Session: #347

Content:

This session explores the environmental and economic entanglement between lowland and highland zones in Mediterranean landscapes. Although highland zones remain generally underrepresented in archaeological landscape research, their economic importance to past societies has long been acknowledged on account of the availability of a wide range of resources. These include primary materials such as metals, stone, salt, timber, game etc., but also pastures. Transit routes through upland areas are crucial to their availability and thus a major factor in the economic entanglement between lowlands and highlands.
Information on the long-term human impact related to the exploitation of these resources is, apart from archaeological studies, increasingly becoming available through environmental research. For instance, palynological studies indicate that Neolithic communities in various parts of the Italian peninsula systematically deforested woodland areas to expand their pastures.
Our aim is to integrate the ephemeral archaeology of resource extraction and human impact on highland areas into models of settled lowland areas, and to explore the means and infrastructure through which diverse landscape zones were connected in past land use. Our session covers three broad themes:
- The archaeology of natural resources in highland areas: methodological issues including detection and dating of past extraction practices;
- Environmental impact of highland exploitation: approaches to reconstruct the human footprint on fragile upland zones;
- Infrastructure and connections in highland economies: route networks and practical aspects of transport.
We invite contributions with case studies from around the Mediterranean and from all archaeological periods, including the recent ethnographic past.

Session: #347

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