Modelling Human-Environment Interactions in and beyond Prehistoric Europe

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xviii

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2. “Top-Down” Approaches

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

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   2. Refloating the Aegean Lost Dryland: An Affordance-Based GIS Approach to Explore the Interaction Between Hominins and the Palaeolandscape

      • Penny Tsakanikou, John McNabb

      Pages 3-26

   3. The Last of Them: Investigating the Palaeogeography of the Last Neanderthals in Europe (Marine Isotopic Stage 3)

      • Benjamin Albouy, Simon Paquin, Martin Hinz, Colin D. Wren, Ariane Burke

      Pages 27-45

   4. Going New Places: Dispersal and Establishment of the Aurignacian Technocomplex in Europe During the Marine Isotopic Stage 3 (MIS 3)

      • Simon Paquin, Benjamin Albouy, Martin Hinz, Ariane Burke

      Pages 47-59

   5. The Impact of Magdalenian Hunter-Gatherers on Their Environment

      • Claudine Gravel-Miguel

      Pages 61-73

   6. Modeling the Cultural Landscape of Early Farmers on the Fringe of the Great Eurasian Steppe: A Case Study from the Middle Southern Buh River Basin in the 6th–5th Millennium BC

      • Dmytro Kiosak, Simon Radchenko

      Pages 75-91

3. “Bottom-Up” Approaches

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 93-93

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   2. Modelling Gaia: Towards an Actor-Network Modelling Framework in Archaeology

      • Maurits W. Ertsen

      Pages 95-105

   3. Why Were Rabbits Hunted in the Past? Insights from an Agent-Based Model of Human Diet Breadth in Iberia During the Last Glacial Maximum

      • Samuel Seuru, Liliana Perez, Ariane Burke

      Pages 107-123

   4. Modeling the Landscape Evolution and Land-Use in Early Bronze Age at Hacılar Büyük Höyük, in Southwest Anatolia

      • Bülent Arıkan, İnci N. Özdoğru

      Pages 125-131

   5. The Power of Emergence: The Effects of Bottom-Up Decision-Making in Resource Exploitation Strategies on Community Sustainability in Iron Age to Hellenistic Anatolia

      • Dries Daems, Stef Boogers

      Pages 133-142

   6. Exploring Environmental Determinism with Agent-Based Simulation of Settlement Choice

      • Kaarel Sikk

      Pages 143-154

4. Back Matter

   Pages 155-160

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 This book offers insight into the relationship between prehistoric and protohistoric human populations and the world around them. It reconstructs key aspects of the palaeoenvironment – from large-scale drivers of environmental conditions, such as climate, to more regional variables such as vegetation cover and faunal communities. The volume underscores how computational archaeology is leading the way in the study of past human-environment interactions across spatial and chronological scales. 

With the increased availability of high-resolution climate models, agent-based modelling, palaeoecological proxies and the mature use of Geographic Information System in ecological modelling, archaeologists working in interdisciplinary settings are well-positioned to explore the intersection of human systems and environmental affordances and constraints. These methodological advancements provide a better understanding of the role humans played in past ecosystems – both in terms of their impact upon the environment and, in return, the impact of environmental conditions on human systems. They may also allow us to infer past ecological knowledge and land-use patterns that are historically contingent, rather than environmentally determined. This volume gathers contributions that combine reconstructions of past environments and archeological data with a view to exploring their complex interactions at different scales and invites scholars from varying disciplines and backgrounds to present and compare different modelling approaches.

• Aegean Lost Dryland
• Affordance-Based GIS Approach Hominins Palaeolandscape
• paleogeography of the last Neanderthals Europe
• Late Glacial re-peopling of northern Europe
• paleoclimate modeling
• Modeling dust emissions
• NorthWestern France Last Glacial Maximum
• final palaeolithic Schleswig-Holstein
• Modeling cultural landscape evolution
• early farmers at the Great Eurasian Steppe fringe
• Middle Southern Buh River catchment in VI-IV mil. BC
• actor-network modeling framework in Archeology
• European rabbit Oryctolagus cuniculus in human diet
• land-use in early Bronze age at Hacilar Southwest Anatolia
• resource exploitation strategies in Iron Age
• resource exploitation strategies Hellenistic communities
• environmental determinism Agent-Based Model settlement choice

• Département d’Anthropologie, University of Montreal, Montreal, Canada

  Samuel Seuru, Benjamin Albouy

Samuel Seuru is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Anthropology, University of Montreal, Canada. His research explores small game exploitation and human diet breadth during the Upper Paleolithic in the Iberian Peninsula, with the aid of Agent-Based Modelling.

 

Benjamin Albouy is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Anthropology, University of Montreal, Canada. His research explores the relationship between Neanderthals and their environment. In his doctoral thesis, he is studying the impact of abrupt climate change on the last Neanderthal populations in Europe.