Landscapes of Movement Along the (Pre)Historical Libyan Sea: Keys for a Socio-Ecological History

Abstract

This study examines the influence of Human Ecodynamics and Historical Ecology to understand the complexities of historical mobility. Based on Landscape Archaeology, this study considers some of these theoretical principles for studying and reconstructing the movements of past human populations. This discussion is grounded on the example of a research project focused on modelling movement and interaction patterns between the Aegean area (Crete) and northeastern African region (Marmarica) from the Late Bronze to Roman times. The project works with multivariate data representative of the routes and non-human factors that may interplay in biocultural processes. Three key aspects structure this article: (1) the emergence of Human Ecodynamics and Historical Ecology in archaeology, (2) their impact on the theoretical evolution of Landscape Archaeology, and (3) the methodological implementation of these principles through a case study. We specifically discuss the strengths of Human Ecodynamics and Historical Ecology to enhance the conceptualisation of mobility by considering the heterarchical interrelationships between human and non-human agents. Our methodological implementations showcase this by using computational approaches to model human pathways influenced by and in constant relationship with their environment. This research thus highlights the importance of transdisciplinary approaches to studying historical mobility from an archaeological and complex systems perspective.

Keywords

• human ecodynamics
• historical ecology
• landscape archaeology
• past movements
• complex systems theory
• eastern mediterranean