Recent multiproxy paleoenvironmental studies performed in the lower Auvergne mountains in central France have focused on unraveling the localized environmental impact associated with human settlements. They clearly demonstrate that as early as the Neolithic, past human societies have developed complex land use patterns that are patchily distributed in time and space. This results in the long-term configuration of mosaic-like anthropogenic cultural landscapes characterized by a high variability both at micro-local and regional scales. The diachronic research presented in this chapter was performed at a high spatial resolution integrating two case studies situated in the upstream and in the downstream of the catchment of the Veyre River (the mountainous Chaîne des Puys and the intra-mountainous Limagne plain, respectively). This comparison of “upland versus lowland” and the focus on prehistory we proposed in this chapter allow a discussion of: (1) the complexity of paleoenvironmental impacts associated with prehistoric and proto-historic human settlement in terms of woodland clearance, landscape openness, evidence for agriculture, and spatiotemporal variabilities at micro-local and regional scales; (2) the complex interplay between human adaptability, climate oscillations, and environmental evolution; (3) how these two complementary areas operated together through time; and (4) the paleoenvironmental features of the development of proto-urban areas during the Late Bronze and Iron Ages.