Environmental history of European high mountains

Didier Galop (1) , Norm Catto (2)

1 GEODE - Géographie de l'environnement
2 Department of Geography, Memorial University of Newfoundland

This volume brings together 16 papers which investigate various aspects of high mountain areas, primarily in Europe. Dietre et al. investigated the influence of settlement in the Silv-retta Alps, Switzerland/Austria. Festi et al. combined an extensive archaeological survey and pollen analyses in the high altitudes of the € Otztal Alps to elucidate the palaeo-environmental and past cultural implications that triggered the onset and development of seasonal transhumance and alpine summer farming. Branch and Marini analyzed radiocarbon-dated palaeoecologi-cal records from the upland zone of the northern Apennines spanning the Mid-Late Holocene (last 7000 years) to detect anthropogenic impact. Walsh et al. investigated the nature of humaneenvironment interactions in the southern Ecrins, French Alps from the Mesolithic to the Post-Medieval Period. Py et al. investigated the effect of silverelead mining in the upper Durance valley of the French Southern Alps, using an archaeological , palynological, geochemical, anthracological and dendrochronological studies. Lopez Saez et al. present a review of the available Holocene pollen records from the Spanish Central System. Countrasts Bog, Mont Loz ere medium mountain, was the subject of an interdisciplinary study by Servera Vives et al., combining mul-tiproxy analyses which includes pollen, non-pollen palynomorphs (NPP), macrocharcoal particles, sedimentology geochemistry, archaeological and archaeobotanical data. Orengo et al. conducted a multidisciplinary micro-regional landscape research project in the Madriu-Perafita-Claror valleys of the Eastern Pyrenees, Andorra. Martín et al. identified carnivore consumption in Holocene horizons of El Mirador Cave, Sierra de Atapuerca, Spain, including domestic dogs, wild cats, badgers, and foxes.García-Medrano et al. analyzed the oldest Acheulean lithic assemblages from the Galería site, dated to ca. 503 ± 95 ka, to produce a detailed technological characterization of the earliest Acheulean presence in Atapuerca.Navazo and Carbonell undertook an archaeological survey in Sierra de Atapuerca. Oliva et al. integrate and summarize all the studies focused on the reconstruction of the palaeoenvironmental history in the Sierra Nevada of Spain since the Last Glaciation.Jurickova et al. investigated the Holocene mollusc and vertebrate fauna of the Sudetes Mountains. Zebre and Stepisnik investigated Pleistocene glaciations in the Dinaric Alps. Ebrahimi and Seif undertook morphometric analysis using DEM on the main cirque-like features in the Zardkuh Mountains, central Zagros Mountain Range, Iran.Alexandrowicz et al. conducted detailedmalacological analysis on calcareous tufa occurring in the Podhale Basin, Carpathians, southern Poland.

Mots clés: Environmental history; high mountains; palynology; archaeology; silver-lead mining; glaciation; Europe

Domaines: Géographie

Didier Galop, Norm Catto. Environmental history of European high mountains. Quaternary International, 2014, 353, pp.1-2. ⟨10.1016/j.quaint.2014.10.040⟩. ⟨hal-01187620⟩