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Dear all,
For the upcoming EAA 2014 Conference in Istanbul, we are very pleased to invite you to participate in session T04S020 “Subsistence strategies in change: the integration of environmental and archaeological evidence on prehistoric land-use” (see session abstract at the end of this message).
Please submit your abstracts by January 27th, 2014, via the EAA submission form. If there are any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the session organisers.
With all the best regards, and looking forward to your contributions,
the session organisers:
Wiebke Kirleis, Christian-Albrechts-University Kiel ([log in to unmask])
Elena Marinova, KU Leuven ([log in to unmask])
Soultana Maria Valamoti, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki ([log in to unmask])
Stefan Dreibrodt, Christian-Albrechts-University Kiel ([log in to unmask])
Andreas G. Heiss, University of Vienna ([log in to unmask])
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Session Abstract:
Prehistoric land-use strategies vary in scale and levels of sustainability. Land-use management can be identified as early as the Palaeolithic/Mesolithic when woodland composition was notably influenced. But, since the onset of the Neolithic, societies are based upon subsistence economies including crop growing and animal husbandry, which gradually lead to considerable impacts on landscapes. Subsistence strategies shift over time, depending on cultural, biotic and abiotic backgrounds. However, the scales of human-environmental impact differ considerably, are non- linear. Furthermore, different lines of evidence often produce controversial results. From an interdisciplinary perspective, we will approach the interaction of agrarian communities and their environment by answering questions such as: Which organisation and which modes of prehistoric agrarian production can be identified by both the environmental and the archaeological records for different prehistoric periods? Which measures are available to estimate the degree of land-use intensity? To what extent do different modes of subsistence strategies correspond with societal organisation, depend on degrees of social complexity? Our focus is on land-use and subsistence strategies in European and Near Eastern prehistory, in particular:
- the Neolithic establishment of agriculture
- Neolithic/Chalcolithic agricultural dynamics
- Early Bronze Age regressions
- Late Bronze Age changes
- Iron Age extensive land-use
