Energy regimes help tackle limitations with the prehistoric cultural‐phases approach to learn about sustainable transitions: Archaeological evidence from northern Spain

Abstract

Human societies face challenges in transitioning towards low-carbon economies and sustainable management of land use and natural resources. Documenting and learning from past transitions helps policy-makers cope with such challenges. The agricultural revolution in Cantabrian Spain (ca. 7000 cal a BP) was one major adaptation of hunter-gatherers to a changing environment that started with the Last Glacial Maximum (ca. 24 000 cal a BP) and lasted until the Mid-Holocene (ca. 5300 cal a BP). Classic approaches to documenting prehistoric cultural timelines are based on manufacturing and technology, thus limited in their ability to describe the sustainability of past societies. Energy regimes, a functional societal approach independent from time, investigate and consider patterns of resource and energy use in various cohabiting and cooperating cultural phases. To examine past energy regimes, a database of archaeological remains was compiled to document four indicators: mobility, economy, overexploitation and societal complexity. Statistical analyses were conducted to elucidate trends, changes and continuity in subsistence strategies by hunter-gatherers and sedentary societies. Results show that energy regimes act as a complement to cultural phases, adding novel functional analyses of past societies to cultural stratigraphy units common in archaeology, shedding light on the sustainability of past societal transitions.

Identifying major phases in the use of land, energy and changing landscapes by agrarian societies (7,000 cal BP-Present) in Cantabrian Spain, based on cultural changes and anthropogenic signals

“…Moreover, landscape evolution is closely linked to phases of development and disruptions of the evolution of human societies. The adoption of productive economies totally sifted prior land-use strategies by hunter-gatherers (Martinez et al, 2023), facilitating many other ); Neoglaciation dates (Baldini et al, ); Bronze Age warm period, Iron Age cold period, Roman warm period, Dark Ages cold period, Medieval warm period, Little Ice Age and Modern warming dates, and all short cold events (Martín-Chivelet et al, ); Bond events dates (Bond et al, ). BE : .…”

“…The framework of ERs has recently been investigated and tested for hunter-gatherer societies until the adoption of productive economies, i.e., ER1, also called the Standard Solar regime (Martinez et al, 2022(Martinez et al, , 2023. Hunter-gatherer societies were sustained by solar energy, as they lived on the consumption of wild plants (growing with sun energy) and animals (either herbivores feeding on plants, or carnivores feeding on herbivores).…”

“…Hunter-gatherer societies were sustained by solar energy, as they lived on the consumption of wild plants (growing with sun energy) and animals (either herbivores feeding on plants, or carnivores feeding on herbivores). Thus, solar energy was harnessed, but not controlled, by hunter-gatherers during ER1 (Martinez et al, 2023). The Agrarian regime (i.e., ER2) differs from the ER1 in that human societies function on a strategy of production: they are able to control solar energy.…”

“…The Agrarian regime (i.e., ER2) differs from the ER1 in that human societies function on a strategy of production: they are able to control solar energy. The appearance of productive economies (agropastoral activities, transhumance, and cattle raising) induced one major change in energy use, as solar energy is now willingly concentrated into cereal and leguminose fields and cattle raising (Martinez et al, 2023).…”

“…Four ERs are currently acknowledged: hunter-gatherer, agrarian, industrial and lowcarbon (Goudsblom, 1992;Sieferle, 2001;Fischer-Kowalski and Haberl, 2007;Simmons, 2008;Burke, 2009;Valavanidis and Vlachogianni, 2013). If the theoretical framework of ERs has been developed for more than 30 years, its application in concrete case study is a novel approach (Martinez et al, 2022(Martinez et al, , 2023. ERs can be addressed with geoarchaeological proxies to explore land-use strategies and the impact of anthropic activities on the environment.…”