IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jlands/v7y2018i1p9-d127180.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Quantifying Land Use in Past Societies from Cultural Practice and Archaeological Data

Author

Listed:
  • Ryan E. Hughes

    (Institute of Earth Surface Dynamics, University of Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
    ARVE Research Sàrl, 1009 Pully, Switzerland)

  • Erika Weiberg

    (Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Uppsala University, 752 36 Uppsala, Sweden)

  • Anton Bonnier

    (Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Uppsala University, 752 36 Uppsala, Sweden)

  • Martin Finné

    (Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Uppsala University, 752 36 Uppsala, Sweden)

  • Jed O. Kaplan

    (ARVE Research Sàrl, 1009 Pully, Switzerland
    Department of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, 07745 Jena, Germany
    Environmental Change Institute, School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3QY, UK)

Abstract

Quantitative reconstructions of past land use facilitate comparisons between livelihoods in space and time. However, comparison between different types of land use strategies is challenging as land use has a multitude of expressions and intensities. The quantitative method presented here facilitates the exploration and synthetization of uneven archaeological and textual evidence from past societies. The approach quantifies the area required for habitation, agriculture, arboriculture, pasturage, and fuel supply, based on a combination of archaeological, historical, ethnographic and modern evidence from the relevant geographical region. It is designed to stimulate discussion and can be used to test a wide range of hypotheses regarding local and regional economies, ancient trade and redistribution, and the resilience and/or vulnerability of past societies to environmental change. The method also helps identify where our gaps in knowledge are in understanding past human–environment interaction, the ecological footprint of past cultures and their influence on the landscape in a transparent and quantitative manner. The present article focuses especially on the impact of dietary estimates and crop yield estimates, two main elements in calculating land use in past societies due to their uncertainty as well as their significant impact on calculations. By employing archaeological data, including botanical, zoological and isotopic evidence, alongside available textual sources, this method seeks to improve land use and land cover change models by increasing their representativeness and accuracy.

Suggested Citation

  • Ryan E. Hughes & Erika Weiberg & Anton Bonnier & Martin Finné & Jed O. Kaplan, 2018. "Quantifying Land Use in Past Societies from Cultural Practice and Archaeological Data," Land, MDPI, vol. 7(1), pages 1-21, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:7:y:2018:i:1:p:9-:d:127180
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/7/1/9/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/7/1/9/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Enrico R Crema & Junko Habu & Kenichi Kobayashi & Marco Madella, 2016. "Summed Probability Distribution of 14C Dates Suggests Regional Divergences in the Population Dynamics of the Jomon Period in Eastern Japan," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(4), pages 1-18, April.
    2. Jed O. Kaplan & Kristen M. Krumhardt & Marie-José Gaillard & Shinya Sugita & Anna-Kari Trondman & Ralph Fyfe & Laurent Marquer & Florence Mazier & Anne Birgitte Nielsen, 2017. "Constraining the Deforestation History of Europe: Evaluation of Historical Land Use Scenarios with Pollen-Based Land Cover Reconstructions," Land, MDPI, vol. 6(4), pages 1-20, December.
    3. Moreno, Alfonso, 2007. "Feeding the Democracy: The Athenian Grain Supply in the Fifth and Fourth Centuries BC," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199228409.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Fan Yang & Fanneng He & Shicheng Li, 2020. "Spatially Explicit Reconstruction of Anthropogenic Grassland Cover Change in China from 1700 to 2000," Land, MDPI, vol. 9(8), pages 1-15, August.
    2. Gerrit Günther & Thomas Clemen & Rainer Duttmann & Brigitta Schütt & Daniel Knitter, 2021. "Of Animal Husbandry and Food Production—A First Step towards a Modular Agent-Based Modelling Platform for Socio-Ecological Dynamics," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-25, December.
    3. Fabian Becker & Daniel Knitter & Moritz Nykamp & Brigitta Schütt, 2020. "Meta-Analysis of Geomorphodynamics in the Western Lower Bakırçay Plain (Aegean Region, Turkey)," Land, MDPI, vol. 9(9), pages 1-29, September.
    4. Julian Laabs & Daniel Knitter, 2021. "How Much Is Enough? First Steps to a Social Ecology of the Pergamon Microregion," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-19, May.
    5. Robert T. Nyamushosho & Shadreck Chirikure & Ari Sitas & Eric N. Maṱhoho, 2022. "Modelling Land Use in The Gold Belt Territories of Iron Age Southern Zambezia," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-27, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Enrico R Crema & Shinya Shoda, 2021. "A Bayesian approach for fitting and comparing demographic growth models of radiocarbon dates: A case study on the Jomon-Yayoi transition in Kyushu (Japan)," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(5), pages 1-26, May.
    2. Shuangxi Miao & Shuyu Wang & Chunyan Huang & Xiaohong Xia & Lingling Sang & Jianxi Huang & Han Liu & Zheng Zhang & Junxiao Zhang & Xu Huang & Fei Gao, 2023. "A Big Data Grided Organization and Management Method for Cropland Quality Evaluation," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(10), pages 1-20, October.
    3. Fan Yang & Fanneng He & Shicheng Li, 2020. "Spatially Explicit Reconstruction of Anthropogenic Grassland Cover Change in China from 1700 to 2000," Land, MDPI, vol. 9(8), pages 1-15, August.
    4. Giulio Fusco & Benedetta Coluccia & Federica De Leo, 2020. "Effect of Trade Openness on Food Security in the EU: A Dynamic Panel Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(12), pages 1-13, June.
    5. Luciano Prates & Gustavo G Politis & S Ivan Perez, 2020. "Rapid radiation of humans in South America after the last glacial maximum: A radiocarbon-based study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(7), pages 1-22, July.
    6. Fan Yang & Fanneng He & Shicheng Li & Meijiao Li, 2019. "Exploring Spatiotemporal Pattern of Grassland Cover in Western China from 1661 to 1996," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(17), pages 1-17, August.
    7. Philip Riris & Fabio Silva, 2021. "Resolution and the detection of cultural dispersals: development and application of spatiotemporal methods in Lowland South America," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 8(1), pages 1-13, December.
    8. Marko Porčić & Tamara Blagojević & Sofija Stefanović, 2016. "Demography of the Early Neolithic Population in Central Balkans: Population Dynamics Reconstruction Using Summed Radiocarbon Probability Distributions," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(8), pages 1-12, August.
    9. Fabian Becker & Daniel Knitter & Moritz Nykamp & Brigitta Schütt, 2020. "Meta-Analysis of Geomorphodynamics in the Western Lower Bakırçay Plain (Aegean Region, Turkey)," Land, MDPI, vol. 9(9), pages 1-29, September.
    10. Mirko Canevaro, 2018. "What was the law of Leptines’ really about? Reflections on Athenian public economy and legislation in the fourth century BCE," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 29(4), pages 440-464, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:7:y:2018:i:1:p:9-:d:127180. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.