Agroforestry: Environmental Archaeological Approaches

Introduction

Agroforestry, the deliberate incorporation of trees in farming systems, is a very widespread practice with many variants, some of them presumably ancient. Archaeological investigation of these systems requires multidisciplinary research across disparate temporal and spatial scales, combining archaeobotanical, paleoecological, and ethnobotanical studies and focusing on agroecosystems rather than their individual constituents. The recent increase in such studies is part of a growing awareness of the intricacies of past human impacts on environments and of the diverse and complex histories of farming. Recognition of the biodiversity and variability of management practices in traditional agricultural systems has begun to stimulate revised models of the trajectories of peopled landscapes. New research questions in archaeology are supported by an expanding array of analytical techniques which draw on a wide range of sciences including molecular biology, genetics, chemistry,...