Geoarchaeological approaches to the environmental history of Cyprus: explication and critical evaluation

Butzer, Karl W.; Harris, Sarah E.

doi:10.1016/j.jas.2007.01.013

Cited by 31 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…Effective climatic inputs are most likely to be high-recurrence perturbations, such as excessive rains or floods, and more persistent, decadal anomalies (such as severe droughts) that serve as triggering mechanisms, impacting a stressed or degraded environment to unleash more catastrophic forms of hydrological behavior or slope failure (44)(45)(46). Climatic variables can also precondition the environment by accelerating degradation, or disastrous floods may provoke outbreaks of epidemic disease.…”

Section: Inputs Triggers and Interactive Variablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Collapse, environment, and society

Butzer

2012

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Historical collapse of ancient states poses intriguing social-ecological questions, as well as potential applications to global change and contemporary strategies for sustainability. Five Old World case studies are developed to identify interactive inputs, triggers, and feedbacks in devolution. Collapse is multicausal and rarely abrupt. Political simplification undermines traditional structures of authority to favor militarization, whereas disintegration is preconditioned or triggered by acute stress (insecurity, environmental or economic crises, famine), with breakdown accompanied or followed by demographic decline. Undue attention to stressors risks underestimating the intricate interplay of environmental, political, and sociocultural resilience in limiting the damages of collapse or in facilitating reconstruction. The conceptual model emphasizes resilience, as well as the historical roles of leaders, elites, and ideology. However, a historical model cannot simply be applied to contemporary problems of sustainability without adjustment for cumulative information and increasing possibilities for popular participation. Between the 14th and 18th centuries, Western Europe responded to environmental crises by innovation and intensification; such modernization was decentralized, protracted, flexible, and broadly based. Much of the current alarmist literature that claims to draw from historical experience is poorly focused, simplistic, and unhelpful. It fails to appreciate that resilience and readaptation depend on identified options, improved understanding, cultural solidarity, enlightened leadership, and opportunities for participation and fresh ideas.

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Section: Inputs Triggers and Interactive Variablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Collapse, environment, and society

Butzer

2012

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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355

242

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“…The increasing trend towards palaeobotanists and palaeoenvironmental specialists working with archaeometallurgists or leading research into the ecological impacts of past industry has continued to develop (e.g. Mighall et al 2003;Brncic et al 2007;Butzer and Harris 2007;Eichorn et al 2013aEichorn et al , 2013b, alongside an everincreasing recognition that past metalworkers were likely to have been aware of the benefits of managing forest resources in order to mitigate against diminishing means. As Crew and Mighall (2013: 480) remind us, there would have been a high degree of selfinterest on the part of the iron workers in maintaining the woodland supply , even more so in scenarios where a discrete group of charcoal-makers supplied ironworkers with fuel, who thus would have shouldered an independent motivation to maintain a viable supply of charcoal 8 .…”

Section: Recent Approachesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Role of Metallurgy in Transforming Global Forests.

Iles

2015

J Archaeol Method Theory

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Forest degradation both past and present has become a significant research focus of many disciplines in recent decades, and it is an area in which the multidisciplinarity and long-term perspectives of archaeological endeavor has the potential to make a particularly valuable contribution. One of the past craft activities that has long been linked to significant socio-economic change and associated accelerations in forest cover reduction and environmental decline is the intensification of early iron production an industry reliant on the consumption of charcoal as fuel for much of its history. However, the impact of iron production on the transformation of woodlands is dependent on a suite of interrelated factors climatic, ecological, technological and cultural only some of which have so far been adequately scrutinised. This paper explores the theoretical context that links iron production with deforestation in academic and popular cultures, examining the role that archaeology can play in investigating this association, before reviewing recent methodological approaches that aim to interrogate the relationship between metallurgy and the environment in archaeological settings.

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“…Much scholarship (12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18) has questioned depictions of degradation both in the Mediterranean and elsewhere. Such examples illustrate that degradation is often a highly subjective attribute and that separating natural from human influences can be quite difficult.…”

Section: Factoids As Pseudo-historymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Geomorphological, dendrochronological, and archaeological evidence (17,(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29), traveler's accounts and official reports (1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(30)(31)(32)(33)(34)(35)(36), and maps (37-40) were studied or examined. Conversations and unstructured interviews were conducted during fieldwork from 2003 to 2006 with forest officials and older Cypriots to piece together a multifaceted view of the island's environmental past.…”

Section: Cypriot Environmental History and Factoid Onementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Meiggs (22) provides examples to show that goats were often viewed positively within the classical period, contrary to Virgil's complaints, whereas in more modern periods, numerous authors (13,(15)(16)(17)(58)(59)(60)(61)(62)(63) have illustrated that grazing is not necessarily an anathema to vegetation growth and that, in the correct situations, the two can coincide well. The fact that transhumance can be part of a successful polyculture subsistence pattern is seen in its long-term history of existence in many areas of the Mediterranean and Near East as well as a history of land use laws allowing for it.…”

Section: Cypriot Environmental History and Factoid Twomentioning

confidence: 99%

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Cyprus as a degraded landscape or resilient environment in the wake of colonial intrusion

Harris

2012

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Concerns about global warming, degradation of fragile ecosystems, and environmental and societal collapse have increased interest for lessons and/or solutions for today's environmental issues. Popular writers have turned to a classic degradation thesis of deforestation and presumed desertification within the Eastern Mediterranean as a cautionary tale of how past societies have committed ecological suicide. However, degradation and/or collapse is far more complex than the thesis permits, and uncritical adoption of such simplified stories encourages continued use of inaccurate assumptions about human–environment interaction. In Cyprus, such a degradation story materialized 150 y ago, and its promoters aimed to impress on readers their responsibility to reverse past environmental mistakes. Both the British Colonial authorities (1878–1960) and the post-Independence Cypriot government used it to justify their environmental policies. Unfortunately, this thesis was formed around several misunderstandings about Cypriot environments and society: ( i ) judgment of degradation without appropriate consideration of the difference between degradation and change; ( ii ) oversimplified representation of ruling powers and those people ruled; and ( iii ) denigration of the shepherd lifestyle and its presumed environmental impact. A multimethod approach using archival and field research offers a more nuanced understanding of the complexity of human–environment interaction, the underappreciated environmental and societal resilience of areas classified as degraded, and the importance of placing events within changing socioeconomic and political contexts. This study of natural resource management and environmental resilience illustrates that the practices that the colonial government viewed as unsustainable likely were sustainable.

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Geoarchaeological approaches to the environmental history of Cyprus: explication and critical evaluation

Cited by 31 publications

References 26 publications

Collapse, environment, and society

Collapse, environment, and society

The Role of Metallurgy in Transforming Global Forests.

Cyprus as a degraded landscape or resilient environment in the wake of colonial intrusion

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