Human demography changes in Morocco and environmental imprint during the Holocene

Human demography changes in Morocco and environmental imprint during the Holocene

The aim of this work is to reconstruct the periods of growth and decline of human populations in Morocco and their potential impacts on the landscape over the past 10,000 years. In order to estimate the trends in the human population size between 10,000 and 3000 years ago, we used a summed probabili...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Holocene (Sevenoaks) Vol. 29; no. 5; pp. 816 - 829
Main Authors: Cheddadi, Rachid, Palmisano, Alessio, López-Sáez, José Antonio, Nourelbait, Madja, Zielhofer, Christoph, Tabel, Jalal, Rhoujjati, Ali, Khater, Carla, Woodbridge, Jessie, Lucarini, Giulio, Broodbank, Cyprian, Fletcher, William J, Roberts, C Neil
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: London, England SAGE Publications 01-05-2019
Sage Publications Ltd
London: Sage
Subjects:
Anthropogenic factors
Archaeological sites
Archaeology
Climate
Demography
Environment and Society
Environmental changes
Environmental impact
Environmental Sciences
Fossil pollen
Fossils
Historic sites
Holocene
Human influences
Human populations
Landscape
Lowlands
Markers
Mountainous areas
Mountains
Natural vegetation
Pollen
Population growth
Population number
Populations
Probability distribution
Probability theory
Radiocarbon dating
Regression analysis
Statistical analysis
Stone Age
Trends
Morocco
Morocco
fossil records
human demography
Holocene
anthropogenic pollen markers
land cover
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Summary:The aim of this work is to reconstruct the periods of growth and decline of human populations in Morocco and their potential impacts on the landscape over the past 10,000 years. In order to estimate the trends in the human population size between 10,000 and 3000 years ago, we used a summed probability distribution (SPD) of radiocarbon dates from a wide range of archaeological sites throughout Morocco. Landscape changes were identified and quantified from a dataset of fossil pollen records. Different anthropogenic pollen markers, as well as natural vegetation groups and taxonomic richness were used to analyse the relationship between long-term trends in human population expansion or regression and type of impact on the landscape. The sub-regions of Morocco have different topographies and climates, which have either favoured or prevented the establishment and/or spread of human populations. In order to identify the areas most significantly impacted by humans and the timing of such impacts, we have reconstructed and compared the same past anthropogenic and landscape proxies along with the population trends within the lowlands and mountainous areas. The lowlands were more strongly impacted earlier in the Holocene than the mountainous areas. Anthropogenic markers indicate that farming expanded in the lowlands during the first major expansion of human populations between ca. 7200 and 6700 cal. yr BP at the start of the Neolithic period. In the Atlas and Rif Mountains, anthropogenic impact is not clearly detectable in any of these areas before 4000 cal. BP.
ISSN:0959-6836
1477-0911
DOI:10.1177/0959683619826657