Abstract
Environmental archaeology is a diverse field of study focused on understanding the complexity of human ecological relationships. Environmental archaeologists use a wide range of approaches to examine human-ecosystem interactions, including zooarchaeology, paleoethnobotany, geomorphology, archaeomalacology, and geochemistry, among others. Human-environment interactions, and research in environmental archaeology, occurs at many scales, from local to global. This is particularly true for environmental archaeological research from the past few hundred years as human environmental impacts became increasingly far-reaching and global in scale. The last 500 years has been particularly significant for human-ecosystem relationships as a result of the global movement of human populations, the accompanying translocation of alien species and exploitation practices, and the harnessing of energy to enact unprecedented changes in global ecosystems functioning. Recent approaches to human-environment interactions also recognize that human landscapes and ecosystems are inseparable from cultural and political processes and meanings. Human landscapes and land-use practices hold a mirror to human worldviews regarding the separability or inseparability of humans and the natural world, and, indeed, our relationships to one another.
Recommended Citation
Pavao-Zuckerman, Barnet
(2018)
"Environmental Archaeology in Recent Contexts: Migration, Scale, and Landscapes,"
Northeast Historical Archaeology:
Vol.
47
47, Article 2.
Available at:
https://orb.binghamton.edu/neha/vol47/iss1/2
