A niche construction approach on the central Netherlands covering the last 220,000years.

Don F A M Van Den Biggelaar,Sjoerd J Kluiving

doi:10.1007/s12685-015-0141-y

Don F A M Van Den Biggelaar, Sjoerd J Kluiving

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/s12685-015-0141-y

Copy DOI

Journal: Water history	Publication Date: Aug 29, 2015
Citations: 14	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Cultural Heritage Agency of Netherlands

Abstract

This paper shows what a niche construction theory (NCT) approach can contribute to the long-term social and environmental history of an area when applied to both sedentary and non-sedentary communities. To understand how communities create and respond to environmental change, hominin presence of the central Netherlands within the last 220,000 years is used as a case study. For this case study we studied the interrelationship between hominins, water and landscape gradients for four periods of interest within this long-term hominin presence. During each of these periods the study area had a specific environmental setting and (possible) traces of hominin presence. These periods cover the (1) Middle to Late Saalian (~220–170 ka), (2) Late Glacial (~14.7–11.7 ka, (3) Mid-Holocene (6000–5400 BP) and (4) Late Holocene (1200–8 BP). This review shows that traces of niche construction behaviour related to water and landscape gradients in the central Netherlands can be shown for both sedentary and non-sedentary communities. Furthermore, in this review it is shown that the transition from inceptive to counteractive change in ecosystem management style in the central Netherlands took place between the Mid- and Late Holocene periods.

Highlights

In the Netherlands there is a long-lasting tradition of living and struggling with the threat of water
This paper shows what a niche construction theory (NCT) approach can contribute to the long-term social and environmental history of an area when applied to both sedentary and non-sedentary communities
For this case study we studied the interrelationship between hominins, water and landscape gradients for four periods of interest within this long-term hominin presence

Summary

Introduction

In the Netherlands there is a long-lasting tradition of living and struggling with the threat of water. As a response to the relative sea level rise, embankments were constructed at the former island Schokland in the northern part of Flevoland since *750 BP (750 years before present (with present defined as AD 1950)) (Fig. 2) to protect its inhabitants against the increasing influence of the North Sea (Hogestijn 1992; Van der Heide and Wiggers 1954) This example of human-induced landscape transformation from Flevoland shows that organisms have the capacity to change their environment (for other examples see Hansell 1984; Jones et al 1994, 1997, Laland et al 1999, 1996; Lewontin 1983; Odling-Smee 1988; Odling-Smee et al 1996), a process referred to as ‘niche construction’(Laland et al 1999, 1996; Odling-Smee 1988; Odling-Smee et al 1996). Apart from shaping their environment an organism-induced modification can change other agents’ selective environment (Laland et al 1999, 1996; Laland and Sterelny 2006; Odling-Smee et al 2003)

Objectives

Discussion

Conclusion