Theoretical remarks on the fauna as an indicator of agricultural landscapes in Prehistoric times

Abstract

The value of a taxon in terms of bioindication depends more on its degree of association with a series of environmental parameters than on other circumstances such as its size or abundance. From this standpoint and considering agricultural spaces as ecosystems of increasing importance on the biosphere, we analyze in this paper some of the features which allow one to evaluate the quality, as bioindicators, of two very different faunal groups, namely birds and mites. Another aim of this work is to stress the pluridisciplinar and holistic nature of archaeozoology.