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Abstract
In archaeology, palaeo-ecological studies are frequently used to support archaeological investigations, but linking and synthesizing datasets and concepts from ecology, ethnography, earth sciences, and archaeology has historically been rare. While advances in computational approaches and standards of data collection have enabled more collaborative approaches to understanding the past, these endeavors are only now beginning to pick up pace. Here, we propose a method to collect data of these assorted types, synthesize ecological and archaeological understanding, and move beyond subsistence-focused studies to those that incorporate multifaceted economies. We advocate for the use of ‘human-centered interaction networks’ as a tool to synthesize and better understand the role of culture, ecology, and environment in the long-term evolution of socio-ecological systems. We advance the study of human-centered interaction networks by presenting an archaeoecological (archaeological-ecological) perspective on the Neolithic transition of the Swifterbant culture in the northwestern Netherlands (approximately 4700–4000 BCE). We employed network science to better understand the relationships of animal and plant species to the uses that people made of them. The analysis of the Swifterbant system reveals a highly connected set of interactions among people, plants, and animals, as could be expected on the basis of the hypothesis of an ‘extended broad-spectrum economy’. Importantly, this broad spectrum extends beyond the subsistence sphere.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 4860 |
Pages (from-to) | 1-19 |
Number of pages | 19 |
Journal | Applied Sciences (Switzerland) |
Volume | 11 |
Issue number | 11 |
Early online date | 25 May 2021 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Jun 2021 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Funding: This research was supported by a grant from the Coalition for Archaeological Synthesis (CfAS), and was developed with support from the Santa Fe Institute and the Quadra Centre for Coastal Dialogue and the Tula Foundation.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
Copyright:
Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
Funding
Funding: This research was supported by a grant from the Coalition for Archaeological Synthesis (CfAS), and was developed with support from the Santa Fe Institute and the Quadra Centre for Coastal Dialogue and the Tula Foundation.
Keywords
- Archaeoecology
- Human-centered interaction networks
- Network analysis
- Swifterbant culture
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- 1 Active
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The ArchaeoEcology Project
Crabtree, S. A. (Principal Investigator), Dunne, J. A. (Principal Investigator) & Verhagen, P. (Project Researcher)
15/10/18 → …
Project: Research
Activities
- 1 Expert meeting
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Working Group Meeting ArchaeoEcology Project
Verhagen, P. (Participant)
7 Oct 2019 → 11 Oct 2019Activity: Participating in or organising an event › Expert meeting › Academic