The transition from natural to anthropogenic-dominated environmental change in Italy and the surrounding regions since the Neolithic: An introduction

摘要

The Holocene has witnessed the transition from nature-dominated to human-dominated shaping of Earth landscape and its atmosphere (Messerli et al., 2000). This switch has been neither regionally homogenous nor necessarily progressive. The expansion of European populations over the new worlds, for instance, has had impressive impact on landscape and vegetation which, in some cases, was hardly comparable with the impact of native populations (Crosby, 1986). The debate fuelled by Ruddiman's hypothesis (2003, 2007) has given new impetus to the discussion about global warming starting from the possibility of an early human impact on atmosphere composition trough development of agriculture and deforestation. In any case, this hypothesis has amplified the attention to the matter, which indicates, if any, the progressive awareness that human impact on the landscape was locally severe since the Neolithic.