Mapping past human land use using archaeological data: A new classification for global land use synthesis and data harmonization
Creators: name: Morrison, Kathleen D.
name: Hammer, Emily
name: Boles, Oliver
name: Madella, Marco
name: Whitehouse, Nicola
name: Gaillard, Marie-Jose
name: Bates, Jennifer
name: Vander Linden, Marc
name: Merlo, Stefania
name: Yao, Alice
name: Popova, Laura
name: Hill, Austin Chad
name: Antolin, Ferran
name: Bauer, Andrew
name: Biagetti, Stefano
name: Bishop, Rosie R.
name: Buckland, Phillip
name: Cruz, Pablo
name: Dreslerová, Dagmar
name: Dusseldorp, Gerrit
name: Ellis, Erle
name: Filipovic, Dragana
name: Foster, Thomas
name: Hannaford, Matthew J.
name: Harrison, Sandy P.
name: Hazarika, Manjil
name: Herold, Hajnalka
name: Hilpert, Johanna
name: Kaplan, Jed O.
name: Kay, Andrea
name: Klein Goldewijk, Kees
name: Kolář, Jan
name: Kyazike, Elizabeth
name: Laabs, Julian
name: Lancelotti, Carla
name: Lane, Paul
name: Lawrence, Dan
name: Lewis, Krista
name: Lombardo, Umberto
name: Lucarini, Giulio
name: Arroyo-Kalin, Manuel
name: Marchant, Rob
name: Mayle, Francis
name: McClatchie, Meriel
name: McLeester, Madeleine
name: Mooney, Scott
name: Moskal-Del Hoyo, Magdalena
name: Navarrete, Vanessa
name: Ndiema, Emmanuel
name: Góes Neves, Eduardo
name: Nowak, Marek
name: Out, Welmoed A.
name: Petrie, Cameron
name: Phelps, Leanne N.
name: Pinke, Zsolt
name: Rostain, Stéphen
name: Russell, Thembi
name: Sluyter, Andrew
name: Styring, Amy K.
name: Tamanaha, Eduardo
name: Thomas, Evert
name: Veerasamy, Selvakumar
name: Welton, Lynn
name: Zanon, Marco
Publisher: name: Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository
Year: 2021
Subjects: subject: Research Article
subject: Earth sciences
subject: Social sciences
subject: FOS: Social sciences
subject: FOS: Social sciences
subject: Biology and life sciences
subject: Research and analysis methods

description: In the 12,000 years preceding the Industrial Revolution, human activities led to significant changes in land cover, plant and animal distributions, surface hydrology, and biochemical cycles. Earth system models suggest that this anthropogenic land cover change influenced regional and global climate. However, the representation of past land use in earth system models is currently oversimplified. As a result, there are large uncertainties in the current understanding of the past and current state of the earth system. In order to improve representation of the variety and scale of impacts that past land use had on the earth system, a global effort is underway to aggregate and synthesize archaeological and historical evidence of land use systems. Here we present a simple, hierarchical classification of land use systems designed to be used with archaeological and historical data at a global scale and a schema of codes that identify land use practices common to a range of systems, both implemented in a geospatial database. The classification scheme and database resulted from an extensive process of consultation with researchers worldwide. Our scheme is designed to deliver consistent, empirically robust data for the improvement of land use models, while simultaneously allowing for a comparative, detailed mapping of land use relevant to the needs of historical scholars. To illustrate the benefits of the classification scheme and methods for mapping historical land use, we apply it to Mesopotamia and Arabia at 6 kya (c. 4000 BCE). The scheme will be used to describe land use by the Past Global Changes (PAGES) LandCover6k working group, an international project comprised of archaeologists, historians, geographers, paleoecologists, and modelers. Beyond this, the scheme has a wide utility for creating a common language between research and policy communities, linking archaeologists with climate modelers, biodiversity conservation workers and initiatives.