La evolución del paisaje y la agencia humana: estudios arqueológicos de tierras áridas en en Sudamérica occidental y Australia

Los paisajes representan un punto dinámico de articulación entre los seres humanos y el ambiente físico. Mientras que a veces se presentan como opuestos, los grupos humanos son participantes activos en el ambiente y frecuentemente cumplen un papel muy importante en su transformación a través del tiempo. En este artículo se usan estudios arqueológicos del oeste de Sudamérica y de Australia para ilustrar la importancia de investigar interacciones, a largo plazo, entre los grupos humanos y el medio ambiente. Estas investigaciones pueden ofrecer una mayor profundidad en el conocimiento histórico al cambio ambiental y asimismo precisar el rol que han jugado los grupos humanos en modificar trayectorias particulares en la evolución del paisaje y de biodiversidad de las especies. Los grupos humanos constituyen un elemento crítico en el cambio ambiental y, en conjunto, nuestros resultados tienen fuertes implicancias para temas relacionados con sostenibilidad y la gestión efectiva de los recursos desérticos de nuestro planeta.Landscapes represent a dynamic point of articulation between humans and the environment. While often dichotomized, humans are active participants in the environment and often play a pivotal role in its transformation over time. In this paper, we use case studies from western South America and Australia to illustrate the importance of studying long-term dynamics between humans and the environment. Such investigations can bring significant historical depth to environmental change and the role humans have played in altering courses of landscape evolution and species biodiversity. Humans comprise a critical element in environmental change, and collectively, our results hold strong implications for issues related to sustainability and effective management of our planet’s desert resources.Fil: Zaro, Gregory. University of Maine; Estados UnidosFil: Builth, Heather. Monash University; AustraliaFil: Rivera, Claudia. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales e Instituto Miguel Lillo. Instituto de Geociencias y Medio Ambiente; ArgentinaFil: Roldán, Jimena. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Nordeste; ArgentinaFil: Suvires, Graciela Mabel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - San Juan. Centro de Investigaciones de la Geosfera y Biosfera. Universidad Nacional de San Juan. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales. Centro de Investigaciones de la Geosfera y Biosfera; Argentin

Chapter 9. Feral fields of Northern Dalmatia (Croatia)

How do we identify ancient fields and farming systems in areas where the same spaces of cultivation have been used repeatedly over thousands of years? In the limestone karst landscapes of northern Dalmatia, on the Adriatic coast of Croatia, drystone field walls, terraces, and cairns are common features that attest to generations of working the land for agriculture. While confounding archaeological objects due to complex histories of reuse, drystone terraced field systems throughout the Mediterranean are believed to have roots in ancient and prehistoric land use. Against this backdrop, this paper works to better understand the dynamic patterns and outcomes of field “recycling” through multiple lines of evidence for long-term changes in cropping patterns and agroecology in multi-millennial agricultural landscapes of northern Dalmatia. We compare archaeobotanical data from the Ravni Kotari plain to documents of preindustrial land use from the 1826 Franciscan cadastre. We also draw upon contemporary observations of traditionally managed, semi-wild olive groves on the nearby Adriatic island of Ugljan to better understand the land-use legacies inherent in the landscapes of northern Dalmatia today. These data show that, despite a relatively static agricultural built environment of field walls and terraces, Dalmatian communities held historically dynamic relationships with domesticated and wild plant ecologies. Prehistoric integration of cereal agriculture with wild forest resources appears to have shifted to commercial-scale domesticated arboriculture in the Classical period, leaving a multifaceted legacy of commercial agriculture, traditional farming, and rewilding among the contemporary cultural landscapes of Dalmatia

Nadin – Gradina: the Evolution of the City

Tijekom 2015. godine, u suradnji Sveučilišta u Zadru i Sveučilišta u Maineu (SAD), započela su sustavna istraživanja Gradine u Nadinu. Pet probnih sondi istraženo je na različitim položajima unutar areala naselja definiranog tzv. megalitskim bedemom da bi se omogućilo razumijevanje dubine depozita, kronološka sekvencija i integritet arheološkog zapisa. Preliminarni rezultati pokazuju složenu kulturnu stratigrafiju koja u pojedinim sondama prelazi 2 m dubine i potvrđuju intenzivan razvoj zajednice koja je obitavala na Gradini u Nadinu tijekom željeznog i rimskog doba. Naselje starijeg željeznog doba još uvijek nije potvrđeno, iako je ono, sudeći po istraženom dijelu pripadajuće nekropole na ravnom, moralo egzistirati. U mlađem željeznom dobu iskorišten je širi prostor koji, čini se, uglavnom odgovara antičkim gabaritima naselja. Najvažnija fizička transformacija naseobinskog tkiva povezuje se s nastupom rimske faze nadinske povijesti kada Nedinum stječe status municipija. Na izmaku kasne antike položaj je napušten da bi ponovno zadobio važnost tijekom kasnog srednjeg, odnosno novog vijeka. Tada se na Gradini gradi utvrda u sustavu obrane Mlečana, a zatim i Osmanlija, čiji ostatci sačuvani do visine od nekoliko metara dominiraju današnjom vizurom lokaliteta.In 2015, the University of Zadar and the University of Maine (USA) launched a systematic program of research at the Nadin-Gradina site. Five test probes were initially scattered within the area of the settlement defined by the so-called megalithic rampart to document depth, chronological sequence, and integrity of the archaeological record. Preliminary results demonstrate a complex cultural stratigraphy that, in some probes, exceeds 2 meters in depth and confirms the intense development of an urban community that occupied Nadin-Gradina during the Iron Age and Roman era. The investigated portion of the flat necropolis suggests the presence of an Early Iron Age settlement although its archaeological confirmation is still missing. In the Late Iron Age, a wider area of the settlement was used, which seems to mostly correspond to the ancient dimensions of the settlement. The most significant physical transformation of the settlement is associated with the onset of the Roman phase of Nadin’s history, when it acquired the status of the Roman municipium Nedinum. At the end of Late Antiquity, the settlement was abandoned, only to regain importance during the Late Middle Ages and Early Modern Era. At this time, a fort was built on the summit area, which fell under the authority of the Venetians, and subsequently the Ottomans. Its ruins are preserved up to a height of several meters and dominate the present-day view of the site