Mediterranean islands exhibit many similarities in their biotic ecological, physical and environmental characteristics. There are also many differences in terms of their human colonization and current anthropogenic pressures. This book addresses in three sections these characteristics and examines the major environmental changes that the islands experienced during the Quaternary period. The first section provides details on natural and cultural factors which have shaped island landscapes. It describes the environmental and cultural changes of the Holocene and their effects on biota, as well as on the current human pressures that are now threats to the sustainability of the island communities. The second section focuses on the landscapes of the largest islands namely Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, Cyprus, Crete, Malta and the Balearics. Each island chapter includes a special topic reflecting a particular characteristic of the island. Part three presents strategies for action towards sustainability in Mediterranean islands and concludes with a comparison between the largest islands. Despite several published books on Mediterranean ecosystems/landscapes there is no existing book dealing with Mediterranean islands in a collective manner. Students, researchers and university lecturers in environmental science, geography, biology and ecology will find this work invaluable as a cross-disciplinary text while planners and politicians will welcome the succinct summaries as background material to planning decisions.

Island Landscapes takes a critical look at the evolution of European islandscapes and seascapes to examine the conditions facing them in the twenty first century. Considering island landscapes as an expression of European culture, this book envisages future trends and presents clearly the need to find a balance between preservation and development to ensure sustainability. Both large and small islands are illustrated in the book including the British Isles, Malta and Cyprus as well as archipelagos in Norway, Italy and Greece. Their unique identities and values reveal the remarkable breadth of cultural heritage possessed by these diverse European islands. An interdisciplinary approach is applied to the history, perception, characterisation and planning of islandscape and seascape in Europe, to support culturally-oriented strategies for these fragile landscapes.

Mediterranean landscape ecology, island cultures and long-term human history have all emerged as major research agendas over the past half-century, engaging large swathes of the social and natural sciences. This book brings these traditions together in considering Antikythera, a tiny island perched on the edge of the Aegean and Ionian seas, over the full course of its human history. Small islands are particularly interesting because their human, plant and animal populations often experience abrupt demographic changes, including periods of near-complete abandonment and recolonization, and Antikythera proves to be one of the best-documented examples of these shifts over time. Small islands also play eccentric but revealing roles in wider social, economic and political networks, serving as places for refugees, hunters, modern eco-tourists, political exiles, hermits and pirates. Antikythera is a rare case of an island that has been investigated in its entirety from several systematic fieldwork and disciplinary perspectives, not least of which is an intensive archaeological survey. The authors use the resulting evidence to offer a unique vantage on settlement and land use histories.

Reviews the palaeoenvironmental evidence and its incorporation with landscape archaeology across the Mediterranean, from the Early Neolithic to the end of the Roman period.

Landscapes have long been viewed as ‘multifunctional’, integrating ecological, economic, sociocultural, historical, and aesthetic dimensions. Landscape science and public awareness in Europe have been progressing in leaps and bounds. The challenges involved in landscape-related issues and fields, however, are multiple and refer to landscape stewardship and protection, as well as to the development of comprehensive theoretical and methodological approaches, in tandem with public sensitization and participatory governance and in coordination with appropriate top-down planning and policy instruments. Landscape-scale approaches are fundamental to the understanding of past and present cultural evolution, and are now considered to be an appropriate spatial framework for the analysis of sustainability. Methods and tools of landscape analysis and intervention have also gone a long way since their early development in Europe and the United States. Although significant progress has been made, there remain many issues which are understudied or not investigated at all—at least in a Mediterranean context. This Special Issue addresses the application of landscape theory and practice in the Eastern Mediterranean and mainly, but not exclusively, reports on the outcomes of an international conference held in Jordan, in December 2015, with the title “Landscapes of Eastern Mediterranean: Challenges, Opportunities, Prospects and Accomplishments”. The focus of this Special Issue, landscapes of the Eastern Mediterranean region, thus constitutes a timely area of research interest, not only because these landscapes have so far been understudied, but also as a rich site of strikingly variegated, long-standing multicultural human–environmental interactions. These interactions, resting on and taking shape through millennia of continuity in tradition, have been striving to adapt to technological advances, while currently juggling with manifold and multilayered socioeconomic and climate–environmental crises.

Mediterranean mountains exhibit many similarities in their biotic ecological, physical and environmental characteristics. There are also many differences in terms of their human colonization pattern, historic land uses and current anthopogenic pressures. This book provides an introduction to these environments of mountainous areas in the Mediterranean and their changes in time and space in relation to both natural and cultural factors. Mediterranean Mountain Environments places its emphasis on physical geography while adopting an integrated approach to the whole subject area. The book draws examples from a wide range of environments, demonstrating the interaction between human and physical processes responsible for shaping mountain areas. Risks and conflicts, as well as methods and tools for the conservation and management of both the natural and cultural environment are covered in the light of future challenges for the sustainable development of the Mediterranean mountains. Emphasis on both mainland and island mountain ranges Combines natural and cultural approach in the topic Integrated approach: facing future challenges based on the study and understanding of the historical processes that have shaped the Mediterranean mountains Key references at the end of each chapter

The comparative study of empires has traditionally been addressed in the widest possible global historical perspective with comparison of New World empires such as the Aztecs and Incas side by side with the history of imperial Rome and the empires of China and Russia in the medieval and modern periods. Surprisingly little work has been carried out focusing on the evolution of state control and imperial administration in the same territory; approached in a rigorous and historically grounded fashion over a wide extent of historical time from late antiquity to the twentieth century. The empires of Rome, Byzantium, the Ottomans and the latter-day imperialists in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, all inherited or seized and sought to develop overlapping parts of a common territorial base in the Eastern Mediterranean and all struggled to contain, control or otherwise alter the political, cultural and spiritual allegiances of the same indigenous population groups that were brought under their rule and administration. The task undertaken in Imperial Lineages and Legacies in the Eastern Mediterranean is to investigate the balance between continuity and change adopted at various historical conjunctures when new imperial regimes were established and to expose common features and shared approaches to the challenge of imperial rule that united otherwise divergent societies and imperial administrations. The work incorporates the contributions by twelve scholars, each leading practitioners in their respective fields and each contributing their particular insights on the shared theme of imperial identity and legacy in the Mediterranean World of the pagan, Christian and Muslim eras.

This volume provides specialized insights into selected Mediterranean geographies, such as info-communication technologies, tourism, urbanization and climate change threats, with a focus on emerging and often overlooked issues, in light of the impact of current trends of globalization and the financial ‘crisis’, in the broader context of contemporary world processes of environmental change and accelerated human mobility. Specifically, the book contains sections on emergent and increasingly significant or highly innovative issues specific to the Mediterranean, often providing alternative perspectives on various pressing issues, such as the northward shift of climatic types; littoralisation processes and urbanization trends; tourism growth problems; human exposure to environmental stresses; and the boom in info-communication technologies. As such this book provides new insights into a region that has absorbed the sustained impact of human growth in precarious environments, often at the interface of many worlds, co-existing at various states of development and inter-scalar or cross-border interrelationships. This volume does not cover every aspect of the human and physical geographies of the Mediterranean region, but rather addresses contemporary issues of increasing significance to the Mediterranean, with an emphasis on emergent and pressing issues, as well as new perspectives or methods of approach, of special relevance to the Mediterranean. The core of contributions to this volume originated from an initiative undertaken by the International Geographical Union (IGU) Mediterranean Renaissance Program, now the Commission on the Mediterranean Basin (COMB). Most papers are authored by members of the latter Commission and additional papers are included, in order to cover more aspects of contemporary Mediterranean geographies.

Islands are ideal case studies for exploring social connectivity, episodes of colonisation, abandonment, and alternating phases of cultural interaction and isolation. Their societies display different attitudes toward the land and the sea, which in turn cast light on group identities. This volume advances theoretical discussions of island archaeology by offering a comparative study of the archaeology of colonisation, abandonment, and resettlement of the Mediterranean islands in prehistory. This comparative and thematic study encourages anthropological reflections on the archaeology of the islands, ultimately focusing on people rather than geographical units, and specifically on the relations between islanders, mainlanders, and the creation of islander identities. This volume has significance for scholars interested in Mediterranean archaeology, as well as those interested more broadly in colonisation and abandonment.

Seascape studies have developed in response to questions arising from composite correlations such as coastal, island and marine research, social requirements, landscape design and planning, marine ecology, and environment and resource management. This global volume is the first comprehensive overview to provide a solid foundation on the concept of seascape, with the latest research findings from leading experts across a variety of fields, offering a holistic approach to seascape linking nature with culture, and theory with practice. Divided into six parts, it includes over 30 chapters from contributors around the world. Pioneering methods with illustrated case studies from the Mediterranean, Scandinavia, North Sea, North America and Asia serve as examples for future seascape development, conservation and governance. An important and extremely timely resource, the Routledge Handbook of Seascapes provides academics, practitioners, NGOs, consultants and government officials with a broad overview of current research and practice for future application and advance worldwide.