Theme:
2. Archaeological Sciences, Humanities and the Digital era: Bridging the Gaps
Session format:
Regular session
Title:
Imprints - Tracing Late Prehistoric Environmental Impact in Southern Europe through Non/Low Invasive Methods
Content:
At a global scale, human-induced modifications on the environment appear to have been widespread from around 1000 BCE. However, especially in the Mediterranean, the environmental impact of late prehistoric societies has long been underestimated.
Forest clearance, agricultural practices and grazing carried out in Southern Europe in the 2nd and 1st millennium BC had unprecedented and widespread effects on the long-term environmental dynamics, deeply modifying the vegetation cover, soils, and natural landforms. Prehistoric monuments, sometimes strongly degraded through millennia, are often a tangible product of these widespread anthropogenic activities. Overall, evidence of massive impact on the ecosystems is documented before Roman times by a growing number of studies.
In the last years, several non or low invasive methods (e.g. GIS-modelling, remote sensing, surveys, corings, geophysics) combined with a wide range of analyses (e.g. radiocarbon, pollen, OSL, micromorphology, seda-DNA) have been increasingly used to trace the environmental impact on these landscapes. In many cases, these methods are affordable and suitable to produce high resolution and comparable data.
To what extent and in which regions is it possible to detect major imprints of late prehistoric communities? Is it possible to track down unsustainable practices (e.g. replacement of species, extensive agriculture, fire activity?) that have consequences on landscape and settlement changes at specific regions?
By delving into the environmental impact of late prehistoric societies, we not only enrich our understanding of the past, but also acquire valuable insights that can guide current environmental management and policy. Ultimately, this contributes to a more ecologically responsible and sustainable future.
We aim to address these questions and issues by adopting a multi-proxy approach (including, but not limited to, geo-archaeological, GIS-based and statistical, palaeo-ecological) in order to detail and compare the magnitude of human impact in this crucial period across the Mediterranean region. Different scales of analysis are also very welcomed.
Keywords:
Human impact, Southern Europe, Late Prehistory, Non/Low-invasive Methods, Multi-proxy Approach, Bronze and Iron Age
Session associated with MERC:
no
Session associated with CIfA:
no
Session associated with SAfA:
no
Session associated with CAA:
no
Session associated with DGUF:
no
Session associated with other:
EAA Archaeological Prospection Community
Main organiser:
Giacomo Vinci (Italy) 1
Co-organisers:
Filippo Brandolini (United Kingdom) 2
Camilla Zeviani (United Kingdom) 3
Simon Stoddart (United Kingdom) 3
Affiliations:
1. University Of Padova
2. University of Newcastle
3. University of Cambridge
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