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7 - Interactions with humans

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 September 2009

Douglas W. Larson
Affiliation:
University of Guelph, Ontario
Uta Matthes
Affiliation:
University of Guelph, Ontario
Peter E. Kelly
Affiliation:
University of Guelph, Ontario
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Summary

The attraction of humans to cliffs is not new. Cliffs have often formed the subject matter for visual arts and sculpture, particularly in China, Japan and Korea, where cliffs have always evoked strong emotional feelings (Fig. 7.1). The human population has always been fascinated with mountains, rock outcrops and cliffs. In many ways, this interest is a practical one, for cliffs and caves at their base have always offered protection and shelter from the elements and from rival populations of humans competing for similar resources. Hominid fossils from Homo erectus to Homo sapiens neandertalensis have been collected from caves at the base of cliff sites in Africa, Asia and Europe (Hoebel, 1966; Jurmain et al., 1990) including Mt Carmel, Israel (Fig. 7.2). It is impossible to claim that cliffs and the caves within them were actively sought more than other habitats by palaeohumans because cave environments preserve artifacts that would rapidly degrade if exposed directly to weathering. Despite this, cave dwellings in Greece and other locations around the Mediterranean and into central Asia span the time period within which agriculture was started (Bogucki, 1996), and at the very least caves and the cliffs above them were sought out by humans as sites for occasional dwellings, tool manufacturing, and animal carcass reprocessing (Schepartz, personal communication). These sites include abundant remains of early tools and, later, evidence of fire. Similar sites in southern France (Ruspoli, 1987) are well known for abundant cave paintings made prior to the last glacial advance.

Type
Chapter
Information
Cliff Ecology
Pattern and Process in Cliff Ecosystems
, pp. 247 - 282
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2000

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