World Archaeology

Wetland Archaeology and Plant-Based Lifeways in Global Perspective

Wetlands (lakeshores, marshes, deltas, peatlands, river margins, and mangroves) are among the most dynamic and ecologically complex settings in human history. They have long provided food, fuel, raw materials, mobility routes, and distinctive ecological niches that shaped farming practices, technological choices, and social organisation across the world. Yet despite their exceptional importance, and their unparalleled preservation of organic materials and fine-grained palaeoenvironmental records, wetlands remain underrepresented in mainstream archaeological narratives, which continue to privilege dryland sites and broad-scale models of subsistence change.

This special issue brings together global, comparative, and interdisciplinary research on wetland archaeology and archaeobotany, with a particular focus on how people used, transformed, and adapted to fluid and rapidly changing landscapes. Building on advances in high-resolution palaeoecology, archaeobotany, and computational approaches, the issue invites contributions that highlight wetlands as laboratories of human resilience, material innovation, and environmental engineering.

We seek papers that:

• Explore plant-based economies, cultivation systems, and resource management in humid environments, especially through comparative approaches (e.g. wet vs. dry preservation, inter-regional or diachronic perspectives).

• Investigate the use, transformation, and cultural significance of plant resources specific to wetland contexts, and their role in the resilience of past communities.

• Offer comparative, diachronic, or global perspectives on how societies responded to shifting water regimes, shoreline mobility, and climate variability.

By foregrounding wetlands and their plant-based lifeways, this special issue aims to reframe global narratives of human–environment interaction, emphasising the small-scale choices, innovations, and adaptive strategies that shaped long-term ecological trajectories. Contributions from any world region and time period are welcome.