Human Impacts

Abstract

Man’s impact on Europe has been profound and pervasive. Europe, with its diverse landscapes and climatic conditions, its abundance of metal ores and energy minerals such as coal, oil and gas, its rich resources of pure and abundant surface and underground waters and its prolific vegetation and wildlife, has shaped our cultural and technological development over a very long time. The oldest documented sites of early human occupation are at Isernia in central Italy and dated at 730,000 years old while others in Italy, France, Germany, England and Spain in the age range 400,000 to 450,000 years old confirm that our ancestors had ventured northwards during interglacial episodes in the Pleistocene Ice Age. These communities were displaced southwards in search of food during successive advances of the Ice and as the climatic/vegetation zones migrated in sympathy. Modern humans (Homo sapiens sapiens) arrived in Europe some 35,000-40,000 years ago. The celebrated cave paintings at Lascaux in southern France date from 17,000 years ago when the last advance of the continental ice reached its greatest extent and an ice-front extended from Ireland to Siberia. South of this front, a treeless tundra extended to the Alps. In winter this would have been a bleak and barren landscape of braided rivers and outwash melt deposits flowing outwards from the ice-front. In summer grasslands would have become established on the rich loess soils and these steppes supported huge herds of reindeer, bison and mammoth. Extensive forests existed south of the Alps. Hunter-gatherer communities thrived on the abundant wildlife and continually refined their hunting weaponry and tools by exploring for new sources of earth materials and metals (basalt, limestone, flint, copper, tin, gold, etc). Following the final retreat of the European ice sheet about 10,000 years ago, humans spread northwards in increasing numbers to colonize the pristine landscapes vacated by the ice in search of food, shelter and adventure.