Reconstructing Human-Landscape Interactions demonstrates the high quality of work presented at the first Developing International Geoarchaeology conference (DIG 2005), held in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada, and exemplifies the over-riding theme of this discipline. People have always used the landscape in many ways: as a place to live, as a place to grow crops, as a source of natural resources. Those actions leave their traces. The characteristics of the landscape constrain which activities are possible, just as social and cultural habits condition people’s connection with the environment. Geoarchaeology is about finding the traces of these interactions, and using them to reconstruct how people in the past behaved in their environmental context. The material covered in the proceedings ranges from broad themes of climate change and landscape use, to more specific subjects such as river avulsion and the use of tidal ponds. The papers move us from the land to the coastal margin and back onto land to examine particular techniques. The final paper leads us beyond archaeology and points out that geoarchaeological data must contribute to the debate about the sustainability of present-day land-use practices: a fitting challenge to take us into the future.

The Holocene is unique when compared to earlier geological time in that humans begin to alter and manipulate the natural environment to their own needs. Domestication of crops and animals and the resultant intensification of agriculture lead to profound changes in the impact humans have on the environment. Conversely, as human populations began to increase geologic and climatic factors begin to have a greater impact on civilizations. To understand and reconstruct the complex interplay between humans and the environment over the past ten thousand years requires examination of multiple differing but interconnected aspects of the environment and involves geomorphology, paleoecology, geoarchaeology and paleoclimatology. These Springer Briefs volumes examine the dynamic interplay between humans and the natural environment as reconstructed by the many and varied sub-fields of the Earth Sciences.

Human impact on our environment is not a new phenomenon. For millennia, humans have been coping with - or provoking - environmental change. We have exploited, extracted, over-used, but also in many cases nurtured, the resources that the geosphere offers. Geoarchaeology studies the traces of human interactions with the geosphere and provides the key to recognizing landscape and environmental change, human impacts and the effects of environmental change on human societies. This collection of papers from around the world includes case studies and broader reviews covering the time period since before modern human beings came into existence up until the present day. To understand ourselves, we need to understand that our world is constantly changing, and that change is dynamic and complex. Geoarchaeology provides an inclusive and long-term view of human-geosphere interactions and serves as a valuable aid to those who try to determine sustainable policies for the future.

The Holocene is unique when compared to earlier geological time in that humans begin to alter and manipulate the natural environment to their own needs. Domestication of crops and animals and the resultant intensification of agriculture lead to profound changes in the impact humans have on the environment. Conversely, as human populations began to increase geologic and climatic factors begin to have a greater impact on civilizations. To understand and reconstruct the complex interplay between humans and the environment over the past ten thousand years requires examination of multiple differing but interconnected aspects of the environment and involves geomorphology, paleoecology, geoarchaeology and paleoclimatology. These Springer Briefs volumes examine the dynamic interplay between humans and the natural environment as reconstructed by the many and varied sub-fields of the Earth Sciences.

Contents include: Introduction ( K Walsh ); Palynology ( S Bottema ); A database for the palynological recording of human activity ( V Andrieu, E Brugiapaglia, R Cheddadi, M Reille and J-L de Beaulieu ); The contribution of anthracology ( J-L Vernet ); Dendroclimatology ( F Guibal ); Techniques in Landscape Archaeology ( A G Brown ); L'apport de la micromorphologie des sols ( N Fédoroff ); Reconstructing past soil environments ( R S Shiel ); The Geochemistry of Soil Sediments ( D D Gilbertson and J P Grattam ); Searching the Ports of Troy ( E Zanagger, M Timpson, S Yazvenko and H Leiermann ); The pontine region in central Italy ( P Attema, J Delvigne and B J Haagsma ); Population pressure on agricultural resources in Karstic landscapes ( P Novacovic, H Simoni and B Music ); La Pianura padana centrale tra il Bronzo Medio ed il Bronzo finale ( M Cremaschi ); The ancient ports of Marseille and Fos, Provence, southern France ( C Vella, C Morhange and M Provansal ); The evolution of field systems in the middle Rhône valley ( J-F Berger and C Jung ); La línea de Costa en época histórica en el Golfo de Valencia ( P Carmona ); The Vallée des Baux, Southern France ( P Leveau ); The étang de Berre, southern France ( F Trément ); Geoarchaeology in mediterranean landscape archaeology ( G Barker and J Bintliff ).