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Cited by 217Archaeology and ancient environmental studiesSoil and Environmental StudiesAmazonian Archaeology and Ethnohistory

ARCHAEOLOGY AND GLOBAL CHANGE: The Holocene Record

Kirch, Patrick V.·2005·Annual Review of Environment and Resources
DOI 10.1146/annurev.energy.29.102403.140700
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Abstract

▪ Abstract Although human-induced changes to the global environment and natural biotic resources, collectively labeled “global change” and the “biodiversity crisis,” have accelerated with industrialization over the past 300 years, such changes have a much longer history. Particularly since the rise of agriculturally based societies and associated population expansion during the early Holocene, humans have had cumulative and often irreversible impacts on natural landscapes and biotic resources worldwide. Archaeologists, often working closely with natural scientists in interdisciplinary projects, have accumulated a large body of empirical evidence documenting such changes as deforestation, spread of savannahs, increased rates of erosion, permanent rearrangements of landscapes for agriculture, resource depression and depletion (and in many cases, extinction) in prehistory. In some areas and time periods, environmental change led to long-term negative consequences for regional human populations, whereas in other cases, changes favored intensification of production and increased population sizes. Drawing upon case studies from North America, Mesoamerica, the Mediterranean, Near East, India, Australia, and the Pacific Islands, the diversity of types of prehistoric human-induced environmental change is assessed, along with the kinds of empirical evidence that support these interpretations. These findings have important implications both for the understanding of long-term human socioeconomic and political changes and for ecologists who need to assess current environmental dynamics in the context of longer-term environmental history.

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Crossref · 10.1146/annurev.energy.29.102403.140700

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159 of 159 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

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  • Direct human alteration of terrestrial ecosystems by hunting, foraging, land clearing, agriculture, and other activities has been profound in some regions at least since the late Pleistocene.

    “Broad evidence from archaeology, paleoecology, environmental history, and other disciplines suggests that direct human alteration of terrestrial ecosystems by hunting, foraging, land clearing, agriculture, and other activities has been profound in some regions at least since the late Pleistocene”

    From Used planet: a global history (2013) · cites this paper as [14]

  • The relationship between any given population and the productivity of its land-use systems is dynamic and responsive not only to demographic forcing but also to social and economic processes regulating resource demand, land availability, technology adoption and availability, environmental variation, and the potential for intensive use of land to degrade its potential productivity over time.

    “the relationship between any given population and the productivity of its land-use systems is dynamic and responsive not only to demographic forcing but also to the social and economic processes regulating resource demand, land availability, technology adoption and availability, environmental variation, and the potential for intensive use of land to degrade its potential productivity over time (14”

    From Used planet: a global history (2013) · cites this paper as [14]

  • Early anthropogenic changes have long-term impacts including forest clearing, increased fire frequencies, megafaunal extinctions, species invasions, and soil erosion.

    “with long-term impacts from forest clearing, increased fire frequencies, megafaunal extinctions, species invasions, soil erosion, and others (13, 14)”

    From Used planet: a global history (2013) · cites this paper as [14]

  • Boserup's theory inspired a wide array of intensification theories across archaeology, anthropology, geography, development studies, economics, environmental history, and other disciplines and has been extended to include land tenure, social institutions, market forces, and nonagricultural populations.

    “Boserup’s theory inspired a wide array of intensification theories across archaeology (14), anthropology (38), geography (39), development studies (40), economics, environmental history, and other disciplines and has been extended to include land tenure and other social institutions, market forces, and nonagricultural populations (39, 41, 42).”

    From Used planet: a global history (2013) · cites this paper as [14]

  • An increasing number of archaeological studies demonstrate that human hunter-gatherers modify environments for their own benefit by processes consistent with the general model of land-use intensification.

    “An increasing number of archaeological studies demonstrate that human hunter-gatherers modify environments for their own benefit by processes consistent with our general model of land-use intensification (14).”

    From Used planet: a global history (2013) · cites this paper as [14]

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Authors
Kirch, P. V.
Affiliations
University of California, Berkeley (US)
Corresponding author
Kirch, Patrick V.
ORCID
Kirch, Patrick V.
Venue
Annual Review of Environment and Resources
Publisher
Annual Reviews
Published
2005-11-21
Volume
30
Issue
1
Pages
409-440
ISSN
  • 1543-5938 (ISSN-L)
  • 1545-2050
DOI
10.1146/annurev.energy.29.102403.140700
OpenAlex
W2085869278
Cited by
217
References
159
Citations by year
2026: 8 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 15 · 2020: 9 · 2019: 8 · 2018: 13 · 2017: 12 · 2016: 7 · 2015: 11 · 2014: 15 · 2013: 21 · 2012: 13
FWCI
0.70
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
Annual Review of Environment and Resources (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Archaeology and ancient environmental studies
  • Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Soil Science › Soil and Environmental Studies
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › History › Amazonian Archaeology and Ethnohistory
Keywords
global change, Holocene, anthropogenic environmental change, savannah expansion, soil erosion, agricultural landscape transformation, resource depletion, environmental history, biodiversity crisis, human population growth

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