BOOK REVIEW

I.P. Martini and W. Chesworth (eds.): Landscapesand Societies. Selected Cases, 1st Edition

Springer, New York, USA, 2011, XVII, 478 pp., 200 illus. Hardcover,ISBN- 978-90-481-9412-4, US$179.00

Kimberly E. Medley

Received: 10 March 2012 / Accepted: 24 March 2012 / Published online: 18 April 2012

� Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2012

Adaptation by societies is a continual process that

relates to the physical-environmental setting and shows

profound effects on landscapes over time. The editors

of this book compile a multidisciplinary collection of

case studies that examine human and environment

relationships over different time periods, and focus

particularly on how adaptive behaviors change in

response to environmental change. Together, these

cases show the significant contributions of geo-arche-

ology and history to studies of adaptation. Landscapes

are dynamic and the societies that shape them come

and go.

The organization of the book might at first seem

confusing. The editors define two parts in the preface

with a geographic focus on societies in the Mediter-

ranean region and from ‘‘other parts of the world.’’ The

chapters, however, are actually organized into six parts

to include an Introduction (Part I, 3 chapters), the Arid

Mediterranean Lands (II, 6), Warm-Temperate Med-

iterranean Lands (III, 6), Cool Temperate European

Lands (IV, 3), South and East Asia (4, V), and Central

and North America (VI, 3). Martini and Chesworth

provide an introductory synopsis of the cases, which

explore societal changes from before the onset of

agriculture in the Neolithic (10,000–12,000 BP),

through the Copper, Bronze and Iron Ages, and to

the present (Chapter 1). Their book challenges the

reader to compare among different complex chronol-

ogies. Chesworth follows with some key definitions (2)

and a review of human history (3). Their introduction

supports a more critical look at sustainability through

the study of human-environment adaptive behaviors,

but their emphasis is on the negative outcomes of land

conversion, land degradation, and land-use intensifi-

cation toward the creation of an Anthropocene. Homo

sapiens act as a geologic force and their effects over

space and time are exploitative. Chesworth states that

‘‘the human species has been adapted to the needs of

short-term interests and is itself inherently unsustain-

able’’ (p. 23).

The case studies that follow, however, go beyond

any simplistic interpretation of landscapes and soci-

etal decline, to elaborate on a diversity of physical-

environmental settings and human adaptive behaviors.

Part I, with its focus on Arid Mediterranean Lands,

includes the emergence of western civilization in

Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the Near East. Most striking

are variable but definite trends in the Holocene toward

greater drought frequency and a more arid climate.

Brooks uses paleoenvironmental and archeological

records to show significant climatic change at 5200 BP

that marks the end of the Holocene optimum, and

stratigraphic sequences presented by Cremashi and

Zerboni for the central Sahara, Brookfield for Egyp-

tian civilization along the Nile, and Goudie and Parker

for SE Arabia demonstrate its consequent effects

on concentrating human settlements, intensifying

K. E. Medley (&)

Department of Geography, Miami University, Oxford,

OH 45056, USA

e-mail: medleyke@muohio.edu

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DOI 10.1007/s10980-012-9738-z

agricultural systems, and elaborating the structure of

societies. Hunt and el-Rishi then show consequent

processes of environmental decline in these concen-

trated settlements through Bronze Age metal-smelting

in SW Jordan, and Wilkinson documents the com-

bined negative effects of local and extra-local pres-

sures on marginal lands in the Northern Fertile

Crescent from 1000 BC to 1000 AD.

Part III on the Warm-Temperate Mediterranean

lands and Part IV on the Cool-Temperate European

Lands support the interpretation of heterogeneous

landscapes over time as humans settle and adapt to the

complex physiography of these regions and a diversity

of physical-site conditions. Three cases show the

profound impact of a 120 m post-glacial rise in ocean

levels, resulting in the submergence of some coastal

societies and certainly distinct changes in settlement

patterns in Neolithic to Classical Greece (Fouache and

Pavlopoulos), a less indented coastal Mediterranean

(Morhange and Marriner), and sophisticated adapta-

tions over time by early to present societies in the

Netherlands (Jungerius). Moreover, the case studies

provide detailed examples to show how humans adapt

to and impact diverse topographic settings in Sardinia,

Italy (Depalmas and Melis), the Medieval and Early

Renaissance cities of Pisa, Florence and Siena, Italy

(Martini et al.), and the Romanian Carpathians (Cioaca

and Dinu). Of particular interest is how humans adapt

to hazards such as dynamic river hydrology in Tuscan,

Central Italy (Benvenuti), and volcanic activity at Mt.

Etna, Sicily (Chester et al.) and on Iceland (Thordar-

son). These case studies provide clear support for the

capacity of humans to adapt to a diversity of physical-

site conditions and persist in those settings, even when

marginal, over short and long time periods.

Part V on South and East Asia and VI on Central

and North America broaden the geographic breadth of

Landscape and Societies and contribute to the depth of

its geo-archeological and historical inquiry. Mo et al.

for the Neolithic cultures in China and Barnes in her

examination of landscapes and subsistence in Japan

report evidence to support a deep history of interaction

between societies and the environment. These cases

and particularly a third one by Dharmasena for Sri

Lanka demonstrate the importance of human technol-

ogy in water management as it can support rice

production and agricultural intensification. Dunning

and Beach, in their research summary for the Maya in

Central America, also validate how humans used

technological developments to support their agricul-

tural systems, manage water, and better ensure the

sustainability or recovery of cultivations systems,

while the study by Wohl on the 1820s ‘‘Water Rush’’

in Colorado shows how complex management systems

can also promote environmental degradation. The

inclusion of the paper by Sallares on disease and

Austronesian expansion is unique among the book’s

cases in that it examines how the adaptive traits of one

culture to a place can facilitate its expansion to other

places through a detailed history that shows the spread

of the Lapita cultural complex from SE China and

Taiwan (its linguistic origin) to the South Pacific

islands and even to Madagascar. The final case study

by Park for the frozen lands of North America is

perhaps the only one that might question the localized

occurrence of an Anthropocene. The arctic landscape

was humanized before the sinking of the Beringia land

bridge between 11,000 and 8500 BP, but in this setting

the Inuit have survived over millennia mostly through

their creative ability to maintain a sensitive and

sustainable relationship with resources in a harsh

environment.

Landscapes and Societies would be a valuable book

for students and scholars who want to better under-

stand the processes of societal and landscape change

through an integrative analysis of the physical envi-

ronment and human activities over time. Dynamics is

a fundamental ecological attribute of landscapes and

societies can be a profound force. The strengths of the

text are in how each case study addresses interesting

questions and describes and/or employs diverse and

important tools for their investigation. The application

of geo-archeological techniques such as the strati-

graphic profiles in relation to archeological records

provides exposure to a diverse portfolio of tools and

their potential applications. The weaknesses of the

book relate to its proposed contribution to sustainabil-

ity, and particularly sustainable planning for current

environmental change. The introductory critique

places most of its emphasis on negative change,

guiding the reader only to that outcome in their

interpretation of each case study. One can only wonder

what examples of effective sustainable management

can be derived from these and other cases, if only over

the short term, that can even more effectively guide

plans for the future.

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