The impact of prehistoric agriculture on the climate of Europe

Joint meeting with the Prehistoric Society

Speaker: Ralph Fyfe

This lecture will tie together three threads. First, it will present the archaeological evidence for the spread of prehistoric farming across the European continent, and the nature of that early agriculture. Second, it will consider the consequences of prehistoric agricultural land use on land cover change via an analysis of more than 1,600 pollen records across Europe. Finally, it will present recent modelling work that describes the impact of Neolithic and Bronze Age land cover changes on the climate of Europe at c. 500 BC.

Ralph Fyfe is Professor of Geospatial Information at Plymouth University.