Historical Environments

                                         Historical ecology

                                       Environmental History

                               Why consider historical environments?

                                So, this quote raises two questions.



    What are limits that physical environments appear to set?





    What is material culture?

                                                                                             Limits?

u    Too cold, too hot



u    Too dry, too wet



u    Too rocky, too soft



u    Too steep



u    Too many natural disasters

                                                                            Material Culture = Stuff

                               Why consider historical environments?

   "The landscape reflects the technological innovations, the economic constraints, and the cultural
aspirations of its inhabitants, all of which are superimposed upon its natural features."

    -- G.G. Whitney (1994)

                               Why consider historical environments?

   

    "Historical ecology seeks to interpret the natural and artificial factors that have influenced
the development of an area of vegetation to its present state."



                             -- O. Rackham (1980)



                                                 ?





   What are two questions about historical environments that would be asked by people in your area
of study?

                                                 ?





   What methods (or investigative approaches) would people in your area of study use to answer those
questions?

                                     Framework for Considering
                                        Environmental Change

First



Identify ecosystem characteristics

                                     Framework for Considering
                                        Environmental Change

Second, identify extractive technologies used to meet needs

                                                                           Framework for Considering
                                                                                Environmental Change

Third, identify outcomes from alternative uses of the resource base

                                      A Source for Information





u   http://courses.ncsu.edu/for248/common/

                                Changing Times: the Holocene Legacy

                                     William R. Dickinson, 2000

                                 Environmental History 5(4):483-502



                                         Quaternary Period

u   Pleistocene = period before and just after the last glacial maximum, > 20,000 years ago



u   Holocene = 11,500 or so years ago [the great meltdown]







                                              Holocene

    "Modern  shorelines, together with their associated estuaries, tidal flats and coral reefs
cannot have occupied their present positions for more than a few thousand years."



                                              Holocene

u    Virtually all technology developed during the Holocene (<500 human generations)



u    Humans opportunistically adapted to post glacial environments.



u    Last interglacial time interval is the only one with humans in existence



 "In most global environments the Holocene landscape never established itself without human
influence. Landscapes and cultures co-evolved over the same intervals."



Holocene



   Human arrival meant forest clearance with upland erosion, downstream sedimentation or agroforest
replacement of virgin forest.

                                              Holocene

   Apparent permanence of plant communities without modern disturbance is "an illusion fostered by
the short timeframe of history."



                                              Holocene

  The idea of a world pristine before people is "out of focus."

                                          Human Influences



   Aboriginal humans noticed changes, made changes



                                          Human Influences

   Broadcast fire controlled advance of  relatively unproductive woodlands on grasslands richer in
usable resources

                                          Human Influence

   "Although `slash and burn' has distinctively pejorative [negative] connotations for lovers of
forested lands, the distributions of different tree species in many present forests owe much to the
recurrence of past anthropogenic fires."

                                     Unit Conversions (Rounded)

u   Acre = 0.4 hectare



u   Hectare = 2.47 acres



^u      Square mile = 2.6 km^2



u   Square mile = 640 acres = 256 ha



                                     Unit Conversions (Rounded)

^u      Board foot = 197 cm^3



u     ^ Cubic Foot = 0.027 m^3



u   Cord = 4 ft x 4 ft x 8 ft -- air space



^u      Cord = 80 ft^3 = 2.16 (2.2) m^3