FROM THE HUNTER-GATHERER SUBSISTENCE STRATEGIES TO THE AGRICULTURAL NON-REVOLUTION: USING ENERGY REGIMES TO REFORM THE “STACK” OF CULTURAL PHASES

The TERRANOVA project aims to produce new knowledge to support policy makers and stakeholders cope with the transition towards low carbon societies. Improving existing knowledge of past land-use management strategies will allow TERRANOVA partners to gain a better understanding of long-term and complex landscape dynamics. Beginning in the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) onwards in NW Iberia, gradual softening of climate conditions allowed hunter-gatherer societies to broaden their natural resource exploitation strategies, based on a Guided Solar Energy Regime (ER1). As the mutually interconnected climate conditions and natural resources evolved with time, human subsistence strategies remained nonetheless static, only changing with the Neolithization process. The transition to a novel Devised Solar Energy Regime (ER2), largely based changes in food production approaches, would largely impact the landscapes. Human societies would soon need new sources of food and energy to sustain their coupled cultural and biological evolution processes, and more importantly, to deal with the consequences of their impact upon their own lived landscapes. A substantial archaeological database has been constructed, and spatial and temporal analysis has been conducted in order to identify and document and characterize ER1 and its transition to ER2. Unravelling the process of this transition will help archaeologists, paleontologists, paleo-geographers and earth and environmental scientists, amongst other specialists, better understand the time-bounded continuities and discontinuities in past societies. Focusing on energy regimes allows to identify the “time-loop” that defines transitions along different subsistence strategies, resulting from continuous new demands that arise by filling previous ones, in substitution of the classic understanding of a “stack” of cultural phases. Our current World is actually not exception to this loop. Unsustainable rates of fossil fuel consumption have solved many challenges whilst also triggering new ones. The transition towards green energies and allowing the environment to recover through more sustainable and resilient land and natural resource use strategies should thus become the next logic step in the loop

A review of the dodo and its ecosystem: insights from a vertebrate concentration Lagerstätte in Mauritius

The dodo Raphus cucullatus Linnaeus,1758, an extinct and flightless, giant pigeon endemic to Mauritius, has fascinated people since its discovery, yet has remained surprisingly poorly known. Until the mid-19th century, almost all that was known about the dodo was based on illustrations and written accounts by 17th century mariners, often of questionable accuracy. Furthermore, only a few fragmentary remains of dodos collected prior to the bird's extinction exist. Our understanding of the dodo's anatomy was substantially enhanced by the discovery in 1865 of subfossil bones in a marsh called the Mare aux Songes, situated in southeastern Mauritius. However, no contextual information was recorded during early excavation efforts, and the majority of excavated material comprised larger dodo bones, almost all of which were unassociated. Here we present a modern interdisciplinary analysis of the Mare aux Songes, a 4200-year-old multitaxic vertebrate concentration Lagerstätte. Our analysis of the deposits at this site provides the first detailed overview of the ecosystem inhabited by the dodo. The interplay of climatic and geological conditions led to the exceptional preservation of the animal and associated plant remains at the Mare aux Songes and provides a window into the past ecosystem of Mauritius. This interdisciplinary research approach provides an ecological framework for the dodo, complementing insights on its anatomy derived from the only associated dodo skeletons known, both of which were collected by Etienne Thirioux and are the primary subject of this memoir.Additional co-authors: Anneke H. Van Heteren, Vikash Rupear, Gorah Beebeejaun, Alan Grihault, J. (Hans) Van Der Plicht, Marijke Besselink, Juliën K. Lubeek, Max Jansen, Hege Hollund, Beth Shapiro, Matthew Collins, Mike Buckley, Ranjith M. Jayasena, Nicolas Porch, Rene Floore, Frans Bunnik, Andrew Biedlingmaier, Jennifer Leavitt, Gregory Monfette, Anna Kimelblatt, Adrienne Randall, Pieter Floore & Leon P. A. M. Claessen

A review of the dodo and its ecosystem: insights from a vertebrate concentration Lagerstätte in Mauritius

The dodo Raphus cucullatus Linnaeus, an extinct and flightless, giant pigeon endemic to Mauritius, has fascinated people since its discovery, yet has remained surprisingly poorly known. Until the mid-19th century, almost all that was known about the dodo was based on illustrations and written accounts by 17th century mariners, often of questionable accuracy. Furthermore, only a few fragmentary remains of dodos collected prior to the bird's extinction exist. Our understanding of the dodo's anatomy was substantially enhanced by the discovery in 1865 of subfossil bones in a marsh called the Mare aux Songes, situated in southeastern Mauritius. However, no contextual information was recorded during early excavation efforts, and the majority of excavated material comprised larger dodo bones, almost all of which were unassociated. Here we present a modern interdisciplinary analysis of the Mare aux Songes, a 4200-year-old multitaxic vertebrate concentration Lagerstätte. Our analysis of the deposits at this site provides the first detailed overview of the ecosystem inhabited by the dodo. The interplay of climatic and geological conditions led to the exceptional preservation of the animal and associated plant remains at the Mare aux Songes and provides a window into the past ecosystem of Mauritius. This interdisciplinary research approach provides an ecological framework for the dodo, complementing insights on its anatomy derived from the only associated dodo skeletons known, both of which were collected by Etienne Thirioux and are the primary subject of this memoir.publishedVersio