Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Tribes, States and Landscapes: Social Structure, Land Use, and Ecological Sustainability in Islamic Iberia

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The proposed research focuses on human-environment interactions and specifically the ways social organization affects human impacts on the environment at the scale of centuries. The Islamic period in Iberia (A.D. 711-1492) provides an ideal setting for this investigation. Al-Andalus, the Islamic state, was structured differently than the feudal systems in the rest of Western Europe. Changes in political and economic systems at the beginning, during, and at the end of the Islamic period allow for additional comparisons of the ecological impacts associated with different social systems. The study area in southeastern Portugal is susceptible to degradation and the climate has been relatively stable for two millennia, facilitating study of human modification of the environment. The research consists of three phases. The first was to document changes through time in the intensity and organization of agrarian land use. A site survey was completed in a 64 km2 area, complementing a previous survey and series of excavations. These investigations showed that rural populations were wealthier and more numerous during the Islamic period than in earlier or later periods. They also provided insight into rural social organization and patterns of rural-urban interaction in al-Andalus. In the second stage, the timing and severity of soil erosion in the surveyed areas will be determined using geological techniques. Preliminary results suggest that erosion occurred when population densities increased during the Islamic period. The results of the geological investigations will be used to create a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) based descriptive model of landscape change through time. The third phase of research will examine in detail the links between human activities and landscape change. Several dating methods will be used to determine the timing of landscape change and correlations with occupation. Studies of plant remains will show how people altered the local vegetation, and a comparison of two areas with different settlement histories will highlight the effects of human activities. Finally, a dendroclimatological (tree ring) study will examine the possibility that past climate change affected humans and the landscape. The intellectual merit of this research is reflected in its contributions at three levels: historical, methodological and anthropological. First, it will provide a new perspective on the success and eventual decline of al-Andalus. It also will add considerably to the small body of archaeological research concerning Islamic Iberia. Methodologically, the research makes important contributions to the fields of geoarchaeology, environmental archaeology and historical ecology. By focusing on stream systems and slope processes in small drainage basins, this study investigates landscape change in greater detail than most similar investigations. It also emphasizes upland environments where human activities are most likely to cause erosion and soil exhaustion. These data, when combined with paleoclimatological reconstruction and comparative histories of land use and landscape change, will result in one of the most thorough and analytically sound investigations of human interactions with the landscape undertaken to date in the Mediterranean region. Beyond its methodological contributions, the broader impacts of the proposed research are apparent at the general anthropological level. This study promises to show how alternative forms of social organization mediate the ecological impacts of subsistence activities. Specifically, the political structure and economy of the Islamic state significantly affected rural social and economic organization. By exploring the long-term ecological impacts of agrarian activities in al-Andalus, this research will add to understanding of the conditions favoring or opposing sustainable production. This information could have far-reaching significance in that it provides a new perspective on important ecological problems facing people around the globe today. The research also will provide a case study relevant to understanding the dynamics of premodern state-level polities, including the apparent pattern of cyclical growth and decline, the internal dynamics of power, and the variety of forms of organization inferred from the historical and archaeological records. Finally, the investigation contributes to interdisciplinary and international scientific collaboration as well as completion of a student's Doctoral degree.