Rethinking the Agrarian Transition through the lens of long-term history of subsistence strategies and use of energy and resources in Cantabrian Spain
Authors: Martinez Alexandre , Kluiving Sjoerd , Muñoz-Rojas José , Borja Barrera César , Fraile Jurado Pablo 
Published: March 2022

&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;Human-triggered climate change&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt; is widely &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;acknowledged&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt; as a &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;salient&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt; challenge to &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;societal sustainability and welfare&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;Yet, o&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;ur understanding of how human social systems &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;may react to&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt; future &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;change scenarios&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt; remains &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;largely &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;incomplete. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;However, human societies are the result of a long history of changes and adaptations to c&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;hanging&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt; climate&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;s&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt; and environment&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;s&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;U&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;nderstand&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;ing&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span&gt;how&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span&gt;individuals&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt; and their cultures have &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;reacted and adapted to environmental changes over history and what effects these changes have had on landscapes could help us to more effectively design transition strategies towards low carbon societies&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;Hunter-gatherer societies in Cantabrian Spain b&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;etween&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt; the Last Glacial Maximum (ca. 20,000 BP) a&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;nd&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt; the Agricultural Revolution during the Mid Holocene (ca. 6,000 BP) &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;evolved within a context of strong climate and environmental changes, as well as through societal changes via the adoption of a sedentary economy&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;Energy Regimes is a time-independent and functional theoretical and analytical tool of past societies, useful to identify and document past transitions&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;Statistical tests and analyses w&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;ere&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt; used on archaeological data to document p&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;roxies such as d&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;emography, mobility, &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;societal &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;complexity, economy and overexploitation. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;The results w&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;ere&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt; interpreted in the framework of Energy Regimes &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;to better understand the changes and adaptation of human societies &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;leading to the Agricultural Revolution a&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;nd beyond in&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt; the context of changing environment and climate. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;Finally, &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;quantification of energy use &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;was&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt; extrapolated from the data and &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;compared to the framework of social-metabolism, a quantitative approach &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;similar to Energy Regime&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;s&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;This work is part of the TERRANOVA programme. TERRANOVA is a Marie S&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;k&amp;#322;odowska-Curie Innovative Training Networks (H2020-MSCA-ITN) project between Humanities and Science, &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;which&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span&gt;aims to map&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt; past environments and energy regimes, a&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;nd to rethink&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt; human-environment interaction and designing land management tools for policy.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;