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Rapid climate change did not cause population collapse at the end of the European Bronze Age

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posted on 2019-03-27, 15:38 authored by I Armit, GT Swindles, K Becker, G Plunkett, M Blaauw
The impact of rapid climate change on contemporary human populations is of global concern. To contextualize our understanding of human responses to rapid climate change it is necessary to examine the archeological record during past climate transitions. One episode of abrupt climate change has been correlated with societal collapse at the end of the northwestern European Bronze Age. We apply new methods to interrogate archeological and paleoclimate data for this transition in Ireland at a higher level of precision than has previously been possible. We analyze archeological (14)C dates to demonstrate dramatic population collapse and present high-precision proxy climate data, analyzed through Bayesian methods, to provide evidence for a rapid climatic transition at ca. 750 calibrated years B.C. Our results demonstrate that this climatic downturn did not initiate population collapse and highlight the nondeterministic nature of human responses to past climate change.

Funding

The research forms part of the Mobility, Climate and Culture: Re-Modelling the Irish Iron Age project, funded by the British Academy. Preliminary data collection was funded by the Irish Heritage Council.

History

Citation

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 2014, 111 (48), pp. 17045-17049

Author affiliation

/Organisation/COLLEGE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES, ARTS AND HUMANITIES/School of Archaeology and Ancient History

Version

  • AM (Accepted Manuscript)

Published in

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A

Publisher

National Academy of Sciences

eissn

1091-6490

Copyright date

2014

Available date

2019-03-27

Publisher version

https://www.pnas.org/content/111/48/17045

Language

en

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