FRENCH ARCHAEOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL-FACTORS

Environmental data constitutes an ''archive of the earth'' whose information can be used in the same way as archaeological data, yet which need not to be used in connection with or subordinated to the latter. Recent methodological developments have prompted the realization that geological deposits provide remarkable records not only of climactic variation, but also of many events and processes linked to human activity. This article presents chronologically a variety of examples from the Paleolithic era to the early modern period. These examples demonstrate that the interpretative problems involved are not identical throughout time. Rather, they differ as a function of the relationship between man and his environment, environmental factors peculiar to the period, and the nature of the archaeological strata containing the evidence. In addition, the scope of the questions posed here encompasses an ever-widening area in the study of human-technological-environmental interactions. This development is fostered by the growth in the amount of information available as a result of archaeological research conducted in connection with major construction projects. Such archaeological activities also open new perspectives by furnishing random examples of anthropological effects on the countryside as well as long transects across great geographical units. By analysing the impact of these technological factors (short-term phenomena) on the societies that employed them (mid-range phenomena) and on the environment (phenomena evolving in the long term), archaeology contributes to a better understanding of how our environment and our landscapes are shaped by successive human interventions.