Land-Use Dynamics and Socioeconomic Change: An Example from the Polop Alto Valley

Abstract

The Polop Alto valley, in eastern Spain, serves as the focus of a study of long-term temporal and spatial dynamics in human land use. The data discussed here derive from intensive, pedestrian, non-site survey. We employ the concept of artifact taphonomy to assess the various natural and cultural processes responsible for accumulation and distribution patterns of artifacts. Our results suggest that the most significant land-use changes in the Polop Alto took place at the end of the Pleistocene and accompanying the late Neolithic, while much less notable changes in land-use patterns are associated with the Middle-Upper Paleolithic transition and the initial use of domestic plants and animals in the valley.

In glacial environments beyond glacial terrains: Human eco-dynamics in late Pleistocene Mediterranean Iberia

“…Fig. 5 shows retouch frequency versus surface artifact density for all survey units with likely Upper Paleolithic materials (see Barton et al, 1999Barton et al, , 2002. There is a clear and significant negative correlation between these two measures, indicating that retouch frequency can serve as a proxy for land-use in the survey collections as well as in the assemblages from excavated sites.…”

The Iron Age landscape of Alcoi Valley, eastern Iberia: Agricultural intensification and sociopolitical dynamics

“…Small, terraced agricultural fields were used as patches, serving as the basic spatial data collection unit. In the Penàguila Valley, contiguous areas were completely covered (this approach is explained in detail in Barton et al 1999;. As it has been already quoted in other works, interpreting dispersed material is difficult, particularly in distinguishing concentrations which indicate habitation and those produced by other activities (See e.g.…”

“…The data used in this study derive from systematic, intensive surveys, conducted since 1989, in the Penàguila Valley in Region of Alcoi (Barton et al 1999;Grau Mira, 2002). A patch-based survey strategy was employed, instead of the more common site-based approach.…”

“…The limited presence of Iberian examples is only broken by a small number of studies as for exemple the research developed in the Region of Alcoi (Alicante, Spain). From the 1980s onward, M. C. Barton (Arizona State University) and J. Bernabeu (University of Valencia) have directed an archaeological survey program (Barton et al 1999;2001;2004) centered on the landscape dynamics of late prehistory and expanding to later periods, which has yielded interesting results (Martí and Mata 1993;Espí 2001) and data for potential further research.…”

Trends in Archaeological Simulation

“…At present the only other well-developed agentbased model of broadly similar scope and purpose is Wilkinson et al's (Christiansen and Altaweel 2006;Wilkinson et al 2007a, b) model of household production and exchange in the late prehistoric and Bronze Age societies that developed at the onset of urbanization in Mesopotamia. However, in addition, Barton et al are building a household-level agent-based model of agropastoralism (Barton et al 2010b) as part of a long-term project on the long-term human 'socioecological dynamics' of Mediterranean landscapes (Barton et al 1999;McClure et al 2009); this model will couple with their already well-developed framework for simulating environmental change using GIS (Barton et al 2010a). These three projects share four characteristics: explicit concern with long-term human-environment interaction couched in terms of human ecodynamics, a high degree of realism, comparison of simulated output with rich archaeological datasets (see for commentary on the kinds of data required for modelling socio-ecological systems using agent-based modelling) and the longevity of the projects themselves.…”