Precolonial land-use

Question 1

What characterizes the origins of agriculture in pre-colonial times?

Answer 1

Agriculture emerged as an evolutionary process influenced by climate change
- Began independently in multiple regions worldwide.
- Archaeological evidence shows a slow transition from foraging to farming, not a sudden revolution.

Timeline:
- ~12,500 years ago: First cultivation of wild plants, likely starting with specialized foraging.
- ~9,500 years ago: Development of first agricultural economies.
- ~5,000 years ago: Emergence of first states, cities, and writing systems.
- Until 1600 AD, most societies were not purely agricultural but mixed economies.

Question 2

How did early agriculture affect human health according to Neolithic evidence?

Answer 2

Led to:
- Less physical work but greater fertility and population growth due to surplus food.
- More sedentary lifestyles and higher population densities.

Negative health impacts seen in human skeletons include:
- Increased infectious diseases (due to pop density, senetary lifestyle with stored food = rodents)
- Serious nutrient deficiencies from redcuced diet diversity, soil depletion

Question 3

What does Ethnography reveal about modern hunter-gatherers?

Answer 3

• Hunter gatherers work 4-10 hrs per day (foraging, food processing, toolmaking, childcare)
• They choose a mixture of hunting, foraging, pastoralism and cultivation

Question 4

How did the transition from the Pleistocene to Holocene enable the beginning of agriculture?

Answer 4

• Pleistocene greater climate variability and low, unpredictable plant productivity → made specializing on few crops impossible
• People had tools and knowledge but relied on broad-spectrum nomadic gathering to buffer environmental changes
• Deglaciation led to higher CO2, more stable climate, and predictable rainfall in the Holocene
• = increased plant productivity, allowing specialization on a narrower range of species
• Positive feedback between sedentism, intensified food production, and population growth enabled agriculture to take off

Question 5

How does pop. growth related to environmental productivity influence the origins of agriculture according to archaeological models?

Answer 5

Agricultural origins linked to population growth driven by rising environmental productivity
- Stat model examines how population densities in modern foraging societies vary by environment, geography, and culture
- Model applied to archaeological data to test hypotheses about when/where agriculture began

Findings:population growth under improving environmental conditions preceded agriculture origins in all geographic centers

= Agriculture began during times of plenty, not times of hardship

Question 6

What evidence supports the Early Anthropocene hypothesis, and how does it redefine the start of the Anthropocene based on ancient human behaviors?

Answer 6

= Anthropocene may begin at the start of the Holocene, not just industrial era (Ruddiman et al., 2015)

Ice core evidence:
- GHGs like CO2 increased from 7,000 to 1,000 years ago.
- Deforestation linked to CO2 rise, especially from 3,000 years ago.

Key idea:
- Anthropocene defined by human behavioral capacity to intentionally modify ecosystems (ecosystem engineering), not just environmental outcomes.

Agriculture origins:
- Around the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary, humans began managing ecosystems to increase key species.

Suggests Holocene could be redefined as Anthropocene based on early large-scale ecosystem engineering.

Question 7

Give an example that shows why its important not to romanticize past societies

Answer 7

• Fossil record shows Polynesian colonization of Pacific Islands coincided with extinctions of seabirds and flightless birds.
• Population sizes of 4 Moa species stable for 4,000 years before Polynesian people first settled in New Zealand in the 13th century

Question 8

Give an example of indigenous land practice informing modern practice

Answer 8

‘Cool burning’ by Aboriginals: controlled, low-intensity fires, early in the dry season, to reduce fuel buildup mitigating the risk of larger more destructive fires later in the season

Question 9

How are past irrigation systems inspiring modern agriculture?

Answer 9

• Qanat network of underground canals linked to the water table.
• Gravity fed – no pumping from aquifers, sustainable water-use.
  e.g. Iran, Oman, China starting from 3,000 yrs ago.
• Some being restored for use in modern agriculture.

Question 10

How are archeological dark soils inspring modern agriculture?

Answer 10

**Ancient soils with organic matter = high nutrient and water holding capacities **
- Created by adding charcoal, domestic waste, bone, manure, algae and animal penning
- E.g Terra Preta (Brazil) starting >2,000 yrs ago
- E.g Plaggen soils (Europe) starting 3,000 yrs ago.
- Modern interest in biochar

Question 11

How can raised field agriculture in wetlands inform modern agriculture?

Answer 11

• Method in pre-Columbian Americas e.g 1 mil ha raised fields in seasonally flooded tropical savannas of Bolivian Amazon
• Labour intensive method to improve soil drainage, airation, fertility and moisture retention during dry season
• Equivalent practice today in Congo Basin wetlands
• Cut grass applied as manure to improve fertility
• Mitigates flood risk, allowing cassava to be harvested when needed

Question 12

Describe the impacts of past climate change on indigenous agricultural societies in Amazonia

Answer 12

(This is pre-euro colonisation - Amazon was v diverse socially and politically)

• Societies with social hierarchies & intensive raised-field agriculture → vulnerable to climate change (and colonisation)
• Decentralized societies practicing polycultures of trees (agroforestry) + crops on Terra Preta soils (fertile anthropogenic black soil) were more resilient
• Resilience linked to decentralized social organization and cropping diversity