Man, Myth, and Magic (Group 2)

The papers in this volume revisit one of the concerns which dominated environmental archaeology through the 1960s and 1970s, namely the timing, nature and extent of human impact on the environment. The thirteen contributions reflect the diversity of approaches and ideas today and show how our understanding of the place of people in ecosystems is now more subtle. There are papers on palynological evidence from the Strymon Delta in Macedonia; prehistoric copper mining at Mount Gabriel, Ireland; fungal spores as anthropogenic indicators on Shetland; prehistoric human impact on the prehistoric environments of Orkney, North York Moors and the Mid-Devon landscape; mites as indicators of human impact in the Netherlands; the disappearance of Elmid 'Riffle Beetles' from lowland river systems in Britain; and case studies from further afield: palaeoenvironmental reconstruction in the Central Mexican Highlands; food plant availability in the Murchison Basin, Western Australia, prior to European arrival and Paleoindian expansion into South America.