture; monuments; and burial and other treatments of the dead. In doing so, the volume also considers the history of research and sets out agendas and themes for future work in the field.

Manure Matters

Manure Matters PDF Author: Richard Jones
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317101111
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 262

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Book Description
In pre-industrial societies, in which the majority of the population lived directly off the land, few issues were more important than the maintenance of soil fertility. Without access to biodegradable wastes from production processes or to synthetic agrochemicals, early farmers continuously developed strategies aimed at adding nutritional value to their fields using locally available natural materials. Manure really mattered, its collection/creation, storage, and spreading becoming major preoccupations for all agriculturalists no matter what environment they worked or at what period. This book brings together the work of a group of international scholars working on social, cultural, and economic issues relating to past manure and manuring. Contributors use textual, linguistic, archaeological, scientific and ethnographic evidence as the basis for their analyses. The scope of the papers is temporally and geographically broad; they span the Neolithic through to the modern period and cover studies from the Middle East, Britain and Atlantic Europe, and India. Together they allow us to explore the signatures that manure and manuring have left behind, and the vast range of attitudes that have surrounded both substance and activity in the past and present.