Theme:
6. The Mediterranean from Within
Session format:
Regular session
Title:
Human Influence on Coastal Paleoenvironments: A Geoarchaeological Perspective of Human-Environmental Interactions from the Quaternary to the Anthropocene
Content:
Humans have been populating coastal areas for thousands of years. By exploiting the available resources, they have been deeply modifying such settings, becoming protagonists of global environmental and climatic changes since the late Quaternary. The development of infrastructures related to salt production, fisheries and mollusk harvesting together with the landscape modification linked with the expansion of harbors in bays, deltas and lagoons is visible both in the geological and archaeological record documenting the high level of human-environmental interaction. In parallel, inhabiting and manipulating dynamic coastal areas subject to floods, storms, changes in sediment supply, and variation in relative sea-level made infrastructures and environmental control indispensable. Consequently, it is crucial to get a better understanding of the changes of huma-environmental interactions at different time scales. Such unique areas represent an exceptional chance to learn about landscape, ecosystem changes but also technological development of the past. To achieve these goals, multidisciplinary geoarchaeological studies offer a one-of-a-kind approach towards understanding the complex interaction between nature and humans. In this session, we welcome cross-disciplinary geoarchaeological studies where the exploitation of coastal areas is studied from a palaeoenvironmental evolution and human activity perspective. Contributions showcasing specific case studies in which human-environment interactions in coastal areas are reconstructed including both the developing infrastructures and resilient adaptation to the natural pressure are welcomed.
Keywords:
coastal Mediterranean, human-environment interaction, geoarchaeology, paleoenvironments, coastal landscape modification, Quaternary to Anthropocene
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:
PaM - Palaeolithic and Mesolithic Community
Main organiser:
Francesca Bulian (Netherlands) 1
Co-organisers:
Francisco J. Jiménez-Espejo (Spain) 2,3
Luca Alessandri (Italy) 4
Affiliations:
1. University of Groningen, Groningen institute of Archaeology, Groningen, the Netherlands.
2. Instituto Andaluz de Ciencias de la Tierra (CSIC-UGR), Armilla, Spain.
3. Research Institute for Marine Resources Utilization (Biogeochemistry Program), JAMSTEC, Yokosuka, Japan.
4. Sapienza University of Rome, Department of Science of Antiquity, Rome, Italy.
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