Most of the chapters in this edited volume present results from the CEDRE research project that focused on investigations into the development of landscape-management practices in Lebanon. A number of other regions are also considered, including studies from the Alps, Spain and Delos. The approaches and themes include the use of ancient texts, geoarchaeology and landscape archaeology within a framework that assesses risk mitigation and the development of different forms of landscape, or environmental technologies, such as terracing.
After a detailed introduction, the first chapter considers the ancient Egyptian perception of the Lebanese mountains and the economic importance of cedar found therein. Chadefaud provides an interesting diachronic assessment of how Egypt assimilated a range of Lebanese horticultural practices—a discussion facilitated by useful illustrative material. This is followed by Khalil's analysis of communication networks from the Hellenistic to Mamluk periods. Focusing on the upper Chouf region (Lebanon), we hear about sites with Hellenistic pottery, located as high as 1300m asl. The importance of protohistoric routes running from the coast to the Beqaa plain is one of Khalil's key themes.
Chapters by Shaban et el. and Abdallah et al. provide the results of landscape archaeology projects in the Nahr Ibrahim catchment (western Lebanon) that integrate archaeological and geological/geomorphological data via the use of GIS. Here, the nature of human exploitation of mountain slopes and the mitigation of associated environmental problems is an important topic, and the authors are careful to consider the intersection with socio-economic processes. Shaban et al. use desktop studies of remote-sensing imagery, maps and aerial photographs to inform their analysis of natural risks. One key mitigation process in these ‘risky’ environments is the creation of hydraulic structures and terraces, a theme pursued by Abdallah et al. who employ GIS to model rockfalls in the Nahr Ibrahim area. Their study reveals the causes of rock-slides and the importance of human impact.
The following chapters present the results of the CEDRE project itself. Harfouche et al. detail the background to, and framework for, this collaboration. This chapter includes a useful diachronic overview of the archaeology of the study area. The (geo)archaeological investigation of terrace systems reveals an interesting story of landscape mitigation strategies. It might be argued that one of the most important messages here, and from other sections of this volume, concerns the importance of geoarchaeology, where the soil is considered the key archive of human activity. The discussion at the end of these chapters successfully combines empirical evidence and informed notions of socio-environmental systems.
The subsequent three papers address issues relating to forest history and management. Khater et al. assess the history of climatic and anthropogenic influences on the forest. This is followed with a discussion by Harfouche and colleagues of the development and exploitation of the forest. This includes references to a range of Mesopotamian, Egyptian and Roman sources. We hear of the preference for certain species, such as cedar and cypress, and the fact that Hadrianic inscriptions suggest management of these species. Darwich et al. then discuss the risk of forest fire via the use of remote sensing/cartography, concluding that human activity is a key driver. The absence of charcoal/micro-charcoal analysis from Holocene-length deposits, however, prevents the testing of this hypothesis—especially significant as studies from other parts of the Mediterranean suggest that biomass is the key factor.
We then change region, moving to Delos, where Poupet presents a geoarchaeological study of the agricultural landscape. Beyond the unsupported suggestion that Mesolithic agro-pastoralists might have settled the island, this chapter comprises an extensive historiography of archaeological, environmental and agronomic research on the island, followed by a study of landscape management, focusing on terracing and hydraulic works.
Dubuis's contribution on agronomists and water management between Antiquity and the Renaissance introduces a new geographic area, with brief examples of the use and management of water in the Alps. Trabelsi pursues this topic in a study of Byzantine-Arab water usage—this fascinating paper covers a range of themes, from domestic and medicinal uses of water through to the discovery and management of water in the landscape. Kirchner's paper considers the management of water in Andalusia. This is one of the highlights of this volume as Kirchner presents a detailed overview of hydraulic engineering, with some useful diagrams followed by a case study that considers the social character of water distribution. Reynard and Dubuis's presentation of the bisses (irrigation canals) in the Valais (Switzerland) is a valuable assessment of these systems, which supplied water to areas that have relatively low rainfall (compared with many areas in the western-central Alps).
Moving to a Roman landscape study in north-west Spain, Orejas and Ruiz del Árbol examine the use of water in the mining process, as well as evidence for the management of the agricultural landscape via terracing. As with other papers in the latter part of this volume, this contribution provides a clear exposition of field data within an interesting interpretive framework that assesses the relationship between mining and the requirement for an associated and managed agricultural landscape. Moving slightly to the east, Harfouche presents evidence for different phases of activity at high altitude in the Pyrenees. Situated within an informative discussion of the evolution of human exploitation of Pyrenean landscapes, she presents evidence of Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age and Roman soil horizons. This allows her to critique, justifiably, the presupposition of a Roman absence from these areas.
The final paper, by Asins-Velis and Romero-Gonzalez, is in some ways a logical conclusion to the collection as a whole in that it addresses the issue of public politics and terrace-based agriculture in the European Union.
Overall, this useful volume provides a detailed account of original fieldwork in landscapes that are poorly understood. In some ways, this is an eclectic mix of papers, and the logic of the relationships constructed by their sequence is sometimes unclear. Despite this, much of the new fieldwork presented here is founded on strong empirical research. In some places, however, academic citation is poor—for example, we are told that the notion that acidification at 3200 BP was responsible for famine is a thesis widespread among ‘Anglo-Saxon’ (presumably Anglophone) scholars, but only two citations are provided, including one from 1982. This is one of a number of places where vague critical reference is made to a set of ‘Anglo-Saxon’ ideas with little supporting citation. These impressionistic sideswipes are neither illuminating nor useful, and detract from what is otherwise a valuable and well-illustrated contribution to the study of Mediterranean upland landscapes.
