Archaeological Landscape Evolution: The Mariana Islands in the Asia-Pacific Region

Authors: Carson, Mike T.
Provides a particularly high-resolution and long-term view of the complexities of landscape evolution
Shows how archaeology is uniquely suited to provide substantive case studies on how people have related with their changing environments and landscapes over hundreds or even thousands of years
Explores the question: What can we as human beings learn about our role in shaping our landscapes and being shaped by them

Landscapes have been fundamental to the human experience world-wide and throughout time, yet how did we as human beings evolve or co-evolve with our landscapes? By answering this question, we can understand our place in the complex, ever-changing world that we inhabit.
This book guides readers on a journey through the concurrent processes of change in an integrated natural-cultural history of a landscape. While outlining the general principles for global application, a richly illustrated case is offered through the Mariana Islands in the northwest tropical Pacific and furthermore situated in a larger Asia-Pacific context for a full comprehension of landscape evolution at variable scales. The author examines what happened during the first time when human beings encountered the world’s Remote Oceanic environment in the Mariana Islands about 3500 years ago, followed by a continuous sequence of changing sea level, climate, water resources, forest composition, human population growth, and social dynamics. This book provides a high-resolution and long-term view of the complexities of landscape evolution that affect all of us today.

Number of Illustrations and Tables
113 b/w illustrations
Topics
Archaeology
Landscape Ecology
Environmental Management

Click Here to Buy the Hardcover from Springer



Click Here for More books