Environmental and land-use evolution in the Euphrates valley during the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods
Résumé
Humans were at a very early stage attracted to the Syrian part of the Euphrates basin, a powerfully flowing allogenous river. From the pre-pottery Neolithic onwards, permanent habitation sites appear, related to the presence of perennial water. But the density of the occupation sites as well as the conditions of soil use, the limitations to which man had to adapt, often changed according to cycles, which have deeply affected the recent geological history of the valley. These often recurring modifications were diverse in nature: covering by alluvial sediments or on the contrary, reincision of the talweg, climatic oscillations, historical recompositions or impacts of human intervention. These different factors were often tightly interwoven. It is difficult to detect causal relationships and to measure their influence, as this certainly varied strongly, as much in place as in time. The instability of the environmental constraints required adaptation; different strategies must have been invented to insure the continuity of occupation and development. This appears very clearly in the case of the Neolithic and the Chalcolithic, periods during which the Euphrates valley was profoundly changed.
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