Ecology

Globe

Pastoralism

Livestock

Archaeology

Geology

Neuroscience

Biology

Visual arts

Geography

Perspective (graphical)

Holocene

Land use

Forestry

Sociology

Earth science

Social science

History

Face (sociological concept)

Science

A synthetic history of human land use Humans began to leave lasting impacts on Earth's surface starting 10,000 to 8000 years ago. Through a synthetic collaboration with archaeologists around the globe, Stephens et al. compiled a comprehensive picture of the trajectory of human land use worldwide during the Holocene (see the Perspective by Roberts). Hunter-gatherers, farmers, and pastoralists transformed the face of Earth earlier and to a greater extent than has been widely appreciated, a transformation that was essentially global by 3000 years before the present. Science , this issue p. 897 ; see also p. 865

Archaeological assessment reveals Earth’s early transformation through land use