Knowledge about the environment during the Pleistocene is still quite limited, especially as Environmental Archaeology is only recently participating in this exploration. All the branches of Archaeobotany are involved and, amongst others, the main ones being Palynology, Palaeoethnobotany and Wood studies. Each branch brings in a different source of information, in as much as, all and each one separately, contributes, in different and complementary ways, to the understanding of the environment of Prehistoric man. The area of exploration is not only understanding what was the vegetation like, but also grasping what was man’s behaviour in and towards that environment and how the dialogue between man and the environment evolved through time. This study has used, mainly, published pollen data and the Palaeoethnobotanical investigation of Franchthi cave in Argolid. Our knowledge about the flora of the Pleistocene is still far from complete. There is a great need for studying more thoroughly radio-carbon dated pollen samples and involve all branches of Environmental Archaeology, in order not only to understand the vegetation succession between and within glacials, interglacials and interstadials, but also to conceive how man interacted with his environment through space and time.
The Environment During the Pleistocene Period: Plants of Nature
14 Aug 2012
by Archaeology Newsroom
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