Lifting the veil: pyrogeographic manipulation and the leveraging of environmental change by people across the Vale of Belvoir, Tasmania, Australia

Research reveals that Palawa people in Tasmania strategically leveraged climatic changes to transform unproductive forests into open landscapes, supporting higher human occupation. This challenges the prevailing notion that human agency is only recognized when it opposes natural trends. By integrating geographical, dendrochronological, palaeoecological, archaeological, and palaeoclimatic data, the study demonstrates fine-scale heterogeneity in land management practices, reflecting diverse spatial scales of engagement with the environment. The findings caution against using coarse spatial methodologies that assume cultural homogeneity, reinforcing the need to abandon tropes of human agency acting solely in opposition to nature. This approach erases Indigenous peoples' roles in maintaining biodiverse and safe landscapes.

Fletcher, M.-S., Romano, A., Nichols, S., Henriquez Gonzalez, W., Mariani, M., Jaganjac, D., & Sculthorpe, A. (2024). Lifting the veil: pyrogeographic manipulation and the leveraging of environmental change by people across the Vale of Belvoir, Tasmania, Australia. Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology, 3. https://doi.org/10.3389/fearc.2024.1386339