Source: https://penntoday.upenn.edu/news/sas-anthropology-holocene-land-use-transitions
Relevance: Archaeology Paper 1 and 2
How humans use land—whether through agriculture, deforestation, or urbanization has transformed our planet in powerful ways. But to truly understand the long-term impacts of these activities, we must look to the past. That’s exactly what a team of international researchers, including archaeologists from the School of Arts & Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania, set out to do.
This team is part of the PAGES LandCover6K working group, which started in 2014. Their goal is to reconstruct patterns of human land use and land cover over the last 12,000 years. In a recent study published in PLOS One, they presented the first major synthesis of archaeological evidence on how people used land in South Asia during two key time periods—12,000 years ago (early Holocene) and 6,000 years ago (mid-Holocene).
What Did They Find?
The researchers discovered that for most of this time, people in South Asia were mainly engaged in hunting, gathering, fishing, and foraging. These practices varied from place to place but continued to dominate land use for thousands of years. Around 6,000 years ago, they began to notice shifts—there was more use of coastal resources, changes in how forests were used, and the emergence of agriculture. However, this agricultural development was not widespread. It appeared in small, scattered regions rather than across the entire subcontinent.
According to Kathleen Morrison, co-lead author of the paper and Professor of Anthropology at Penn, the extent of agriculture around 6,000 years ago was quite limited, even though agriculture had appeared as early as 9,000 years ago in what is now Pakistan.
Why Does This Matter?
This study is important because it highlights how humans have adapted to South Asia’s diverse landscapes and environments over long periods. Understanding this helps researchers build better climate models by including more accurate data about how humans used land in the past.
Morrison notes that there is less evidence of land use 12,000 years ago than for some earlier periods. This could be because of how archaeological artifacts are classified or because people moved away from places they had previously lived. Nonetheless, the study helps fill in critical gaps in our knowledge.
The Research Process
The study relied on landscape archaeology, which combines various types of evidence like:
- Animal bones to understand domestication
- Plant remains to study farming practices
- Irrigation canals to examine water use in agriculture
Other team members from Penn include Jennifer Bates, now an assistant professor at Seoul University, who was a postdoc in Morrison’s lab, Austin Chad Hill, an expert in spatial analysis, and Emily Hammer, who specializes in digital humanities and ancient cultures.
The researchers emphasize that South Asia is a key region for this kind of research because it has a long history of human occupation and is currently home to over a billion people.
The Bigger Picture
The LandCover6K group completed its official work in 2021 but continues to publish findings. Their project focused on three areas: land use, land cover, and modeling. One of the challenges the group faced was creating a system to compare land use across different regions and time periods. This led to a new classification system published in 2021.
Morrison explains that some regions, like Bangladesh, had fewer radiocarbon dates, which made it harder to analyze data. So, the team developed new strategies to handle these challenges and ensure consistency in the study.
What’s Next?
Morrison and her colleagues are now studying the last 5,000 years of environmental history in Karnataka, a state in South India. They are working with the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) at the site of Brahmagiri, where early signs of agriculture were found. This ongoing research will involve analyzing plant and animal remains and exploring the ruins of ancient villages, towns, and cities.
The team is also helping Indian scholars by offering training in new research methods and developing partnerships between the Penn Museum and ASI to support further collaboration.