0000000000341270
AUTHOR
Rainer Schreg
The Palaeoanthropocene – The beginnings of anthropogenic environmental change
Abstract As efforts to recognize the Anthropocene as a new epoch of geological time are mounting, the controversial debate about the time of its beginning continues. Here, we suggest the term Palaeoanthropocene for the period between the first, barely recognizable, anthropogenic environmental changes and the industrial revolution when anthropogenically induced changes of climate, land use and biodiversity began to increase very rapidly. The concept of the Palaeoanthropocene recognizes that humans are an integral part of the Earth system rather than merely an external forcing factor. The delineation of the beginning of the Palaeoanthropocene will require an increase in the understanding and …
Linking Quarry and Settlement on the Swabian Alb, Southern Germany
International audience; Beginning in the Early Neolithic Period (or LBK) and increasingly in the Middle and Later Neolithic periods (a transition spanning about 5,000-2,300 B.C.) in Europe, considerable energy was invested in quarrying and miningchert and flint for tool production. Acquisition of stone combined local sources with regional transport. Chipped stone was used in everyday activities and for objects that likely played a special role in exchange networks. Linkages between quarries and surrounding landscapes thus can shed light on patterns of travel, work, and trade at local and regional scales. Archaeologists are rarely able to link quarries and settlements in a detailed analysis.…
An imperial town in a time of transition. Life, environment, and decline of early Byzantine Caričin Grad
The site of Caricin Grad in south-eastern Serbia – currently listed on UNESCO’s tentative list – has been the subject of archaeological investigations for more than 100 years. For the last decades it has been the focus of a joint project of the Archaeological Institute in Belgrade and the Ecole Francaise de Rome. A reconstruction of the economic, environmental and social history of the city is the main objective of a cooperative project started in 2014 with the Romisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum Mainz. The remains of the early Byzantine complex of Caricin Grad show the features of a city built in the classical, Hellenistic-Roman tradition, combined with ecclesiastical Christian architecture…