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Mixing geoarchaeology, geohistory and ethnology to reconstruct landscape changes on the longue durée

Ninon Blond(author)

Chapter of: The Field Guide to Mixing Social and Biophysical Methods in Environmental Research(pp. 403–424)

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Title	Mixing geoarchaeology, geohistory and ethnology to reconstruct landscape changes on the longue durée
Contributor	Ninon Blond(author)
DOI	https://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0418.20
Landing page	https://www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647/obp.0418/chapters/10.11647/obp.0418.20
License	https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Copyright	Ninon Blond;
Publisher	Open Book Publishers
Published on	2025-02-25
Long abstract	This chapter uses a combination of quantitative and qualitative social and biophysical methods to characterise socio-environmental changes over the Holocene. Based on a regressive approach, this work gathers data with varying granularity, precision and resolution from sources that are as different as radiocarbon dating, sediment analyses, travellers' accounts, aerial photographs and interviews with contemporary populations. Borrowing methods from geomorphology, palaeoenvironments, palaeoclimatology and geohistory, ethnology, and human geography leads to a holistic and systemic approach, considering all aspects of an issue to leave as few grey areas as possible. There are challenges to this approach, the biggest being to assemble diverse data and produce a coherent discourse on environmental history. To illustrate the “recipe” of this approach, its replicability and limits, the chapter focuses on two study sites (Ethiopia and Greece), while also pointing to some particularities of sites in Egypt, Sudan and Oman.
Page range	pp. 403–424
Print length	22 pages
Language	English (Original)

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Contributors

Ninon Blond

(author)

Maîtresse de Conférences in Geography at École Normale Supérieure de Lyon

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0149-0975

References

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This chapter uses a combination of quantitative and qualitative social and biophysical methods to characterise socio-environmental changes over the Holocene. Based on a regressive approach, this work gathers data with varying granularity, precision and resolution from sources that are as different as radiocarbon dating, sediment analyses, travellers' accounts, aerial photographs and interviews with contemporary populations. Borrowing methods from geomorphology, palaeoenvironments, palaeoclimatology and geohistory, ethnology, and human geography leads to a holistic and systemic approach, considering all aspects of an issue to leave as few grey areas as possible. There are challenges to this approach, the biggest being to assemble diverse data and produce a coherent discourse on environmental history. To illustrate the “recipe” of this approach, its replicability and limits, the chapter focuses on two study sites (Ethiopia and Greece), while also pointing to some particularities of sites in Egypt, Sudan and Oman.