Landscapes and Societies Selected Cases
This book contains case histories intended to show how societies and landscapes interact. The range of interest stretches from the small groups of the earliest Neolithic, through Bronze and Iron Age civilizations, to modern nation states. The coexistence
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Siena: Details of the fresco (1338–39) by Ambrogio Lorenzetti painted inside the Palazzo Pubblico (City Hall of Siena). The fresco shows the effects of ‘good government’ in town (upper large part) and in the countryside (lower left), and during ‘bad government’ in the countryside (lower right).
I. Peter Martini • Ward Chesworth Editors
Landscapes and Societies Selected Cases
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Editors I. Peter Martini Ward Chesworth University of Guelph School of Environmental Sciences Axelrod Building N1G 2W1 Guelph, Ontario Canada [email protected] [email protected]
ISBN: 978-90-481-9412-4 e-ISBN: 978-90-481-9413-1 DOI: 10.1007/978-90-481-9413-1 Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg London New York Library of Congress Control Number: 2010937238 © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010 No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Cover illustrations: Views of landscapes and traces of human activities through time. Main upper frame: downtown Florence with (a) on the left (book spine) the fortress-like Town Hall (Palazzo Vecchio) built by the architect Arnolfo di Cambio between 1299 and 1304, and (b) in the center, the cathedral (Duomo) built between 1296 and 1436, designed by Arnolfo di Cambio, with the famous dome (cupola) engineered by Filippo Brunellechi, and the bell tower built between 1334 and 1359 to the design of Giotto di Bondone. Lower frames from left to right: (1) The Wadi Afar cave occupied in early Holocene, Acacus Mountains, Western Lybia desert; (2) The Roman Dam at Harbaqa in central Syria; (3) Terraced upper river valley with village on adjoining hillside, AsukaTanada, Japan (the ‘tanada’ are watered from a diverted mountain stream); (4) Reclaimed land from the North Sea: artificial seaward shift of the coastline south of the Hague, The Netherlands Cover design: deblik, Berlin Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)
Dedicated with love to our children—the next generation – Anthony and Lisa Martini and Aaron, Delia, Iona and Amanda Chesworth.
Anthony died suddenly at 45 in 2008. He was responsible for bringing the editors together on this book.
Preface
Relationships between societies and environments have spawned an extensive literature going back at least to Plato. Some fundamental concepts crop up repeatedly, yet individual societies have their idiosyncrasies in adapting to or in modifying their environments to meet their needs. Collateral damage is a constant accompaniment to our modifications. History shows that a relationship between society and landscape that proved successful in one era, may fail at a later time. Because of factors such as climate, economics, politica
