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This paper presents the results of a consensus-driven process identifying 50 priority research questions for historical ecology obtained through crowdsourcing, literature reviews, and in-person workshopping. A deliberative approach was designed to maximize discussion and debate with defined outcomes. Two in-person workshops (in Sweden and Canada) over the course of two years and online discussions were peer facilitated to define specific key questions for historical ecology from anthropological and archaeological perspectives. The aim of this research is to showcase the variety of questions that reflect the broad scope for historical-ecological research trajectories across scientific disciplines. Historical ecology encompasses research concerned with decadal, centennial, and millennial human-environmental interactions, and the consequences that those relationships have in the formation of contemporary landscapes. Six interrelated themes arose from our consensus-building workshop model: (1) climate and environmental change and variability; (2) multi-scalar, multi-disciplinary; (3) biodiversity and community ecology; (4) resource and environmental management and governance; (5) methods and applications; and (6) communication and policy. The 50 questions represented by these themes highlight meaningful trends in historical ecology that distill the field down to three explicit findings. First, historical ecology is fundamentally an applied research program. Second, this program seeks to understand long-term human-environment interactions with a focus on avoiding, mitigating, and reversing adverse ecological effects. Third, historical ecology is part of convergent trends toward transdisciplinary research science, which erodes scientific boundaries between the cultural and natural.

We report on the small faunal assemblage from the Iron Age coastal trading station of Chibuene, situated on the coastal littoral of central Mozambique. The faunal assemblage was excavated in 1995 and contains bones from a variety of animals, including livestock, chickens, wild game animals, as well as aquatic species such as turtles and fish. Fish, turtle and shark remains dominate the assemblage. The fauna from the first and second millennium AD occupations share similarities with other contemporaneous sites to the north on the East African coast, rather than with sites located in South Africa.

Food security has always been a key resilience facet for people living in cities. This paper discusses lessons for food security fromhistoric and prehistoric cities. The Chicago school of urban sociology established amodernist understanding of urbanism as an essentialist reality separate from its larger life-support system. However, different urban histories have given rise to a remarkable spatial diversity and temporal variation viewed at the global and long-term scales that are often overlooked in urban scholarship.Drawing on two case studies fromwidely different historical and cultural contexts – the Classic Maya civilization of the late first millennium AD and Byzantine Constantinople – this paper demonstrates urban farming as a pertinent feature of urban support systems over the long-term and global scales. We show how urban gardens, agriculture, and water management as well as the linked social–ecological memories of how to uphold such practices over time have contributed to long-term food security during eras of energy scarcity. We exemplify with the function of such local blue–green infrastructures during chocks to urban supply lines. We conclude that agricultural production is not “the antithesis of the city," but often an integrated urban activity that contribute to the resilience of cities.

The most significant challenge facing modern southern African rock art research is the integration of rock paint­ings into the construction of San history. This challenge is made all the more difficult because of poor chronologi­cal control over the images. In the absence of reliable dating techniques, the challenge to interdigitate image and history becomes a profoundly theoretical one. Drawing on theoretical studies of body and embodiment, this work takes up the challenge of incorporating rock paintings into the production of the past.

Primarily concerned with a small area, previously known as Nomansland, in the south-eastern mountains of South Africa, the work uses embodiment as a tool for extending present interpretations of the art before moving on to arguing that a focus on body allows us to detect change in certain images in Nomansland. Finally, embodiment is used to re-evaluate present understandings of the social consumption of the paintings.

In using embodiment to investigate issues of meaning, change and the production and consumption of San rock art, it becomes clear that this theoretical concept offers a way of incorporating rock paintings into the writing of San history in Nomansland. This work, then, contributes to the broader field of southern African San historiog­raphy, where the question of San interaction with other peoples is sometimes treated too simply and in a manner that is not consistent with broader postcolonial writing.

Studying vegetation change across biome boundaries provides insight into vegetation resilience. In this study, shifts in grassland composition are reconstructed from sediments in three wetland sites across altitudinal gradient from 2128 to 897 m.a.s.l., representing a gradient from the grassland biome to the grassland/savanna boundary in the Mpumalanga region, north-eastern South Africa. Phytolith records from Verloren Valei (dated from 10,600 BP), Graskop (dated from 6500 BP) and Versailles (dated from 4500 BP) are used to reconstruct shifts in grassland composition and vegetation change. Phytolith morphotypes are used to construct environmental indices that are correlated with pollen main ecological groups, charcoal and delta 13C and C/N ratio. The results are compared to available regional paleoclimate data. Both Verloren Valei and Graskop have been dominated by grassland, but Versailles show a stronger influence of bushveld/savanna pollen. Phytolith data suggest that grassland composition was stable at Versailles and Graskop, but grassland at Verloren Valei has changed significantly over time. The early Holocene was dominated by a Pooideae/Chloridoideae C3 and C4 grassland, probably a remnant of the earlier Pleistocene cool-dry conditions. After 8500 BP grassland composition changed gradually to a Chloridoideae and Panicoidea dominated C4 grassland BP, and finally a moist Cyperaceae and Panicoidea dominated C3/C4 grassland after 4000 BP. This shift possibly occurs as a delayed response to the warmer and wetter conditions of the mid Holocene optimum at this high altitude site. The results suggest that the grassland/savanna boundary has remained stable over time, indicating considerable resilience of grasslands to climate change. This resilience may be related to the turnover of species within the grassland biome, as indicated by shifts between 8500 and 4000 BP at Verloren Valei.

The Integrated History and future of People on Earth (IHOPE) initiative is a global network of researchers and research projects with its International Program Office (IPO) now based at the Stockholm Resilience Center (SRC), Uppsala University, Arizona State University, Portland State University, and the Australian National University. Research linked to IHOPE demonstrates that Earth system changes in the past have been strongly associated with changes in the coupled human-environment system. IHOPE supports integrating knowledge and resources from the biophysical and the social sciences and the humanities to address analytical and interpretive issues associated with coupled human-earth system dynamics. This integration of human history and Earth system history is a timely and important task. Until recently, however, there have been few attempts at such integration. IHOPE will create frameworks that can be used to help achieve this integration. The overarching goal is to produce a rich understanding of the relationships between environmental and human processes over the past millennia. HOPE recognizes that one major challenge for reaching this goal is developing 'workable' terminology that can be accepted by scholars of all disciplines. The specific objectives for IHOPE are to identify slow and rapidly moving features of complex social-ecological systems, on local to continental spatial scales, which induce resilience, stress, or collapse in linked systems of humans in nature. These objectives will be reached by exploring innovative ways of conducting interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary science, including theory, case studies, and integrated modeling. Examples of projects underway to implement this initiative are briefly discussed.

This work analyses the structure and management system of rescue archaeological activities in Mozambique with the purpose of suggesting amendments which will better fulfil the management of Cultural Heritage and alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals in Mozambique. The detailed study on the policy of cultural heritage management and rescue archaeology in Mozambique and comparison with neighbouring countries, based on interviews and policy analyses, shows that rescue archaeology needs to be developed and professionalised. This is not only an academic activity but also provides employment opportunities for young archaeologists and cultural heritage managers. As shown here, this approach also allows for the incorporation of community engagement. For Archaeological research to be effective, it must use procedures and good practices and apply the same methodological protocols across the country, e.g., implement the same site form register for archaeological, cultural and historical sites, and use the ʽsame criteriaʼ for classifications and site risk assessment. By applying biocultural heritage approach and FAIR and CARE principles procedures, I argue that rescue archaeology and other cultural heritage management activities in Mozambique, to be sustainable, must broaden the actors involved in the process. The research process should incorporate different stakeholders at various social levels, aggregate their knowledge, and recognise their rights, powers of control and interests. Combine cultural heritage management actions with the management of natural heritage, landscape and biodiversity and sustainable livelihoods.

Shielings are the historically known form of transhumance in Scandinavia, where livestock were moved from the farmstead to sites in the outlands for summer grazing. Pollen analysis has provided a valuable insight into the history of shielings. This paper presents a vegetation reconstruction and archaeological survey from the shieling Kårebolssätern in northern Värmland, western Sweden, a renovated shieling that is still operating today. The first evidence of human activities in the area near Kårebolssätern are Hordeum- and Cannabis-type pollen grains occurring from ca. 100 BC. Further signs of human impact are charcoal and sporadic occurrences of apophyte pollen from ca. AD 250 and pollen indicating opening of the canopy ca. AD 570, probably a result of modification of the forest for grazing. A decrease in land use is seen between AD 1000 and 1250, possibly in response to a shift in emphasis towards large scale commodity production in the outlands. Emphasis on bloomery iron production and pitfall hunting may have caused a shift from agrarian shieling activity. The clearest changes in the pollen assemblage indicating grazing and cultivation occur from the mid-thirteenth century, coinciding with wetter climate at the beginning of the Little Ice Age. The earliest occurrences of anthropochores in the record predate those of other shieling sites in Sweden. The pollen analysis reveals evidence of land use that predates the results of the archaeological survey. The study highlights how pollen analysis can reveal vegetation changes where early archaeological remains are obscure.

No account of human nature history can be complete without the complimentary story of one of our companion species. Cattle in many parts of Africa, as also other parts of the world are highly prized and loved, sharing the destinies of the people who rear them. By structuring the narrative around cattle: its biology, selection and breeding history, and tracing the social webs and markets of cattle we allow them to become agents of history. In this narrative the relations between cattle, people and landscapes are central to how history unfolded and nature was remade. Rather than structuring the narrative chronologically or along a cultural-history continuum, I will here attempt to focus on nodes of connections in the long history of the relationships of cattle and people. The historical ecology of cattle illustrates the intricate and long term relationship between people, cattle, and landscapes, and the ecological skills of farmers and herders. Cattle herding in southern Africa demand a good ecological understanding of landscape dynamics. Traditional cattle keeping are ecologically well suited to meet the environmental constraints of episodic disease and episodic droughts. Contrary to industrialised forms of cattle rearing, traditional cattle keeping remain an enterprise that is low in environmental cost. Cattle usually roam freely over large distances and grazing is low intensive and crucial for biodiversity and to keep the landscape open.

Environmental conservation has long been orientated towards reconstructing or conserving ‘naturalness’. The historical sciences in combination with new ecological thinking have taught us that landscapes are constantly in flux. We now know that many landscapes that previously were regarded as natural in fact have been shaped and reshaped by people over millennia, and that human disturbance of different kinds may enhance landscape heterogeneity and biodiversity. This chapter presents cases from different parts of Africa that demonstrate how archaeology, palaeoecology, and historical analysis have contributed to reform the traditional outlook of environmental conservation and revise misconstrued landscape histories. It shows that historical studies can offer insights that contribute a better understanding of species conservation, ecosystem function, prediction of ecosystem behaviour, and sound management of cultural landscapes. The long-term historical continuities in the landscape raise awareness of the importance of traditional practices and their benefits for environmental conservation.

This thesis analyses the dynamics of environmental change and its embeddedness in the long term interactions of social history and rainfall variability through the building of an environmental history of the Chibuene locality, the coastal plain of southern Mozambique, 5 km south of the town Vilanculos, from 400 AD to present day. Land-use practices over time are discussed on the basis of vegetation and land-use history based pollen analysis, charcoal influx and diatom analysis. It is shown that the savanna vegetation is a long term feature of the Chibuene landscapes and that there have been several expansions of savannas and subsequent retractions of forests through time, linked primarily with rainfall variation. Written sources and archaeological material are drawn upon for a discussion on changing practices of environmental management and it is argued that as the Chibuene landscape is marked by a high degree of environmental insecurity, it is the competent management of resources that has enabled the continuous occupation of Chibuene from c. the 7th century AD, through management of natural resources, flexible farming practices and wide reaching social networks. The last two decades have seen a marked change in land-use patterns, reflected in a decrease in forests of the Chibuene area, the reasons for which are complex and needs to be further studied. Interviews with individual elders in the village community provide alternative ways of understanding environmental degradation as merely the loss of disappearance of forests, or the failure of crops due to droughts, but also as the erosion of local power, wars and social unrest. In a similar way, through a long-term perspective this study stresses that socio-political life, climatic variability and environmental dynamics are interlinked, highlighting the importance of the complimentarity of different forms of knowledge and ways of knowing the Chibuene landscape.

In the coastal lowlands of Mozambique, an expansion of savannas at the cost of forests has been attributed to anthropogenic influence. There are few investigations that have studied vegetation dynamics over the long term. Pollen analysis from two sedimentary cores in the Chibuene area, 7 km south of Vilanculos presented in this paper show that the coastal area 1600 years ago consisted of a mosaic of forests, Miombo woodlands and grasslands. The data also show that the area supported extensive forests in the past until AD 1400–1600 when the forests declined dramatically. Changing settlement patterns, as suggested from archaeological excavations, cannot be correlated with the forest decline and the charcoal abundance, in the sedimentary cores does not suggest an intensification of farming. Instead the decline of forests appears to be temporally correlated with a prolonged period of repeated dry spells associated with the ‘Little Ice Age’, which caused a shift in vegetation whereby typical forest species as Trema, Celtis and Moraceae were outcompeted on account of the droughts. This study challenges rooted assumptions about the cause of decline of forests in the coastal region. It also suggests that the forest fragments present on the Mozambique coast today are naturally subject to threat from climatic stress and as such are highly sensitive areas to future climate change.

A sustainable livelihood framework is used to analyse livelihood security, vulnerability and resilience in the village of Chibuene, Vilanculos, southern Mozambique from a historical and contemporary perspective. Interviews, assessments, archaeology, palaeoecology and written sources are used to address tangible and intangible aspects of livelihood security. The analysis shows that livelihood strategies for building resilience, diversification of resource use, social networks and trade, have long historical continuities. Vulnerability is contingent on historical processes as long-term socio-environmental insecurity and resultant biodiversity loss. These contingencies affect the social capacity to cope with vulnerability in the present. The study concludes that contingency and the extent and strength of social networks should be added as a factor in livelihood assessments. Furthermore, policies for mitigating vulnerability must build on the reality of environmental insecurity, and strengthen local structures that diversify and spread risk.

Environmental history is a wide field that encompasses many of our traditional disciplines. This paper gives a short introduction and historical overview over the different directions that environmental history as a field entails. It also gives a brief introduction to the Philosophy of History. The historical overview is based on the categories: Natural History, History of ideas, Traditional Environmental History, Historical Ecology and what I refer to here as ‘Postcolonial Environmental History’  – a direction that is yet to develop. In the second part of the paper, specific problems or ‘temptations’ related to environmental history are raised. The aim of this paper is to advocate an inclusive and broad environmental history that does not shy away from the complexities of interactions within society, within nature and in the interactions between them.