Theme:
7. Archaeology of Sustainability through World Crises, Climate Change and War
Session format:
Regular session
Title:
?Past Is Not Past?. Environmental Effects of Past Land Use on Present Resources Ecology. Environmental Archaeology between Research and Application
Content:
The environmental effects of historical management and production systems are not confined to the past but persist in current resources ecology. Indeed, recent research is demonstrating how the present-day risk of uncontrolled fire, the loss of biodiversity and soil erosion are not solely attributable to climate change but also to changes in environmental management systems and the abandonment of agro-sylvo-pastoral practices that have occurred for centuries (or even millennia).
Past environmental management systems and land use have left specific geo- and bio-markers that are archaeologically identifiable in soils and sedimentary archives. These markers are the legacy of historical (and pre-historical) uses of environmental resources and serve as evidence of environmental effects that these management systems have had on the local ecosystem.
Studying these markers allows archaeologists to uncover the trajectory of environmental formation and transformation processes over time, contributing to a more comprehensive understanding of current environmental changes.
Dealing with historic environmental management involves addressing issues directly related to food production, and more broadly to foodways and their connections with local environmental resources ecology and situated landscapes (foodscapes).
How can these results be applied to improve environmental conservation and regeneration policies, promoting more sustainable management of resources?
How can these research findings be leveraged to raise social awareness about environmental issues related to food (e.g. food production/consuming/discard, food-taboos, food identities, food sovereignty)?
Our session welcomes Environmental Archaeology investigations embedded in interdisciplinary frameworks, where research results have been applied in the following areas: 1) improvement of environmental management policies 2) bio-cultural heritage enhancement 3) re-discovering of local gastronomic heritage and 4) foodways and foodscapes characterisation.
We invite contributions involving expertise from fields such as Historical Ecology, Geography, History, Anthropology, Ethnography, Gastronomy; we also encourage collaborations with non-scientific audiences, including policy-makers, local stakeholders, inhabitants and producers.
Keywords:
environmental archaeology, research application, environmental and cultural heritage conservation, foodways and foodscapes, historical sustainability assessment
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:
Main organiser:
Valentina Pescini (Spain) 1
Co-organisers:
Veronica Aniceti (Norway) 2
Roberta Cevasco (Italy) 3
Nicola Gabellieri (Italy) 4
Affiliations:
1. Catalan Institute of Classical Archaeology (ICAC), Tarragona, Spain
2. Department of Natural History – University Museum, Bergen, Norway
3. University of Gastronomic Sciences (UNISG), Pollenzo, Italy
4. University of Trento (UNITN), Trento, Italy
THIS SESSION CAN NOT BE SELECTED AT THIS MOMENT