Cultural Biogeography of Plants and Animals
Naomi Sykes
With the rise of global trade, plants and animals are finding it increasingly easy to transgress their natural ranges and become established in unfamiliar ecosystems, often impacting dramatically on ‘native’ landscapes and environment. Whilst ‘invasive species’ are currently an important ecological and political issue, they are not a recent invention: humans have been moving plants and animals, either purposefully or inadvertently, for millennia. By studying the ancient biogeography and cultural history of these species it is possible to gain important information about past patterns of human migration, trade, lifestyles and ideology.
For further information on the research within this theme see:
Publications
Livarda, A. 2011. ‘Spicing up life in northwestern Europe: exotic food plant imports in the Roman and medieval world’. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 20, 143-164.
O’Connor T. and Sykes, N. J. 2010. Extinctions and Invasions: A Social History of British Fauna. Oxford: Windgather.
Sykes, N. J. 2010. ‘Fallow deer’. In O’Connor T. and Sykes, N. J., eds, Extinctions and Invasions: A Social History of British Fauna. Oxford: Windgather.
Sykes, N. J. 2010. ‘The rabbit’. In O’Connor T. and Sykes, N. J., eds, Extinctions and Invasions: A Social History of British Fauna. Oxford: Windgather.
Sykes, N. 2010. ‘Worldviews in transition: the impact of exotic plants and animals on Iron Age/Romano-British landscapes’. Landscapes 10(2), 19-36.
Livarda, A. and Van der Veen, M. 2008. ‘Social access and dispersal of condiments in North-West Europe from the Roman to the medieval period’. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 17 (Suppl 1), 201-209.
Livarda, A. 2008. ‘New Temptations? Olive, cherry and mulberry in Roman and medieval Europe’. In Baker, S., Allen, M., Middle, S. and Poole, K., eds., Food and Drink in Archaeology I. University of Nottingham Postgraduate Conference 2007. Blackawton: Prospect Books: 73-83.
Van der Veen, M., Livarda, A. and Hill, A. 2008. ‘New plant foods in Roman Britain – dispersal and social access’. Environmental Archaeology 13(1), 11-36.
Sykes, N., 2004. ‘The introduction of fallow deer to Britain: a zooarchaeological perspective’. Environmental Archaeology, 9(1), 75-83.