On the brink of Armageddon? Climate change, the archaeological record and human activity across the Bronze Age–Iron Age transition in Ireland

Gearey,; Becker, Ulrik; Everett, Rosie; Griffiths, Seren

doi:10.3318/priac.2020.120.06

Cited by 3 publications

(8 citation statements)

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“…An increasing number of palaeoenvironmental records all around the world has documented the so-called “2.8 ka BP event” [ 50 , 57 , 58 , 59 , 60 , 61 , 62 , 63 , 64 , 65 ]. This climatic oscillation marked the onset of cooler and wetter conditions in Northern and Central Europe [ 59 , 66 , 67 , 68 , 69 , 70 , 71 ], with glacier advances in the Alps [ 72 , 73 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Three Millennia of Vegetation, Land-Use, and Climate Change in SE Sicily

Michelangeli

Rita

Celant

et al. 2022

Forests

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This study presents the first Late Holocene marine pollen record (core ND2) from SE Sicily. It encompasses the last 3000 years and is one of the most detailed records of the south-central Mediterranean region in terms of time resolution. The combined approach of marine palynology and historical ecology, supported by independent palaeoclimate proxies, provides an integrated regional reconstruction of past vegetational dynamics in relation to rapid climatic fluctuations, historical socio-economic processes, and past land-use practices, offering new insights into the vegetation history of SE Sicily. Short-term variations of sparse tree cover in persistently open landscapes reflect rapid hydroclimatic changes and historical land-use practices. Four main phases of forest reduction are found in relation to the 2.8 ka BP event, including the Late Antique Little Ice Age, the Medieval Climate Anomaly, and the Little Ice Age, respectively. Forest recovery is recorded during the Hellenistic and Roman Republican Periods, the Early Middle Ages, and the last century. Agricultural and silvicultural practices, as well as stock-breeding activities, had a primary role in shaping the current vegetational landscape of SE Sicily.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Three Millennia of Vegetation, Land-Use, and Climate Change in SE Sicily

Michelangeli

Rita

Celant

et al. 2022

Forests

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“…They provide a range of quantitative and semiquantitative markers for hydroclimate, commonly using a combination of testate amoebae, humification, and plant macrofossil analyses (Swindles et al 2013, p. 308). They have the advantage of being sequentially laid down in layers that can be 14 C dated directly, but ruptures called bog bursts, for example, and the equivocal nature of proxy data impact their reliability (Gearey et al 2020).…”

Section: The Nature Of the Evidencementioning

confidence: 99%

Was There a 3.2 ka Crisis in Europe? A Critical Comparison of Climatic, Environmental, and Archaeological Evidence for Radical Change during the Bronze Age–Iron Age Transition

Molloy

2022

J Archaeol Res

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The globalizing connections that defined the European Bronze Age in the second millennium BC either ended or abruptly changed in the decades around 1200 BC. The impact of climate change at 3.2 ka on such social changes has been debated for the eastern Mediterranean. This paper extends this enquiry of shifting human–climate relationships during the later Bronze Age into Europe for the first time. There, climate data indicate that significant shifts occurred in hydroclimate and temperatures in various parts of Europe ca. 3.2 ka. To test potential societal impacts, I review and evaluate archaeological data from Ireland and Britain, the Nordic area, the Carpathian Basin, the Po Valley, and the Aegean region in parallel with paleoclimate data. I argue that 1200 BC was a turning point for many societies in Europe and that climate played an important role in shaping this. Although long-term trajectories of sociopolitical systems were paramount in defining how and when specific societies changed, climate change acted as a force multiplier that undermined societal resilience in the wake of initial social disjunctures. In this way, it shaped, often detrimentally, the reconfiguration of societies. By impacting more directly on social venues of political recovery, realignment, and reorganization, climate forces accentuate societal crises and, in some areas, sustained them to the point of sociopolitical collapse.

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“…1150–800/600 cal. BC) and evidence for climatic deterioration (wetter/colder conditions) across northwest Europe; the period known as the ‘Sub-Boreal to Sub-Atlantic transition’ or the ‘2.8 Ka event’ (see Gearey et al, 2020 for a recent review). Some scholars have suggested a direct causal link, with the onset of wetter/colder conditions, impacting directly on Bronze Age settlement and agriculture.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…BC ) at Lough Cullin can be noted; at the very least leaving open the possibility of a link between the two. Further analysis is also hampered by a general lack of detailed knowledge of the precise nature or severity of climatic changes, and an associated lack of clarity concerning pattern and process of social-cultural changes from Bronze to Iron Age (see Coyle-McClung and Plunkett, 2020; Gearey et al, 2020 for further discussion).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A multi-proxy Holocene palaeoenvironmental record of climate change and prehistoric human activity from Lough Cullin, southeast Ireland

et al. 2022

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A multiproxy (pollen, microcharcoal, loss-on-ignition, magnetic susceptibility and geochemistry) sequence from Lough Cullin, southeast Ireland, supported by a high-resolution radiocarbon chronology, modelled using Bayesian approaches, provides a record of environmental change for much of the Holocene. Following the establishment of mixed deciduous woodland, climatic deterioration was likely responsible for pronounced vegetation change and erosion, 7615–6500 cal. BC to 6245–5575 cal. BC, evidence for the ‘8.2 Kyr’ BP climate event. The so-called ‘elm decline’ is dated to 4220–3980 cal. BC and whilst there are possible indications of an anthropogenic cause, clear evidence of woodland clearance with cereal pollen is recorded at 3900–3700 cal. BC, 3790–3580 cal. BC and 3760–3650 cal. BC, during a period of clearance and farming of 320–450 years duration. A reduction in farming/settlement and woodland regeneration during the Middle Neolithic parallels the archaeological record, with low levels of activity during the Late Neolithic/Chalcolithic after 2960–2525 cal. BC, prior to increases during the Bronze Age then woodland clearance and agriculture between 1500–1410 and 1275–1000 cal. BC, corresponding with the archaeological evidence. A subsequent ‘step-wise’ reduction in human activity follows, from the latter date to 815–685 cal. BC, and a brief but pronounced cessation at 690–535 cal. BC. Renewed woodland clearance and agriculture commenced until 415–250 cal. BC. From the latter date until cal. AD 390–540, the Late Iron Age/Early Medieval period, a phase of woodland recovery is attested, followed by renewed landscape disturbance and arable agriculture in particular, continuing to the close of the record at cal. AD 780–1035.

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On the brink of Armageddon? Climate change, the archaeological record and human activity across the Bronze Age–Iron Age transition in Ireland

Cited by 3 publications

References 0 publications

Three Millennia of Vegetation, Land-Use, and Climate Change in SE Sicily

Three Millennia of Vegetation, Land-Use, and Climate Change in SE Sicily

Was There a 3.2 ka Crisis in Europe? A Critical Comparison of Climatic, Environmental, and Archaeological Evidence for Radical Change during the Bronze Age–Iron Age Transition

A multi-proxy Holocene palaeoenvironmental record of climate change and prehistoric human activity from Lough Cullin, southeast Ireland

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