Malinsky-Buller et al_Bir el-Maksur_NL2-09

Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 2011

Archaeological Journal, 2014

Environmental Archaeology: Current Theoretical and Methodological Approaches, 2018

In December 1998, I organised a session as part of the Theoretical Archaeological Group (TAG) conference held in Birmingham, England. It was entitled 'Environmental archaeology: Meaning and Purpose'. Having spent most of my career up to that point as a practitioner of what I had become used to regard as a branch of archaeology, I was feeling increasingly constrained by it. I felt an urgent need to stimulate a debate on the issue-what is environmental archaeology, and is it really of any use? The session generated interest beyond my imagination! Throughout the day the room was packed with people, many forced to sit on the floor, and others were not even able to enter the room. Several excellent papers were presented, and the discussion was lively and, at times, even rather fierce. The proceedings of the session were eventually published (Albarella 2001), though the book was unfortunately put on the market by the publisher Kluwer at an extravagantly high price, which limited its distribution. Nonetheless, it does seem to have left a mark, however small, and the interest in the topic seems to have been rekindled in recent years. Ben Gearey, Suzi Richer, Seren Griffiths and Michelle Farrell organised a session at TAG (Bradford) in 2015 to celebrate the 15th year of publication of the book. The session, entitled ' "Humming with cross fire and short on cover…" Revisiting and reflecting on Environmental Archaeology: Meaning and Purpose', featured a few of the original contributors but also many new researchers. Then there is this book, edited by Evangelia Pişkin, Arek Marciniak and Marta Bartkowiak, which has a different ethos, but also revisits some of that debate. Predictably, the parameters of the discussion have changed in the last 15 years, though not as much as one might have expected. New elements have emerged, some of the old problems appear to have been partly resolved, but quite a few sticking points of the past have proven to be resilient. Pişkin and Bartkowiak provide a valuable

What does this have to do with Archaeology? Essays on the Occasion of the 65th Birthday of Reinhard Bernbeck, 2023

Ecology and Society, 2011

In this synthesis, we hope to accomplish two things: 1) reflect on how the analysis of the new archaeological cases presented in this special feature adds to previous case studies by revisiting a set of propositions reported in a 2006 special feature, and 2) reflect on four main ideas that are more specific to the archaeological cases: i) societal choices are influenced by robustness-vulnerability trade-offs, ii) there is interplay between robustness-vulnerability trade-offs and robustness-performance trade-offs, iii) societies often get locked in to particular strategies, and iv) multiple positive feedbacks escalate the perceived cost of societal change. We then discuss whether these lock-in traps can be prevented or whether the risks associated with them can be mitigated. We conclude by highlighting how these long-term historical studies can help us to understand current society, societal practices, and the nexus between ecology and society.

in Shifting Ground: People, Animals, and Mobility in India's Environmental History, 2014

Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 2006