This book contains the contributions to an European symposium on "Trace
Elements in Environmental History", held from June 24th to 26th at
GCittingen, FRG. The confe- rence was organised by the Institute of
Anthropology of the Georg August-University in GCittingen. At first
glance, it might be surprising that the organizers are anthropolo-
gists. But this is a result of change of paradigm prehistoric
anthropology is facing at the time. For decades, population development
and population processes in the past have been looked at in terms of
morphology, thus describing the diversity of human populations by the
outer appearance of the skeletal findings and by the reconstruction of
population structures. The new approach concentrates less on how people
in the past looked like, but moreover on what they did and how they
lived. Thus, research is based on ecosystem-theories, and it aims on the
evaluation of ancient ecological features and past man/environment
relationships. Research is encouraged since anthropologists are asked a
lot of questions by historians and social scientists, who became more
and more interested in the history of every day's life. Prehistoric
anthropology today focu- ses also on manners, habits, ways of life and
environmental constituents as they can be traced from skeletal remains,
which represent an important historical source. The ecosystemic approach
is promising since the experiences of daily life certainly influence
human behaviour, life style and mentality, thus directing reproduction
and therefore population development.