L’environnement de l’Afrique dans l’Antiquité. Climat et société, un état de la question
The development of radiometric dating by 14C, and the lowering of its costs, have helped integrate the time scales of the history of natural environments and those of human societies. The « heritagization » of cultural landscapes by UNESCO have rendered landscapes a subject of interdisciplinary stud...
Gespeichert in:
| 1. Verfasser: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Sprache: | Français |
| Veröffentlicht: |
2016
|
| Schlagworte: | |
| Online Zugang: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Zusammenfassung: | The development of radiometric dating by 14C, and the lowering of its costs, have helped integrate the time scales of the history of natural environments and those of human societies. The « heritagization » of cultural landscapes by UNESCO have rendered landscapes a subject of interdisciplinary study; combining the sciences of nature and society. It leads them to develop a perspective that overcomes the notion of degradation articulated by naturalists to that of human impact. The purpose of this article is to show that this approach contributes to the question of the role North African societies from the Roman era in changing their environments. These people were seen as being more important than climate in driving environmental degradation. However, during the past two decades, geoarchaeology and Environmental Geosciences (dating tools, sedimentary analysis) established the succession of two phases: a more humid stage – 2nd century BC to 3rd century AD; a dryer stage aridification beginning in the 4th century. Developing a consideration of the drought that has been identified for 125-128 years, the author offers a review of the state of the questions regarding the relationship between climate and societies in Roman Africa. It is based on data provided by texts as well as archaeological sources and contrasts them with environmental research (palaeoecology, geomorphology, climatology). The author considers the relationship between weather events (droughts, floods) and the management of urban water resources (aqueducts) and rural (irrigation, cultivation techniques, construction of terraces). |
|---|