DOI: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2012.11.002
Scopus记录号: 2-s2.0-84870931561
论文题名: Environmental indifference? A critique of environmentally deterministic theories of peatland archaeological site construction in Ireland
作者: Plunkett G. ; McDermott C. ; Swindles G.T. ; Brown D.M.
刊名: Quaternary Science Reviews
ISSN: 2773791
出版年: 2013
卷: 61 起始页码: 17
结束页码: 31
语种: 英语
英文关键词: Environmental determinism
; Environmental impact
; Holocene climate change
; Ireland
; Peatland archaeology
; Summed probability functions
Scopus关键词: Environmental determinism
; Holocene climate change
; Ireland
; Peatland
; Probability functions
; Architecture
; Climate change
; Environmental impact
; Wetlands
; academic research
; archaeological evidence
; correlation
; dendrochronology
; historical record
; paleoclimate
; paleoenvironment
; peatland
; prehistoric
; Ireland
英文摘要: Climate change, whether gradual or sudden, has frequently been invoked as a causal factor to explain many aspects of cultural change during the prehistoric and early historic periods. Critiquing such theories has often proven difficult, not least because of the imprecise dating of many aspects of the palaeoclimate or archaeological records and the difficulties of merging the two strands of research. Here we consider one example of the archaeological record - peatland site construction in Ireland - which has previously been interpreted in terms of social response to climate change and examine whether close scrutiny of the archaeological and palaeoenvironmental records upholds the climatically deterministic hypotheses. We evaluate evidence for phasing in the temporal distribution of trackways and related sites in Irish peatlands, of which more than 3500 examples have been recorded, through the examination of ∼350 dendrochronological and 14C dates from these structures. The role of climate change in influencing when such sites were constructed is assessed by comparing visually and statistically the frequency of sites over the last 4500 years with well-dated, multiproxy climate reconstructions from Irish peatlands. We demonstrate that national patterns of "peatland activity" exist that indicate that the construction of sites in bogs was neither a constant nor random phenomenon. Phases of activity (i.e. periods in which the number of structures increased), as well as the 'lulls' that separate them, show no consistent correlation with periods of wetter or drier conditions on the bogs, suggesting that the impetus for the start or cessation of such activity was not climatically-determined. We propose that trigger(s) for peatland site construction in Ireland must instead also be sought within the wider, contemporary social background. Perhaps not surprisingly, a comparison with archaeological and palynological evidence shows that peatland activity tends to occur at times of more expansive settlement and land-use, suggesting that the bogs were used when the landscape was being more widely occupied. Interestingly, the lulls in peatland site construction coincide with transitional points between nominal archaeological phases, typically defined on the basis of their material culture, implying that there may indeed have been a cultural discontinuity at these times. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. Citation statistics:
资源类型: 期刊论文
标识符: http://119.78.100.158/handle/2HF3EXSE/60728
Appears in Collections: 过去全球变化的重建
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作者单位: School of Geography, Archaeology and Palaeoecology, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast BT7 1NN, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom; School of Archaeology, University College Dublin, Newman Building, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland; School of Geography, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, England, United Kingdom
Recommended Citation:
Plunkett G.,McDermott C.,Swindles G.T.,et al. Environmental indifference? A critique of environmentally deterministic theories of peatland archaeological site construction in Ireland[J]. Quaternary Science Reviews,2013-01-01,61