Abstract
Current debates around the Anthropocene tend to focus on recent planetary-scale processes. However, regional and small-scale processes can be very telling about human agency in the shaping of landscapes overtime. Indeed, anthropogenic impacts of different intensities can be observed on landscapes since Prehistory – even in such remote and allegedly marginal areas as deserts, wetlands or mountains. In this article, I reflect on the long-term anthropization of alpine and subalpine areas in the western area of the Cantabrian Mountains (North-West of Iberia) in Later Prehistory. Studying the earlier anthropogenic pressure on upland environs in this period reminds us of the potential of landscape archaeology to enhance interdisciplinarity in debates about the Anthropocene. With the aim of emphasizing the role of archaeology as a mediating arena between social sciences, humanities and earth sciences, I analyse the scarce archaeological information available for upland landscapes of this study area to show how these datasets can nuance evolutionary interpretations of paleo-environmental sequences studied at natural deposits. Only through integrated and comprehensive discussions around the cultural and environmental traits of landscapes will we be able to fully understand the complex social contexts where agrarian labour and collective action shaped the alpine and subalpine areas in the Cantabrian Mountains since the spread of the Neolithic.
Highlights
During the 35th International Geological Congress (2016) held at Cape Town (South Africa), the Anthropocene was accepted as a new geological era, as proposed by the ‘Working Group on the Anthropocene’ within the International Commission on Stratigraphy
The concept gained enormous momentum in science, its use spreading from geologists, bio-scientists and geographers to scholars within different branches of the social sciences and humanities, including archaeology
What contribution could archaeologists make to this ongoing loud conversation, and what can we learn from it? Human communities have mediated in the evolution of landscapes as a result of the long-term impact caused by productive activities such as pastoralism, agriculture, forestry, mining, hunting and gathering
Summary
During the 35th International Geological Congress (2016) held at Cape Town (South Africa), the Anthropocene was accepted as a new geological era, as proposed by the ‘Working Group on the Anthropocene’ within the International Commission on Stratigraphy. (http://quaternary.stratigraphy.org/working-groups/anthropocene/, last access: 14/08/2018). Human communities have mediated in the evolution of landscapes as a result of the long-term impact caused by productive activities such as pastoralism, agriculture, forestry, mining, hunting and gathering These subsistence strategies aimed at granting social reproduction are tightly related to different societies’ particular political, religious or cultural traits (Criado-Boado, 1993; Ingold, 1993). Reflecting on the archaeological research of cultural landscapes in NW Iberia during Later Prehistory, I will analyse how (allegedly) ‘marginal’ or ‘liminal’ landscapes –such as alpine and subalpine environments in the western area of the Cantabrian Mountains– have been shaped by diverse human agencies throughout history Some of these changes were deep and sudden, resulting in enduring transformations. Would it be useful in our particular study area to distinguish the impact of the Anthropocene as a discrete process, disregarding when that process began? Or should we skip that simplistic view and focus instead on the political, cultural and productive contexts that frame interrelations between human groups and their surrounding environs in the longue durée?
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