Sustaining ourselves is one of the major preoccupations of humankind; hence, the invention of agriculture and herding animals.
A "field system" generally refers to the innovative prehistoric and historic agricultural programs with elements such as raised fields, irrigation ditches, and the use of natural fertilizers.
The harvest of tasty and calorie-rich pine nuts in the mountains of the American southwest has been going on for nearly 10,000 years; and I think I can guess why.
An experimental archaeology project in Bolivia, using ancient farming techniques, has raised more than just corn, beans, and squash.
Band-e Dukhtar is an irrigation works located in the Anatolian plain and likely dated to the Achaemenid dynasty.
from your About.com guide, a relatively extensive list of recent references to the studies of farming and herding.
An extensive bibliography of agriculture in archaeology, divided into three parts. Part 1: Mary J. Adair through Elisabeth Hildebrand
An updated bibliography of agriculture in archaeology, part 2, including writers from Gordon Hillman through Marek Zvelebil
An exhibit of Greco-Roman subsistence patterns at the Kelsey Museum, by University of Michigan undergraduate students.
In Floods, Famines, and Emperors: El Niņo and the Fate of Civilizations, Brian Fagan proposes climate change as a major determinant of cultural change; specifically, the climatic phenomena known collectively as ENSO--the El Niņo Southern Oscillation.
A bibliography of horticulture and gardening, from an archaeological perspective
This book makes an interesting contrast to El Niņo and the Fate of Civilizations. What Redman's book does is put the human actor at the forefront, detailing the impacts that human actions have had on the environment in the past 10,000 years, at least.
A web page dedicated to the 14th annual congress, including poster papers, abstracts, and discussion on paleodiet.
Pastoralism is the name given to the way of life in which people herd animals.
A terrific introduction by Dennis O'Neil to the various methods people make and have made a living, including articles and links on foraging, pastoralism, horticulture and intensive agriculture.
Archaeologists use the term 'seasonality' to mean the part of a year a particular activity takes place.
Sedentism is the term archaeologists use to describe the process of settling down.
One of the core concepts of the study of archaeology is settlement pattern studies.
Subsistence, to an archaeologist anyway, refers to the suite of behaviors that humans use to feed themselves.
Archaeologists call the late prehistoric farming communities of the American Midwest "The Oneota", but the name really encompasses a number of tribes. Who were the Oneota and where did they come from?
The ecology of the American prairie was radically changed by the introduction of the brick and tile industry; an introduction that has had a great impact on archaeological sites and may engender a misunderstanding of the ecology of prehistoric region.
