1. Archaeology and agriculture: plants, people, and past land-use
- Author
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Anne de Vareilles, Ruth Pelling, Ralph Fyfe, and Jessie Woodbridge
- Subjects
010506 paleontology ,060102 archaeology ,Land use ,business.industry ,Botany ,Subsistence agriculture ,Agriculture ,06 humanities and the arts ,Land cover ,Plants ,01 natural sciences ,Archaeology ,Field (geography) ,Geography ,Paleoethnobotany ,Anthropocene ,Humans ,0601 history and archaeology ,Arable land ,business ,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics ,0105 earth and related environmental sciences - Abstract
As a specialised branch of archaeology requiring specific field and laboratory methodologies, the contributions of archaeobotany have often been overlooked by the ecological research community. Developments in the fields of botany, chemistry, and ancient DNA analyses have greatly increased the potential for archaeobotany to contribute to topical questions relating to the Anthropocene and landscape transformations. We review the role of archaeobotany in identifying and describing past arable land use. Analytical techniques are illustrated with examples at both local and regional scales, demonstrating how archaeobotany can provide unique details of the wide array of past subsistence and land-use strategies. These data and their potential should be better recognised as important information that could underpin models seeking to evaluate or predict the effects of socioenvironmental interactions.
- Published
- 2021
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