Environment and Society in the Long Late Antiquity

A comparative approach to climate, environment and society in Eurasia: towards understanding the impact of climate on complex societies This interdisciplinary project investigates the impact of climatic changes across the last two millennia on societies in two environmentally sensitive areas:

This article analyses high-quality hydroclimate proxy records and spatial reconstructions from the Central and Eastern Mediterranean and compares them with two Earth System Model simulations (CCSM4, MPI-ESM-P) for the Crusader period in the Levant (1095–1290 CE), the Mamluk regime in Transjordan (1260–1516 CE) and the Ottoman crisis and Celâlî Rebellion (1580–1610 CE). During the three time intervals, environmental and climatic stress tested the resilience of complex societies. We find that the multidecadal precipitation and drought variations in the Central and Eastern Mediterranean cannot be explained by external forcings (solar variations, tropical volcanism); rather they were driven by internal climate dynamics. Our research emphasises the challenges, opportunities and limitations of linking proxy records, palaeoreconstructions and model simulations to better understand how climate can affect human history.

2016

Lake Butrint (39°47 N, 20°1 E) is a ca. 21 m deep, coastal lagoon located in SW Albania where finely-laminated sediments have been continuously deposited during the last millennia. The multi-proxy analysis (sedimentology, high-resolution elemental geochemistry and pollen) of a 12 m long sediment core, supported by seven AMS radiocarbon dates and 137Cs dating, enable a precise reconstruction of the environmental change that occurred in the central Mediterranean region during the last ∼4.5 cal kyrs BP. Sediments consist of triplets of authigenic carbonates, organic matter and clayey laminae. Fluctuations in the thickness and/or presence of these different types of seasonal laminae indicate variations in water salinity, organic productivity and runoff in the lake's catchment, as a result of the complex interplay of tectonics, anthropogenic forcing and climate variability. The progradation of the Pavllo river delta, favoured by variable human activity from the nearby ancient city of Butrint, led to the progressive isolation of this hydrological system from the Ionian Sea. The system evolved from an open bay to a restricted lagoon, which is consistent with archaeological data. An abrupt increase in mass-wasting activity between 1515 and 1450 BC, likely caused by nearby seismic activity, led to the accumulation of 24 homogenites, up to 17 cm thick. They have been deposited during the onset of finely laminated sedimentation, which indicates restricted, anoxic bottom water conditions and higher salinity. Periods of maximum water salinity, biological productivity, and carbonate precipitation coincide with warmer intervals, such as the early Roman Warm Period (RWP) (500 BC–0 AD), the Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA) (800–1400 AD) and recent times (after 1800 AD). Conversely, lower salinity and more oxic conditions, with higher clastic input were recorded during 1400–500 BC, the Late Roman and the Early Medieval periods (0–800 AD) and during the Little Ice Age (1400–1800 AD). Hydrological fluctuations recorded in Butrint are in phase with most central and western Mediterranean records and correlate with NAO variability. In contrast, opposite hydrological patterns have been recorded in the Eastern Balkans and the Levant during the last millennium, emphasizing a complex spatial variability in the region. Phases of maximum settlement intensity in Butrint (Roman-Late Antique) coincide with warmer and/or stable climate periods (0–800 AD and MCA, respectively), indicating a long-term influence of climatic conditions on human activities. The Late Holocene sedimentary record of Lake Butrint demonstrates the complex interplay of climate variability, tectonics and human impact in the recent evolution of coastal Mediterranean regions.

Journal of Late Antiquity 12 (2019), 2019

Over the past decade, several publications, amongst which most prominently the monograph published by Kyle Harper in 2017, have argued that climate change was a determining factor in the rise and decline of the Roman Empire. This article offers a critique of these studies, observing that they lack a clear analytical model and misleadingly represent climate change as consisting of uniform climatic eras, ignoring chronological and geographical variability. Moreover, it is argued that both the biology of arable crops and the societal aspects of agriculture offer a wide scope for adaptation. Furthermore, Roman politics or warfare in the third and fourth century do not show an increased weakness of the food supply, nor did the Nile floods have a major impact on events outside Egypt. Regional case-studies show that changes in landscape and settlement patterns are more often caused by societal developments than by climatic factors. Finally, the economic and demographic decline in the western half of the empire in the third and fourth century (while North Africa and the East continued to prosper) is linked to the declining ability of political and societal mechanisms to deal with ever-present harvest shocks. While climate change is not denied, societal factors are argued to have had a far greater impact on the fate of the Roman Empire. "We historians are extremely uncomfortable with the idea that natural forces in some way circumscribe human agency. Fearful of being labeled 'environmental determinists,' we opt for a model of change in which all of the significant causal agents in historical processes are internal-or endogenous-to human culture, society, and economy."

This interdisciplinary collection of studies was published as a special issue of the Quaternary Science Reviews (vol. 136, March 2016). The volume's aim is to overcome the divide between the natural sciences and the humanities-social sciences in the study of the climate change and its impact on the Mediterranean societies of the prehistoric, ancient and medieval times. It contains a large methodological review paper, a number of regional syntheses focused on different time periods and parts of the Mediterranean, as well as multi-disciplinary local case studies.

PCA European Jounral of Postclassical Archaeologies 10 www.postclassical.it, 2020

The production of wine and oil during post-villa occupation at a site deserves special attention as an indicator of continued exploitation of land, even if within a changed economic framework; continuity of diet and technical traditions; and a stable resident population. Scales of production can also give insights into secular and ecclesiastical demand for these products. This paper examines three case studies in Spain, France, and Italy.

Kyle Harper's The Fate of Rome, written for a popular audi

This introductory article sets out some issues associated with the concept and theorization of 'resilience'. We describe some historical contexts in which theories of societal resilience can be usefully deployed; we offer some challenges to critiques of the validity and usefulness of Formal Resilience Theory (Theory of Adaptive Change). Resilience, adaptation, and transformation are complex issues, and while we cannot tell the whole story through the lens of environmental change, we can integrate the various categories of evidence to attempt to focus in on where and how climate change might impact an imperial system. Using an example from Byzantine Anatolia we examine the most vulnerable segments, such as subsistence systems, with respect to the agency of elite managers and the role of religious identity. Thus we can throw light on how interconnected environmental and social factors might exert pressure on other sub-systems and thus the system as a whole.

Late Antique Archaeology, 2013

This paper examines the archaeological, palynological and textual evidence for economic prosperity in the Anatolian countryside in Late Antiquity. Thanks to the separate analysis of data for coastal and inland regions, it shows that we do not see any substantial differences in the functioning of the rural economy between these two geographical zones. Therefore, the new demand from Constantinople for agricultural produce or a local economy’s proximity to a long-distance exchange network, cannot explain fully the observed phenomena. The vitality and complexity of local economies must also have played an important role in the economic expansion of Anatolia’s late antique countryside.