"The chapters of this books arose from two symposia on the archaeology of climate change: The 8.2 ka Climate Event and Archaeology in the Ancient Near East (Leiden, March 19, 2010), and Climate and Cultural Change in Prehistoric Europe and the Near East, (European Association of Archaeologists annual meeting in The Hague, 2010)."--Acknowledgements. Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents:
Climate and Culture Change in Archaeology / Olivier Nieuwenhuyse & Peter F. Biehl -- The Oasis of Palmyra in Prehistory : Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene Palaeoclimate and Human Occupation in the Region of Palmyra/Tadmor (Central Syria) / Mauro Cremaschi and Andrea Zerboni -- When the Going gets Tough : Risk Minimisation Responses to the 8.2 ka Event in the Near East and their role in Emergence of the Halaf Cultural Phenomenon / Mandy Mottram -- The 8.2 ka event in Upper Mesopotamia : climate and cultural change / Olivier Nieuwenhuyse, Peter Akkermans, Jan van der Plicht, A. Russell and A. Kaneda (Leiden) -- The aftermath of the 8.2 Event : Cultural and Environmental Effects in the Anatolian Late Neolithic and Early Chalcolithic / Patrick T. Willett, Ingmar Franz, Ceren Kabukcu, David Orton, Jana Rogasch, Elizabeth Stroud, Eva Rosenstock, and Peter F. Biehl -- Managing risk through diversification in plant exploitation during the 7th millennium BC : The phytolith microbotanical record at Cʹatalhoyuk / Philippa Ryan and Arlene Rosen -- The 8.2 Event and the Neolithic Expansion in Western Anatolia / Bleda S. During -- "Singing in the Rain" : Khirokitia (Cyprus) in the Second Half of the Seventh Millennium cal BC / Odile Daune-Le Brun and Alain Le Brun -- Early Holocene Climatic Fluctuations and Human Responses in Greece / Catherine Perles -- Rapid climate change and radiocarbon discontinuities in the Mesolithic-Early Neolithic settlement record of the Iron Gates : cause or coincidence? / Clive Bonsall, Mark Macklin, Adina Boronean?, Catriona Pickard, Laszlo Bartosiewicz, Gordon Cook, and Thomas Higham -- Climate Fluctuations, Human Migrations, and the Spread of Farming in western Eurasia / Detlef Gronenborn -- Climate Change in the Polish Upland Bronze Age / Andrzej Pelisiak -- Climate and the Definition of Archaeological Periods in Sweden / Daniel Lowenborg and Thomas Eriksson -- Commentary : Epilogue to a Prologue : The Changing Climate of the Past, Present and Future / Ezra B.W. Zubrow.
Summary:
The subject of climate change could hardly be more timely. In this volume, an interdisciplinary group of contributors examine climate change through the lens of new archaeological and paleo-environmental data over the course of more than 10,000 years from the Near East to Europe. Key climatic and other events are contextualized with cultural changes and transitions for which the authors discuss when, how, and if, changes in climate and environment caused people to adapt, move or perish. More than this publication of crucial archaeological and paleo-environmental data, however, the volume seeks to understand the social, political and economic significance of climate change as it was manifested in various ways around the Old World. Contrary to perceptions of threatening global warming in our popular media, and in contrast to grim images of collapse presented in some archaeological discussions of past climate change, this book rejects outright societal collapse as a likely outcome. Yet this does not keep the authors from considering climate change as a potential factor in explaining culture change by adopting a critical stance with regard to the long-standing practice of equating synchronicity with causality, and explicitly considering alternative explanations.
Series:
IEMA proceedings ; volume 6 The Institute for European and Mediterranean Archaeology distinguished monograph series University of Buffalo. Conference. Conference. IEMA proceedings ; v. 6.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.