Is Archeology important for permaculture?

Maybe the question ought to be, are there lessons from archeology that can improve permaculture practices?

Maybe there are a whole bunch of questions along this line that we could be asking. My interest/study area last winter in geology, crossed over into archeology due to the geological areas that contain archeological sites of many ages. It seems that many "beliefs" about the origins of Homo sapiens and what they learned when and where, are being challenged by the current researchers, in part due to incredible new equipment, and improvements to older technology.

Too often, researchers came from Northern Europe (the funding push), and they wanted to run the show. But they had preconceived ideas from what they'd found in humans that either adapted to their ecosystem, or died!  Other ecosystem adaptations were no less critical to survival, but require a very different mindset to recognize.

What looks like "farming" north of the Mediterranean, is very different that what looks like farming in Brazil! I suspect the entire concept of a food forest, very much evolved as a tropical farming method, which to a great degree, I suspect moved north from South America to North America where it is known that the Indigenous People intentionally planted "useful" species of trees, particularly American Chestnuts and various Oaks.

I'm hoping that as permies find documents or videos that have archeological impact on permaculture, that they will post them here.

That includes permies threads like this one: https://permies.com/t/365630/Evidence-Humans-Making-Fire-Pushed

I should go looking for the one about an extinct Date Palm that researchers have tried to bring back from seeds found on an archeological site in the Middle East. There are a few other plants that went extinct due to Humans that it would be wonderful if they could be recovered, but I suspect those seeds are much smaller than date pits.

This is a very interesting topic! Maybe, if we learn about how our pre-ancestors "farmed" (did permaculture), we can unlearn the programmed conditioning brought to us by school and society, and tend to nature in the more natural way, according to location (temperate, subtropical, tropical, elevation, marshland etc.).
Unfortunately, I don't have a clue of where to look for archological answers, but maybe my newly found friend, who is an archeologist, does! Going to ask!

I do not have anything to contribute directly to this thread but I am aware of a area of research called "Ecological Anthropology" which examines the relationship between a group of people and their environment.

This might help find more specific information for those who want to go down a rabbit hole.

What about biochar? Scientists reckon it was originally made as Terra Preta, something like 2000 years ago in South America.

Archeology shows how past societies thrived in harmony with nature.

Archeology can help folks learn about ancient land management techniques such as food forests, soil, and ancient farming systems.

Leigh mentioned terra preta which is a perfect example of an ancient system.

I love this post, particularly as I was a professional Classicist in my first career (that means I studied ancient Greece and Rome). I knew and interacted with a lot of archaeologists, and read their research. My knowledge of the archaeology of agriculture of the ancient Greek and Roman world has limited direct applicability to my context in central Virginia, USA, but is nevertheless fascinating. The agriculture of Greek and Roman antiquity bears a closer resemblance to permculture in a lot of ways than to European agriculture after the green revolution: much more polyculture, for example, but it’s a big tolkc and of course varied considerably by region and over time. You referenced the Judean date palm, which is a story I love deeply. The seeds were found at Masada in Israel, an environment almost uniquely conducive to maintaining viable seeds over literal millenia. The wikipedia article is worth a read! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judean_date_palm

Hi there!

I'm a professional archaeologist, and just finished teaching an intro course where we focused on food systems for a solid half of the semester. I think archaeology has a great perspective to offer on permaculture and the series of small, mostly-invisible decisions that have been made across cultures and societies that have resulted in our current viewpoint. Why certain plants and animals were domesticated, and which became prevalent, are all things that have resulted from certain events and circumstances, and looking at them with the perspective of the modern day can help us find innovative ways to deal with our own current events and circumstances. EG:

* For things like food forests - check out the newer perspective on Amazonian agriculture, like forest islands! https://news.mongabay.com/2020/07/amazonias-people-domesticated-crops-on-forest-islands-10000-years-ago-study/
* Did you know that the Eastern US had an entire set of domesticated plants prior to the introduction of maize? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Agricultural_Complex

That being said, I DO want to caution against the idea I'm seeing in this thread that traditional societies "lived in harmony with nature" - we have plenty of examples where humans over-stressed their environments to the point of collapse (e.g. the Prepottery Neolithic B's excessive use of plaster is credited for causing deforestation). And solutions that work well at low population densities might not scale sustainably to modern population sizes and needs.

I DO think that there's a lot of good ideas out there for us small-scale permies to use at the household level. I'm current reading up on Navajo agriculture and "Waffle Gardens" since I also live in an area with low average rainfall and terrible soils; the idea of using buried ollas has a long tradition outside the Southwest/Central America as well. So yes, look to the journals!

Hi Kira,
Thank you for your thoughtful reply - and a warm welcome to Permies!

Leigh Tate wrote:What about biochar?  

This is a great example, and a good basic article you've linked to. There are many simple ways to make biochar at home or on a homestead. There are fancy methods, but a metal container in a wood stove or the basic barrel method for larger quantities does the job.

Thanks, Nina! Long time lurker, first time poster.

If anyone has any specific questions, I can definitely try to pull out some research on the topic.

My interest in archaeology came as a consequence of my interest in textile crafts. Because I wanted to use natural materials, I wanted to know what materials were used (in the region I live in) in the past. The 'past' starting with the first inhabitants.

That question brought me in a museum showing how people lived here in paleolithic, mesolithic, neolithic and later until iron age. Everything known about that subject comes from archaeological finds (artefacts, but also discoloration in ground layers). The archaeologists working for the museum are in contact with other archaeologists (f.e. at Groningen University).
The interest of most archaeologists is: were and how houses/huts were built back then? And then comes: what was their food and how did they get it (hunting and gathering, or some kind of agriculture, or both)? What clothes and other textiles they had comes last. Not because of lack of interest, but because there are so very little finds of textiles. And tools used to make textiles are often hard to recognise as such.

Permaculture is not only about food. Every thing used in daily life is part of it too. And it isn't only about 'growing' (agriculture). Foraging (hunting and gathering) is part of it too. So (i.m.o.) archaeology is important for permaculture.
To know how people did what they did with what they had in their surroundings (land, water, plants, animals, etc.). In modern society a lot of that knowledge is lost ...