Ethnoarchaeology-Based Modelling to Investigate Economic Transformations and Land-Use Change in the Alpine Uplands

Abstract

The study of past human-environment interaction in mountain environments is of critical importance to understand the evolution of human impact on alpine and subalpine ecosystems. However, the dearth and complexity of archaeological evidence from the uplands prevents a full understanding of socioecological dynamics at high altitude. In order to overcome this limitation, archaeologists are increasingly relying on ethnoarchaeological interpretation or computer modelling. In this paper these two approaches are integrated. A static mathematical model is developed to simulate rural economic strategies in two villages of the Italian Alps, between the eighteenth and the nineteenth century. Simulation scenarios are created using the ethnohistorical data collected in the area, and simulation results are validated against historical land-use evidence. The outcomes suggest that the use of ethnoarchaeological methods to develop and validate hypothetical scenarios can be extremely beneficial for improving the heuristic potential of archaeological simulation, in the mountains and elsewhere.