Rethinking human impact on prehistoric vegetation in Southwest Asia: long-term fuel/timber acquisition strategies at Neolithic Çatalhöyük
- Autores: Eleni Asouti
- Localización: Saguntum: Papeles del Laboratorio de Arqueología de Valencia-Extra, ISSN 2253-7295, ISSN-e 2254-0512, Nº. Extra 13, 2012 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Wood and charcoal evidence for human and natural history), págs. 33-42
- Idioma: inglés
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Resumen
Classic accounts of people-environment interactions in the archaeology and palaeoecology of Southwest Asia tend to conceptua- lize human impact on vegetation as an agent of significant, long-term negative change in the regional landscapes. In the case of archaeobo- tanical analysis, such approaches have been further influenced by ethnographic models of woodland exploitation positing sequential switches to �glower value�h fuel species over time as �gpreferred species�h are over-exploited. An additional influence form traditional accounts of vege- tation ecology that describe climate and/or edaphic �gclimax�h plant associations while attributing their decline or downright absence to long-term �gdestructive�h human impacts. This paper summarizes recent results of macro-charcoal analysis from the long-term habitation (~7400-6200 cal BC) of Neolithic Catalho.yuk in south-central Anatolia indicating switches in fuel/timber exploitation that bring into ques- tion the assumptions of these models. Drawing on these results, alternative frameworks are proposed for conceptualizing prehistoric human impacts on woodland vegetation.
