The Holocene

A reconstruction of the development of the world's climates, environments and of Homo sapiens over the past 10,000 years. Roberts discusses aspects of palaeoecological techniques and recounts the changes in nature from the ice age to modern time.

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The last 10,000 years, the post-glacial or Holocene, has seen the world's climates and environments take on their modern natural form. It has also seen the development of Homo Sapiens form hunter-gatherer to farmer to city-dweller with consequent impact on the natural environment. For the most part, this transformation of nature has not been described in written records. Therefore alternative, proxy sources of information have to be used to reconstruct past environments. Neil Roberts discusses Palaeoecological techniques such as pollen analysis and radiocarbon dating in his first chapter. He then recounts the changes in nature from the ice age to modern times using these proxy techniques. Primarily suitable for undergraduates in geography, archaeology , environmental history, science, and ecology as well as scholars of a wide range of professional interests and informed lay-readers.