Marsh, AL; (2015) Domesticating the mountains: The palaeoecology of changing resource management during the Mid- to early Late Holocene in southeast Anatolia and Kurdish Iraq. Doctoral thesis , UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

This thesis sets out to answer three questions using the primary datasets of sedimentary and phytolith evidence. The questions relate to how local environmental change can be seen in these datasets, how resource and land use can be discerned in the sedimentary and phytolith records and finally, how these datasets can be used to elucidate on human modification of the environment and subsequent ecological and cultural inheritances using the framework of cultural niche construction. In addition, a new protocol for establishing land surfaces in offsite samples and differentiating been regional and local phytolith signals is also introduced. On and offsite samples were taken from two sites, Hirbemerdon Tepe in southeastern Anatolia and Bakr Awa in Iraqi Kurdistan. The thesis concludes that the combination of the two methods provides an effective way to understand local environmental change, resource and land use. It also shows that, despite drawbacks of using offsite data, which may be fragmentary at times, sedimentary and phytolith evidence can be used to understand and describe human modification of the environment and should be considered when addressing questions about the human environment- relationship, using the cultural niche construction approach. Finally, although the land surface protocol needs much refinement, it shows much promise as a tool for understanding environmental and vegetation change as well as resource and land use.

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