Adaptations and transformations of hunter-gatherers in forest environments: New archaeological and anthropological insights

Abstract

Like any other living being, humans constantly influence their environment, be it intentionally or unintentionally. By extracting natural resources, they shape their environment and also that of plants and other animals. A great difference setting people apart from all other living beings is the ability to construct and develop their own niche intentionally, and the unique tool for this is cultural behaviour. Here, we discuss anthropogenic environmental changes of hunter-gatherers and present new palaeoecological and palynological data. The studies are framed with ethnoarchaeological data from Western Siberia to gain a better understanding of how different triggers lead to coping mechanisms. For archaeological implication, we use two Mesolithic case studies from Germany: One of them focuses on hazelnut economy around ancient Lake Duvensee, and the other broaches the issue of selective roe deer hunt and its consequences at the site of Friesack. We address the archaeological evidence from the perspective of active alteration and its consequences, starting our argumentation from a perspective of niche construction theory. This approach has rarely been applied to early Holocene hunter-gatherers in Northern Europe even though the available data render possible to discuss human-environment interaction from such a perspective. It is demonstrated that archaeological research has tools at hand that enables to detect anthropogenic niche construction. However, the ethnoarchaeological example shows limitations and archaeologically invisible triggers and consequent results of human adaptations. The critical revision of such perspectives based on empirical data provides a better understanding of social and environmental transformations in the early-and mid-Holocene.

Reconstructing the palaeoenvironment at the early Mesolithic site of Lake Duvensee: Ground-penetrating radar and geoarchaeology for 3D facies mapping

“…Thus, recreating the situation during that period by means of GPR and geoarchaeology is our goal. Following the background of intensive research in the Northern European Plain (Groß, 2017; Groß et al, 2018, 2019; Hartz et al, 2014; Lübke et al, 2011; Schmölcke, 2016; Schmölcke and Nikulina, 2015), this paper provides a first reconstruction of the paleotopography and stratigraphy of parts of the bog during the early Mesolithic using geophysics.…”

Cazadores-recolectores y construcción de nicho en el bosque patagónico: el caso del valle del río Pico (Centro-Oeste del Chubut)

“…Al mismo tiempo se ha argumentado que la ocupación recurrente de ciertos sitios por parte de los cazadoresrecolectores lleva a modificar el entorno, favoreciendo la presencia de especies que fueron aprovechadas y desechadas en ese mismo lugar. Se logra así, de manera no intencional, que en las cercanías de un sitio se desarrollen aquellas especies regularmente explotadas, dando lugar a huertos silvestres (wild orchads según Politis, 2007:145-153;ver también Gnecco, 2000y Groß et al 2019. No se han comprobado casos de este tipo para los bosques patagónicos, pero Belmar et al (2017) argumentan que:…”

The concept of socio-environmental transformations in prehistoric and archaic societies in the Holocene: An introduction to the special issue

“…Focus 2 Transformation of socio-economic formations addresses, in different spatial and temporal case studies, the ongoing socio-environmental changes as observed within different social formations. Studies of ‘Complex Foragers’ relate to the adaption and niche manipulation in Palaeo- and Mesolithic forested and aquatic environments as well as technological change (Eriksen et al, this issue; Groß et al, this issue, 2018a, 2018b; Mevel et al, this issue; Sørensen et al, 2018; Sommer et al, 2018). ‘Horticulturalists’ are investigated with respect to the temporal dimension of Linearbandkeramik houses and settlements (Meadows et al, this issue), the monumental expression of socio-cultural and technological transformations (Brozio et al, this issue) and the concept of Neolithisation itself (Blank et al, 2018; Terberger et al, 2018).…”

“…Focus 3 Socio-environmental components of change concentrates on specific factors or components of change, be they climate and human adaptation strategies (Butruille et al, 2017; Groß et al, this issue; Hinz et al, this issue; Schirrmacher et al, 2019); vegetation and faunal change, human impact, and resource management (Dal Corso et al, this issue, 2018; Feeser et al, this issue; Sommer et al, 2018; Wieckowska-Lüth et al, 2018); the dynamics of soils and erosion processes, demography, mobility and diseases (Capuzzo et al, 2018; Feeser et al, this issue; Fuchs et al, this issue; Furholt, 2017; Krause-Kyora et al, 2018; Müller and Diachenko, 2019); the development and impacts of subsistence practices (Filatova et al, 2019; Filipović et al, this issue, 2018; Jahns et al, 2018) or the social role of technologies and innovations (Bech et al, 2018; Brozio et al, this issue; Kirleis, 2019; Schaefer-Di Maida and Kneisel, this issue).…”

“…of amber items with rearrangements of social space in Central Europe (Müller and Kneisel, 2010)) or in the distribution of copper and jade axes (Klassen, 2004), an archaeological anatomy of transformation will have to include the palaeo-environmental perspective and focus on the incorporation of the palaeo-environment with the material culture as basic aspects of an advanced transformation concept (e.g. Brozio et al, this issue; Dal Corso et al, this issue; Feeser et al, this issue; Groß et al, this issue; Kirleis, 2019; Müller, 2019; Wieckowska-Lüth et al, 2018).…”