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Long-Term Socioecology and Contingent Landscapes

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Abstract

Long-term social and natural processes reciprocally interact in spatially and temporally dynamic socioecosystems. We describe an integrated program of patch-based survey and subsurface testing aimed at studying long-term socioecology, focusing especially on the transition from foraging to farming in Mediterranean Spain. Measures of landuse ubiquity, intensity, dispersion, and persistence trace late-Pleistocene through mid-Holocene socioecological trajectories in four upland valleys. Although farming replaced foraging in all four valleys, the timing and nature of this transition varied because of cumulative interactions between social and natural processes. These processes continue to structure modern landscapes and landuse in these valleys.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona

    C. Michael Barton

  2. Departament de Prehistòria i d'Arqueologia, Universitat de València, Valencia, Spain

    Joan Bernabeu

  3. Departament de Prehistòria i d'Arqueologia, Universitat de València, Valencia, Spain

    J. Emili Aura

  4. Departament de Prehistòria i d'Arqueologia, Universitat de València, Valencia, Spain

    Oreto Garcia

  5. Department of Anthropology, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona

    Steven Schmich

  6. Departament de Prehistòria i d'Arqueologia, Universitat de València, Valencia, Spain

    Lluis Molina

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Barton, C.M., Bernabeu, J., Aura, J.E. et al. Long-Term Socioecology and Contingent Landscapes. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 11, 253–295 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:JARM.0000047315.57162.b7

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