Landscapes and Societies

This book contains case histories intended to show how societies and landscapes interact. The book provides evidence of the successes, near misses and outright failures that mark our ongoing relationship with landscape throughout the history of Homo sapiens.

Illustrates the point by examining typical cases illustrating the interaction between the landscape and ancient and few recent societies Rigorous, interdisciplinary analyses of selected cases prepared by active researchers dealing, among others, with geological surficial processes, geomorphology, archaeology, environmental history, and land use Simple, synthetic, linear presentations for students and professionals Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Contenu

Preface
List of contributors
List of reviewers

Part I. Introduction
1. Summaries of the contributions and a few considerations; I. Peter Martini and Ward Chesworth

2. A semantic introduction; Ward Chesworth
   
   3. Womb, belly and landscape in the Anthropocene; Ward Chesworth
      
      Part II. The Mediterranean and European world-arid Mediterranean lands
      
      4. Human responses to climatically-driven landscape change and resource scarcity: Learning from the past and planning for the future; Nickolas Brooks
         
         5. Human communities in a drying landscape: Holocene climate change and cultural response in the central Sahara; Mauro Cremaschi and Andrea Zerboni
            
            6. The desertification of the Egyptian Sahara during the Holocene (the last 10,000 years) and its influence on the rise of Egyptian civilization; Michael Brookfield
               
               7. Paleoenvironments and prehistory in the Holocene of SE Arabia; Andrew S. Goudie and Adrian G. Parker
                  
                  8. Human paleoecology in the ancient metal-smelting and farming complex in the Wadi Faynan, SW Jordan, at the desert margin in the Middle East; Chris Hunt and Hwedi el-Rishi
3. Empire and Environment in the Northern Fertile Crescent; Tony J. Wilkinson
   
   Part III. The Mediterranean and European world warm-temperate Mediterranean lands
   
   10. The interplay between environment and people from Neolithic to classical times in Greece and Albania; Eric Fouache and Kosmas Pavlopoulos
       
       11. The Nuragic people: Their settlements, economic activities and use of the land, Sardinia, Italy; Anna Depalmas and Rita T. Melis
4. Floods, mudflows, landslides: adaptation of Etruscan–Roman communities to hydrogeological hazards in the Arno River catchment (Tuscany, Central Italy); Marco Benvenuti et al
5. Landscape influenceson the development of the Medieval–Early Renaissance city-states of Pisa, Florence, and Siena, Italy; I. Peter Martini et al
   
   14. Paleo-hazards in the coastal Mediterranean: a geoarchaeological approach; Christophe Morhange and Nick Marriner
6. Mount Etna, Sicily: Landscape evolution and hazard responses in the pre-industrial era; *David K. Chester, Angus M. Duncan and Peter A. James

• Part IV. The Mediterranean and European world cool-temperate European lands
  
  16. Romanian Carpathian landscapes and cultures; Adrian Cioac and Mihaela S. Dinu
      
      17. Sea-level rise and the response of the Dutch people – Adaptive strategies based on geomorphologic principles give sustainable solutions; Pieter D. Jungerius
      18. Perception of volcanic eruptions in Iceland; *Thorvaldur Thordarson
• Part V South and East Asia
  
  19. Holocene environmental changes and the evolution of the Neolithic cultures in China; *Duowen Mo et al.
• 20. Landscape and subsistence in Japanese history; Gina L. Barnes
  21. Evolution of hydraulic societies in the ancient Anuradhapura Kingdom of Sri Lanka; P.B. Dharmasena
  22. Disease in history: the case of the Austronesian expansion in the Pacific; *Robert Sallares
• Part VI. Central and North America
  
  23. Farms and forests: Spatial and temporal perspectives on ancient Maya landscapes; Nicholas P. Dunning and Timothy Beach
      
      24. Water follows the people: Analysis of water use in the Western Great Plains and Rocky Mountains of Colorado, USA; Ellen Wohl
      25. Frozen coasts and the development of Inuit culture in the North American Arctic; *Robert W. Park
• Glossary
  Index
  Color Plate Section