From pollen to pottery: new insights on the interplay of society and environment in South America during the last 2000 years

In this symposium we want to explore ecological changes in South America, and human engagement with those processes during the last two millennia, particularly around AD1000. To discuss these points it will bring together researchers from a range of disciplines including archaeology, environmental science and palaeoecology. The main aim of the symposium is to advance our understanding of the complex interaction between society, its built landscapes and the wider environment, highlighting the effects of these factors amongst each other. Strong interactions between these components have been provisionally identified in South America by interdisciplinary studies combining archaeology and palaeoecology. Key areas to be explored are the current resolution of palaeoecological data, the methodologies used to investigate human-environment interaction and the extent to which relevant disciplines can convincingly argue that human responses to change are negligible, passive or exploitative. The symposium will provide a context in which regional research projects can be re-evaluated at a continental scale, and where future engagement between investigators can be developed. This is an invitation to participant to integrate both disciplines and data with the combined objective of advancing our understanding of the interplay between of society and ecology.