Sustainable Spaces Lecture Notes PDF

SUSTAINABLE SPACES ABB108 SPATIAL HISTORIES WEEK SIX  Essay advice Skara Brae IN THE LECTURE TODAY… Rapa Nui Sustainable agriculture in Australia ESSAY TIP OF THE WEEK What are you comparing? In the lectur...

SUSTAINABLE SPACES ABB108 SPATIAL HISTORIES WEEK SIX  Essay advice Skara Brae IN THE LECTURE TODAY… Rapa Nui Sustainable agriculture in Australia ESSAY TIP OF THE WEEK What are you comparing? In the lecture in week three I used symbolism, means of production, and location as themes to describe the Arc de Triomphe. In your essay, you will also need to choose two or three things that you focus on for your comparison. Along with the above, some possibilities include – materiality, access, surrounding context, internal layout, function, scale, sustainability, cost, and governance. This list is not meant to be comprehensive, check what you are planning with your tutors. 3  Neolithic settlement 3085 – 2345 BCE (750 years) Island of Orkney in Scotland Cycles of settlement and abandonment SKARA BRAE 4 SKARA BRAE Settlement in a difficult environment. Prone to natural disasters and extreme weather events. Need for adaptability in the face of change and challenge. People that fished, raised animals, and grew wheat and barley. Lack of large trees on the island mean they used stone, driftwood, and whale bones. Raised sheep using seaweed. 5 SKARA BRAE We know that they used metal tools from inscriptions on the stone walls of their houses. One has been translated to read Hail comes, a lot comes, It comes again, hail rains anew, Now the hut swims: in misery the family swims as well, A drink will realise a lot of diseases, All the dilapidated ewes were driven off into the mist, Now the cattle and ewes run wild. 6 PHASE ONE 3085 – 2870 BCE Round stall walled buildings that were clustered. Roofs that were ground hugging and which used a tepee style structure to withstand high winds. Waste materials were piled up to the level of walls to help to block wind and to insulate the village. Village abandoned after a large scale catastrophe that also impacted places as far away as Turkey and Iraq. 7  The village was reoccupied, probably due to favourable climate change. New village built on top of the old one, re-using a lot of the old materials. Design change, which would indicate that culture had also changed. Round houses were replaced with semi- rectangular ones that meant more usable interior space and shared walls. Houses connected by underground passages, and drained by a centralised system. Abandoned after major flooding. PHASE TWO 2800 -2665 BCE 8 HOUSING IN PHASE ONE AND TWO 9  After more than 100 years a new group of settlers arrives and reoccupied the village. They cleaned out he rubble, rethatched the roofs, and repaired the existing building. This phase was abruptly ended by the eruption of the volcano Hekla. This eruption created a cloud of hydrogen fluoride gas and shards of glass that destroyed animal life across parts of Ireland, Scotland, Norway, Sweden, and Finland, and lowered temperatures for two years. Caused a tsunami that flooded the village. PHASE THREE 2550 -2345 BCE Survivors returned and left stepping stones through the debris. 10  Also known as Easter island. Settled as part of the great final wave of Polynesian exploration and migration somewhere between 800- 1200 CE Often used as an example of human error, but he actual tale is more complex. RAPA NUI 11 RAPA NUI 12 POLYNESIAN EXPANSION AND Remarkable process that began with the 40 000 year old Lapita culture. EXPLORATION Overall process of expansion into the deep Pacific took approximately 3000 years. Began slowly, then accelerated from home islands in Tonga and Samoa, before finally reaching Rapa Nui and New Zealand. Fuelled by the mastery of ship building technology and navigation. Large groups of ships that also carried food crops and livestock for the initial period of settlement. 13 RAPA NUI, THE STANDARD EXPLANATION Settlement around the year 800 by a small group that grew slowly. Culture begins building Moai statues in connection with religious beliefs. Population increases sharply to between 15000 and 20000 causing rapid deforestation. Ecology collapses, as does the local culture, causing warfare and destruction. Population collapses to the roughly 3000 encountered by European colonists in the 1700’s 14  Originally covered most of the island, along with areas of heath and meadow. People arrived much later than 800, probably more like 1200, and the population rapidly expanded to around 3000 people. Deforestation occurred in phases, and wasn’t as rapid as originally thought. Major role played by climate change in helping the spread of CONTEMPORARY IDEAS ABOUT WHAT fire. HAPPENED TO THE FOREST ON RAPA NUI. 15 RAPA NUI Population is actually likely to have stayed stable, only really crashing after contact with Europeans. Two distinct cultural phases. The first is related to the building of the Moai, and ended when a combination of deforestation and the loss of water supply forced the population to move. Second phase referred to as the Birdman system, and was centred around the new fresh water source Presence of sweet potato in the diet possible evidence of contact with the Americas. 16 SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE IN AUSTRALIA Were Indigenous people practicing agriculture prior to colonisation? The problem with definitions. Regenerative Agriculture 17  A combination of first hand accounts by early settlers and archaeological evidence shows that Indigenous Australians had a sophisticated approach to gathering resources. Indigenous people would replant yams, clear area specifically to encourage particular plants to grow, built dams to irrigate native grasses, and sow seeds. Anthropologists such as Norman Tindale describe an Indigenous ‘wheat belt’ where settlements were larger and more permanent, and where native grasses INDIGENOUS AGRICULTURE? were an important part of the diet. 18 WHAT IS AGRICULTURE? Despite all of this evidence, the idea of Indigenous agriculture is one of the most controversial topics in Australian history. Why? The issue is about definitions. The academic definition of agriculture involves people doing things like ploughing soil, using fertilizers, domesticating plants, and ‘orderly’ planting. In other words it is defined as what people in people in places like Europe called farming. 19 WHAT IS AGRICULTURE By this definition Indigenous people were not farmers, and anthropologists have been debating the issue for decades. Perhaps the problem lies in the definition? The way that Indigenous people went about agriculture was incredibly sustainable, avoided disturbing soil, utilised existing resources, was intensely local and flexible, and ensured that there was a variety of food and fibre sources rather than encouraging a monoculture. 20 ISSUES WITH CONTEMPORARY AGRICULTURE Destruction and depletion of soil. Australia has some of the oldest and most nutrient poor soil on earth. Intense water needs of imported crops. Weed infestations. Vulnerability to disease. Creation of massive agribusinesses. Reliance on chemical inputs in the form of fertilizers and pesticides. 21 SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE There has been a range of reactions to the problems IN AUSTRALIA associated with modern agriculture in Australia. In particular there have been farmers who have been influenced by earlier Indigenous practices, particularly around encouraging diverse native grasses and not disturbing the soil. Regenerative Agriculture – began in the 1980s as an academic concept, but then put into practice by farmers such as Charles Massey. 22 REGENERATIVE AGRICULTURE Avoid disturbing the soil and work to increase soil carbon. Keep soil covered by a variety of native grasses, and use those as the primary food for grazing animals. Carefully monitor stock levels. Encourage biodiversity. Limit chemical inputs. Discourage monoculture. Consider the welfare of the community and farmer. 23 QUESTIONS? 24 REFERENCES Jones, R. Hyslop, E, Day. J, Lyall. A, Heron, S. Markham, A. Downes. J, Gibson. J. (2019) CLIMATE VULNERABILITY AND THE HEART OF NEOLITHIC ORKNEY WORLD HERITAGE PROPERTY. Archaeology Today. Issue 108. O’Donoghue, T. Minasany, B. McBratney, A. (2022) Regenerative Agriculture and Its Potential to Improve Farmscape Function. Sustainability. 14. 5815. Rathbone, S. (2013) A Consideration of Villages in Neolithic and Bronze Age Britain and Ireland. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society. 79. pp 39-60. Gerritson, R. (2010) Evidence for Indigenous Australian Agriculture. Australian Science July/August. Pp 35-37. Simpson, I. A., Guttmann, E. B., Cluett, J., & Shepherd, A. (2006). Characterizing anthropic sediments in north European Neolithic settlements: an assessment from Skara Brae, Orkney. Geoarchaeology: An International Journal, 21(3), 221-235. Giller, K. E., Hijbeek, R., Andersson, J. A., & Sumberg, J. (2021). Regenerative agriculture: an agronomic perspective. Outlook on agriculture, 50(1), 13-25. Keen, I. (2021, January). Foragers or farmers: Dark Emu and the controversy over Aboriginal agriculture. In Anthropological Forum (Vol. 31, No. 1, pp. 106-128). Routledge. 25 REFERENCES Hunt, T. L., & Lipo, C. P. (2006). Late colonization of Easter island. Science, 311(5767), 1603- 1606. Rull, V. (2020). The deforestation of Easter Island. Biological Reviews, 95(1), 124- 141. Patrick, V. K. (2010). Peopling of the Pacific: A holistic anthropological perspective. Annual Review of Anthropology, 39(1), 131-148. Hunt, T. L. (2006). Rethinking the fall of Easter Island. American Scientist, 94(5), 412-419. Balasse, M., Tresset, A., Obein, G., Fiorillo, D., & Gandois, H. (2019). Seaweed- eating sheep and the adaptation of husbandry in Neolithic Orkney: new insights from Skara Brae. Antiquity, 93(370), 919-932. Harris, S. L. Skara Brae curbstone decipherment. 26