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Morrison KD, Hammer E, Boles O, Madella M, Whitehouse N, Gaillard MJ, Bates J, Vander Linden M, Merlo S, Yao A, Popova L, Hill AC, Antolin F, Bauer A, Biagetti S, Bishop RR, Buckland P, Cruz P, Dreslerová D, Dusseldorp G, Ellis E, Filipovic D, Foster T, Hannaford MJ, Harrison SP, Hazarika M, Herold H, Hilpert J, Kaplan JO, Kay A, Klein Goldewijk K, Kolář J, Kyazike E, Laabs J, Lancelotti C, Lane P, Lawrence D, Lewis K, Lombardo U, Lucarini G, Arroyo-Kalin M, Marchant R, Mayle F, McClatchie M, McLeester M, Mooney S, Moskal-del Hoyo M, Navarrete V, Ndiema E, Góes Neves E, Nowak M, Out WA, Petrie C, Phelps LN, Pinke Z, Rostain S, Russell T, Sluyter A, Styring AK, Tamanaha E, Thomas E, Veerasamy S, Welton L, Zanon M. Mapping past human land use using archaeological data: A new classification for global land use synthesis and data harmonization. PLoS One 2021; 16:e0246662. [PMID: 33852578 PMCID: PMC8046197 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0246662] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/25/2020] [Accepted: 01/24/2021] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
In the 12,000 years preceding the Industrial Revolution, human activities led to significant changes in land cover, plant and animal distributions, surface hydrology, and biochemical cycles. Earth system models suggest that this anthropogenic land cover change influenced regional and global climate. However, the representation of past land use in earth system models is currently oversimplified. As a result, there are large uncertainties in the current understanding of the past and current state of the earth system. In order to improve representation of the variety and scale of impacts that past land use had on the earth system, a global effort is underway to aggregate and synthesize archaeological and historical evidence of land use systems. Here we present a simple, hierarchical classification of land use systems designed to be used with archaeological and historical data at a global scale and a schema of codes that identify land use practices common to a range of systems, both implemented in a geospatial database. The classification scheme and database resulted from an extensive process of consultation with researchers worldwide. Our scheme is designed to deliver consistent, empirically robust data for the improvement of land use models, while simultaneously allowing for a comparative, detailed mapping of land use relevant to the needs of historical scholars. To illustrate the benefits of the classification scheme and methods for mapping historical land use, we apply it to Mesopotamia and Arabia at 6 kya (c. 4000 BCE). The scheme will be used to describe land use by the Past Global Changes (PAGES) LandCover6k working group, an international project comprised of archaeologists, historians, geographers, paleoecologists, and modelers. Beyond this, the scheme has a wide utility for creating a common language between research and policy communities, linking archaeologists with climate modelers, biodiversity conservation workers and initiatives.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kathleen D. Morrison
- Department of Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America
| | - Emily Hammer
- Department of Near East Languages and Civilizations and the Price Lab for the Digital Humanities, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America
- * E-mail:
| | - Oliver Boles
- Department of Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America
| | - Marco Madella
- ICREA–CaSEs–Department of Humanities, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain
- School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
| | - Nicola Whitehouse
- School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Plymouth University, Plymouth, United Kingdom
- Department of Archaeology, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom
| | - Marie-Jose Gaillard
- Department of Biology and Environmental Sciences, Linnaeus University, Växjö, Sweden
| | - Jennifer Bates
- Department of Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America
| | - Marc Vander Linden
- Institute for the Modelling of Socio-Environmental Transitions, Bournemouth University, Bournemouth, United Kingdom
| | - Stefania Merlo
- School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
| | - Alice Yao
- Department of Anthropology, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America
| | - Laura Popova
- Barrett Honors College, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, United States of America
| | - Austin Chad Hill
- Department of Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America
| | - Ferran Antolin
- Integrative Prehistory and Archaeological Science (IPNA/IPAS), University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
| | - Andrew Bauer
- Department of Anthropology, Stanford University, Stanford, California, United States of America
| | - Stefano Biagetti
- Department d’Humanitats, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain
- School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa
| | - Rosie R. Bishop
- Museum of Archaeology, University of Stavanger, Stavanger, Norway
| | - Phillip Buckland
- Department of Historical, Philosophical and religious Studies, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden
| | - Pablo Cruz
- UE CISOR CONICET UNJu, Argentine National Science Council (CONICET), Argentina
| | - Dagmar Dreslerová
- Institute of Archaeology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Academy of Sciences Prague, Czech Republic
| | | | - Erle Ellis
- Palaeo-Research Institute, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa
- Department of Geography and Environmental Systems, University of Maryland Baltimore County, Maryland, United States of America
| | | | - Thomas Foster
- College of Arts & Sciences, Anthropology, University of Tulsa, Tusla, Oklahoma, United States of America
| | | | - Sandy P. Harrison
- School of Archaeology, Geography and Environmental Science, University of Reading, Reading, United Kingdom
| | - Manjil Hazarika
- Department of Archaeology, Cotton University, Guwahati, India
| | - Hajnalka Herold
- Department of Archaeology, University of Exeter, Exeter, United Kingdom
| | - Johanna Hilpert
- Institute for Prehistoric Archaeology, Universitat zu Koln, Cologne, Germany
| | - Jed O. Kaplan
- Department of Earth Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong
| | - Andrea Kay
- Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany
| | - Kees Klein Goldewijk
- Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - Jan Kolář
- Institute of Botany of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic
- Institute of Archaeology and Museology, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic
| | - Elizabeth Kyazike
- Department of History and Political Science, Kyambogo University, Kampala, Uganda
| | - Julian Laabs
- Institute for Archaeolgical Scienes, Bern University, Bern, Switzerland
- Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, Bern University, Bern, Switzerland
- Institute of Pre- and Protohistoric Archaeology, Kiel University, Keil, Germany
| | - Carla Lancelotti
- ICREA–Department of Humanities, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Paul Lane
- Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
- School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, Witwatersrand, South Africa
| | - Dan Lawrence
- Department of Archaeology, Durham University, Durham, United Kingdom
| | - Krista Lewis
- Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Little Rock, Arkansas, United States of America
| | | | - Giulio Lucarini
- Institute of Heritage Science, National Research Council of Italy, Montelibretti, Rome, Italy
- Department of Asian, African and Mediterranean Studies, University of Naples L’Orientale, Naples, Italy
| | | | - Rob Marchant
- York Institute for Tropical Ecosystems, Department of Environment and Geography, University of York, York, United Kingdom
| | - Francis Mayle
- Department of Geography and Environmental Science, University of Reading, Reading, United Kingdom
| | | | - Madeleine McLeester
- Department of Anthropology, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, United States of America
| | - Scott Mooney
- School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, Australia
| | | | - Vanessa Navarrete
- Department of Prehistory, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, Spain
| | - Emmanuel Ndiema
- Department of Earth Sciences, National Museums of Kenya, Nairobi, Kenya
| | - Eduardo Góes Neves
- Laboratório de Arqueologia dos Trópicos, Museu de Arqueologia e Etnologia, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
| | - Marek Nowak
- Institute of Archaeology, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland
| | - Welmoed A. Out
- Department of Archaeological Science and Conservation, Moesgaard Museum, Højbjerg, Denmark
| | - Cameron Petrie
- ICREA–Department of Humanities, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain
- McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | - Leanne N. Phelps
- Tropical diversity, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
- School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
| | - Zsolt Pinke
- Department of Physical Geography, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Stéphen Rostain
- Centre national de la recherche scientifique, Nanterre, France
| | - Thembi Russell
- School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
| | - Andrew Sluyter
- Department of Geography and Anthropology, Louisana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States of America
| | - Amy K. Styring
- School of Archaeology, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Eduardo Tamanaha
- Instituto de Desenvolvimento Sustentável Mamirauá, Amazonas, Brazil
| | - Evert Thomas
- The Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, Lima, Peru
| | - Selvakumar Veerasamy
- Department of Maritime History and Marine Archaeology, Tamil University, Tanjore, India
| | - Lynn Welton
- School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, Witwatersrand, South Africa
| | - Marco Zanon
- Institute of Pre- and Protohistoric Archaeology, Kiel, Germany
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