The Cultural Landscape: Past, Present and Future

by Hilary H. Birks, H. J. B. Birks, Peter Emil Kaland, Dagfinn Moe

Overview

The Cultural Landscape - Past, Present and Future considers different aspects of man's intervention with natural vegetation and the landscape resulting from a long equilibrium of co-existence. These landscapes are not stable, and the recent and ever accelerating changes in technology and life-style have increasingly affected many ancient landscapes, as old land-use practices are abandoned and traditions forgotten. The papers in this book describe and trace the development of cultural landscapes in different climatic and biogeographical regions in Europe. Remnants of traditional land-use still remaining are described, particularly from Western Norway, where traditions have lingered because the rugged topography of the region is inimicable to high-technology. Each chapter is by an expert in the field. The topics cover the documentation of present cultural landscapes, their maintenance and restoration, and the history of the development of cultural landscapes from the Stone Age onwards, linking the intensity of landscape utilization with population dynamics and technological attainments. The disciplines involved include vegetation science, vegetation history, ecology, palaeoecology, archaeology, sociology, geography and history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521617031
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	12/16/2004
Pages:	540
Product dimensions:	7.48(w) x 9.72(h) x 1.18(d)

Table of Contents

Part I. Present and Future; Part II. Past; Part III. Abstracts.

Editorial Reviews

Proceedings of a symposium held in western Norway, July 1986. More than 50 contributions consider the reconstruction and historical development of past northern European cultural landscapes from pollen- analytical, archaeological, place name and other data sources; the present-day ecology and management of different cultural landscapes; and the preservation, maintenance and conservation of different cultural landscapes in the future. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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