Human Ecology in the Wadi Al-Hasa: Land Use and Abandonment Through the Holocene

Abstract

Review: Human Ecology in the Wadi Al-Hasa: Land Use and Abandonment Through the Holocene By J. Brett Hill Reviewed by A.M. Mannion University of Reading, UK Hill, J. Brett. Human Ecology in the Wadi Al-Hasa. Land Use and Abandonment Through the Holocene. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2006. 194pp. ISBN: 9738-0-8165-2502-7. Hardcover. Alkaline paper. $US45. How, where, why and when are the major questions which archaeologists and environmentalists attempt to address when dealing with ancient settlement sites. Rarely are straight answers forthcoming but there still are areas that offer evidence of repeated settlement and abandonment during the last 10,000 years. This warm stage is known as the Holocene; it followed the last cold stage of the Quaternary period when sea-levels were considerably lower than at present and when ice sheets covered large parts of the middle and high latitudes. This was also a time of tremendous change in human communities. Populations were expanding from ice age refugia to re-people Europe and Eurasia, and those in the Near East were beginning to domesticate specific plants and animals and shift from being hunter-gatherers to becoming farmers or to practice a combination of the two. The Wadi al-Hasa, a canyon draining the Transjordan Plateau, provides a range of ancient sites in varied environments and elevations, data that underpin the reconstruction documented in Hill's book. This is a tale of dynamic socio-economic, political and environmental change; humans and climate have played major roles in landscape alteration that began with Neolithic communities c. 10,000 years ago. Many small settlements of a few hundred people at most became established; they practiced subsistence agriculture, growing crops such as wheat and barley, as well as hunting. Hill posits a non-centralized, mostly individual decision-making system in the area that was conducive to good land management, though there is evidence of erosion. Non-human instigated change accompanied a shift in climate from monsoon-type to Mediterranean-type. The subsequent Chalcolithic period was dominated by pastoralism, to reduce impact on arable land, and by the rise of chiefdoms. By c.5000 years ago the Bronze Age was underway; urbanism spread and walled cities were constructed; crop agriculture, including tree cropping, predominated; there is evidence for intensified deforestation. Such activities continue through the later Bronze Age but by c.3200 years ago, the start of the Iron Age, major changes were beginning to gain momentum, notably large-scale settlement and a political hierarchy with centres of power and evidence of interference by neighbouring Mesopotamian regions. On the agricultural front expansion occurred, camels were domesticated, terracing commenced and nomadism once again became important. The Hellenistic and Nabatean periods were characterized by sedentism and economic stability; agricultural production increased to produce a surplus mainly through improved water management. …