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Did prehistoric landscape management retard the post-glacial spread of woodland in Southwest Asia?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Neil Roberts
Neil Roberts*
Affiliation:
Department of Geographical Sciences, University of Plymouth, Drake Circus, Plymouth PL4 8AA, England, [email protected]
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Extract

Pre-Bronze Age human impacts on the East Mediterranean environment have been hard to detect in pollen diagrams and other off-site contexts. New evidence shows that despite a relatively rapid post-glacial wetting-up of the climate, the re-advance of oak woodland across Southwest Asia was slow. Among the factors likely to have contributed to the apparent disjunction between climate and vegetation is Neolithic landscape management, particularly through regular use of late-season ground fires to encourage grasses at the expense of trees and shrubs.

Keywords

Neolithiclandscapepollen analysisfireSouthwest Asia
Type
Papers
Information
Antiquity , Volume 76 , Issue 294 , December 2002 , pp. 1002 - 1010
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2002

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