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Long-term trends in settlement persistence in Southwest Asia: Implications for sustainable urbanism, past, present and future (2023)
Journal Article
Lawrence, D., de Gruchy, M. W., Hinojosa-Baliño, I., & Al-Hamdani, A. (2023). Long-term trends in settlement persistence in Southwest Asia: Implications for sustainable urbanism, past, present and future. Urban Studies, https://doi.org/10.1177/00420980231161245

Southwest Asia saw the emergence of large settlements in the Early Holocene, and the world’s first urban communities around 6000 years ago, with cities a feature of the region ever since. These developed in diverse environmental settings, including t... Read More about Long-term trends in settlement persistence in Southwest Asia: Implications for sustainable urbanism, past, present and future.

Developing Transdisciplinary Approaches to Sustainability Challenges: The Need to Model Socio-Environmental Systems in the Longue Durée (2022)
Journal Article
Silva, F., Coward, F., Davies, K., Elliott, S., Jenkins, E., Newton, A. C., …Williams, A. (2022). Developing Transdisciplinary Approaches to Sustainability Challenges: The Need to Model Socio-Environmental Systems in the Longue Durée. Sustainability, 14(16), Article 10234. https://doi.org/10.3390/su141610234

Human beings are an active component of every terrestrial ecosystem on Earth. Although our local impact on the evolution of these ecosystems has been undeniable and extensively documented, it remains unclear precisely how our activities are altering... Read More about Developing Transdisciplinary Approaches to Sustainability Challenges: The Need to Model Socio-Environmental Systems in the Longue Durée.

Raincheck: A new diachronic series of rainfall maps for Southwest Asia over the Holocene (2022)
Journal Article
Hewett, Z., de Gruchy, M., Hill, D., & Lawrence, D. (2022). Raincheck: A new diachronic series of rainfall maps for Southwest Asia over the Holocene. Levant, 54(1), 5-28. https://doi.org/10.1080/00758914.2022.2052660

Fluctuations in climate have been associated with significant societal changes, both in the modern day and in the past. In dryland environments such as much of Southwest Asia, rainfall is often used as a proxy for soil moisture available for crop pro... Read More about Raincheck: A new diachronic series of rainfall maps for Southwest Asia over the Holocene.

Impact of anthropogenic activities on woodland in northern Syria (4th-2nd millennia BC): Evidence from charcoal assemblages and oak measurements (2021)
Journal Article
Deckers, K., Polisca, F., Riehl, S., de Gruchy, M., & Lawrence, D. (2024). Impact of anthropogenic activities on woodland in northern Syria (4th-2nd millennia BC): Evidence from charcoal assemblages and oak measurements. Environmental Archaeology, 29(2), 129-164. https://doi.org/10.1080/14614103.2021.1989977

In this paper charcoals from the Syrian sites Tell Mozan and Tell Jerablus are investigated to understand the impact of 4th to 2nd millennium BC settlement and urbanization on the vegetation. In total 18,786 charcoal fragments from these sites have b... Read More about Impact of anthropogenic activities on woodland in northern Syria (4th-2nd millennia BC): Evidence from charcoal assemblages and oak measurements.

Mapping past human land use using archaeological data: A new classification for global land use synthesis and data harmonization (2021)
Journal Article
Morrison, K. D., Hammer, E., Boles, O., Madella, M., Whitehouse, N., Gaillard, M., …Zanon, M. (2021). Mapping past human land use using archaeological data: A new classification for global land use synthesis and data harmonization. PLoS ONE, 16(4), Article e0246662. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0246662

In the 12,000 years preceding the Industrial Revolution, human activities led to significant changes in land cover, plant and animal distributions, surface hydrology, and biochemical cycles. Earth system models suggest that this anthropogenic land co... Read More about Mapping past human land use using archaeological data: A new classification for global land use synthesis and data harmonization.

Landscapes, climate and choice: Examining patterns in animal provisioning across the Near East c. 13,000-0 BCE (2021)
Journal Article
Gaastra, J., Welton, L., de Gruchy, M., & Lawrence, D. (2021). Landscapes, climate and choice: Examining patterns in animal provisioning across the Near East c. 13,000-0 BCE. Quaternary International, 595, 54-87. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2021.03.045

Understanding the organisation of food production is vital for understanding ancient societies. Multiple factors may influence decision making, including the local environmental capacity of a given area and individual and cultural preferences. This s... Read More about Landscapes, climate and choice: Examining patterns in animal provisioning across the Near East c. 13,000-0 BCE.

Intensive olive production at Levantine sites. New data from Fadous-Kfarabida and Khirbet-ez Zeraqon (2021)
Journal Article
Deckers, K., Riehl, S., Tumolo, V., Genz, H., & Lawrence, D. (2021). Intensive olive production at Levantine sites. New data from Fadous-Kfarabida and Khirbet-ez Zeraqon. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 36, Article 102841. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2021.102841

During the third millennium BCE, the Levant experienced an increase in social complexity, visible in the emergence of urban forms and centralised institutions. Specialised agricultural production, particularly of olives, has long been considered a ke... Read More about Intensive olive production at Levantine sites. New data from Fadous-Kfarabida and Khirbet-ez Zeraqon.

Potential of deep learning segmentation for the extraction of archaeological features from historical map series (2021)
Journal Article
Garcia-Molsosa, A., Orengo, H. A., Lawrence, D., Philip, G., Hopper, K., & Petrie, C. (2021). Potential of deep learning segmentation for the extraction of archaeological features from historical map series. Archaeological Prospection, 28(2), 187-199. https://doi.org/10.1002/arp.1807

Historical maps present a unique depiction of past landscapes, providing evidence for a wide range of information such as settlement distribution, past land use, natural resources, transport networks, toponymy and other natural and cultural data with... Read More about Potential of deep learning segmentation for the extraction of archaeological features from historical map series.

Collapse and continuity: A multi-proxy reconstruction of settlement organization and population trajectories in the Northern Fertile Crescent during the 4.2kya Rapid Climate Change event (2021)
Journal Article
Lawrence, D., Palmisano, A., & de Gruchy, M. W. (2021). Collapse and continuity: A multi-proxy reconstruction of settlement organization and population trajectories in the Northern Fertile Crescent during the 4.2kya Rapid Climate Change event. PLoS ONE, 16(1), Article e0244871. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0244871

The rise and fall of ancient societies have been attributed to rapid climate change events. One of the most discussed of these is the 4.2kya event, a period of increased aridity and cooling posited as the cause of societal changes across the globe, i... Read More about Collapse and continuity: A multi-proxy reconstruction of settlement organization and population trajectories in the Northern Fertile Crescent during the 4.2kya Rapid Climate Change event.

Holocene regional population dynamics and climatic trends in the Near East: a first comparison using archaeo-demographic proxies (2020)
Journal Article
Palmisano, A., Lawrence, D., de Gruchy, M. W., Bevan, A., & Shennan, S. (2020). Holocene regional population dynamics and climatic trends in the Near East: a first comparison using archaeo-demographic proxies. Quaternary Science Reviews, 252, Article 106739. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2020.106739

This paper illustrates long-term trends in human population and climate from the Late Pleistocene to the Late Holocene (14,000-2500 cal. yr. BP) in order to assess to what degree climate change impacted human societies in the Near East. It draws on a... Read More about Holocene regional population dynamics and climatic trends in the Near East: a first comparison using archaeo-demographic proxies.

Wealth Inequality in the Ancient Near East: A Preliminary Assessment Using Gini Coefficients and Household Size (2020)
Journal Article
Basri, P., & Lawrence, D. (2020). Wealth Inequality in the Ancient Near East: A Preliminary Assessment Using Gini Coefficients and Household Size. Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 30(4), 689-704. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0959774320000177

Investigating how different forms of inequality arose and were sustained through time is key to understanding the emergence of complex social systems. Due to its long-term perspective, archaeology has much to contribute to this discussion. However, c... Read More about Wealth Inequality in the Ancient Near East: A Preliminary Assessment Using Gini Coefficients and Household Size.

Impacts of long term climate change during the collapse of the Akkadian Empire (2019)
Journal Article
Cookson, E., Hill, D. J., & Lawrence, D. (2019). Impacts of long term climate change during the collapse of the Akkadian Empire. Journal of Archaeological Science, 106, 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2019.03.009

Four thousand years ago what is often considered to be the world's first empire, the Akkadian Empire, collapsed. Proxy data has suggested a regional aridification event coincided with this collapse, but there is a lack of records collected from withi... Read More about Impacts of long term climate change during the collapse of the Akkadian Empire.