The archaeology of drylands : living at the margin / / edited by Graeme Barker and David Gilbertson

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910829169903321
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: London, : Routledge, 2000
• ISBN: 1-134-58264-1; 1-134-58265-X; 0-415-23001-2; 1-280-02108-X; 9786610021086; 0-203-16573-X
• Edizione: [1st ed.]
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (xxviii, 372 pages) : illustrations, maps
• Collana: One world archaeology ; ; 39
• Altri autori (Persone): BarkerGraeme; GilbertsonD. D
• Disciplina: 930.1
• Soggetti: Social archaeology; Landscape archaeology; Human ecology; Deserts - History; Land settlement - History; Land settlement patterns, Prehistoric - History; Arid regions agriculture - Social aspects - History; Climatic changes - History; Climatic changes
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Description based upon print version of record.
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references and index.
• Nota di contenuto: Book Cover; Half-Title; Title; Copyright; Contents; Figures; Tables; Contributors; Foreword; Preface; Part I INTRODUCTION; 1 Living at the margin: themes in the archaeology of drylands; 2 The dynamic climatology of drylands; Part II SOUTHWEST AND CENTRAL ASIA; 3 The decline of desert agriculture: a view from the classical period Negev; 4 Farmers, herders and miners in the Wadi Faynan, southern Jordan: a 10,000-year landscape archaeology; 5 Differing strategies for water supply and farming in the Syrian Black Desert; 6 Irrigation agriculture in Central Asia: a long-term perspective from Turkmenistan; Part III SAHARA AND SAHEL; 7 Conquests and land degradation in the eastern Maghreb during classical antiquity and the Middle Ages; 8 Success, longevity and failure of arid-land agriculture: Romano-Libyan floodwater farming in the Tripolitanian pre-desert; 9 Twelve thousand years of human adaptation in Fezzan (Libyan Sahara); 10 Farming and famine: subsistence strategies in Highland Ethiopia; Part IV EASTERN AND SOUTHERN AFRICA; 11 Engaruka: farming by irrigation in Maasailand c.AD 1400-1700; 12 The agricultural landscape of the Nyanga area of Zimbabwe; 13 Fifteenth-century agropastoral responses to a disequilibrial ecosystem in southeastern Botswana; 14 Islands of intensive agriculture in African drylands: towards an explanatory framework; Part V NORTH AND CENTRAL AMERICA; 15 Prehistoric agriculture and anthropogenic ecology of the North American Southwest; 16 The role of maguey in the Mesoamerican tierra fría: ethnographic, historic and archaeological perspectives; Part VI EUROPE; 17 Traditional irrigation systems in dryland Switzerland; 18 Desertification, land degradation and land abandonment in the Rhône valley, France; Index
• Sommario/riassunto: Many dryland regions contain archaeological remains which suggest that there must have been intensive phases of settlement in what now seem to be dry and degraded environments. This book discusses successes and failures of past land use and settlement in drylands, and contributes to wider debates about desertification and the sustainability of dryland settlement.