Archaeology of Climate Change

The Sasanian Empire (224–651 CE) has been given relatively little attention in research on climate-society interactions when compared to the neighboring Byzantine Empire, despite evidence of changing conditions and an agricultural economy that is theoretically vulnerable to droughts due to low annual precipitation. We review the available historical, archaeological, paleo-environmental, and paleo-climatic evidence to assess whether climatic conditions factored into periods of Sasanian growth and decline. We find evidence for drier conditions across Sasanian territories at the turn of the sixth century, a pattern that extends to the Aegean, Anatolia, and Central Asia. These same conditions contributed to a significant decline for the nearby Kingdom of Himyar but occurred alongside a period of expansion and intensification for the Sasanian Empire. We suggest that a combination of careful management of water infrastructure, including qanats, which can conserve water resources during dry periods, and land-use strategies that are both diverse and flexible, may have mitigated the worst impacts of this dry period. However, we note several weaknesses in the available data that still hinder confident interpretations of the potential impacts of climate change in the Sasanian Empire. Notably, there are gaps in the coverage of paleo-hydrological records and a complete lack of terrestrial paleo-temperature records in the region, as well as low resolution and high chronological uncertainties in the archaeological and paleo-environmental evidence.

The Caribbean region as a whole is impacted by numerous natural phenomena, some of which are exacerbated by climate change and varying anthropogenic causes. These anthropogenic causes in turn exacerbate the effects of climate change. Coastal areas in particular, have been referenced as being at the forefront of these effects, resulting in increased threats to these areas and the archaeological record located there, calling on us to broaden our understanding of these new vulnerabilities. Throughout the region, there are documented cases of the effects of climate change on coastal archaeological sites, evidenced by destruction from continued sea level rise (SLR), wave action, coastal erosion, storm surges and increased incidences of coastal inundation. Jamaica’s varied geo-physical characteristics have contributed to varying levels of coastal susceptibility, evidenced through localized erosion, coastal inundation and flooding from storms (IADB 2018). This paper explores the challenges associated with safeguarding Jamaica’s coastal pre-Columbian heritage amidst the changing climate, and within the context of this heritage already being severely affected by other well documented impacts such as infrastructural development and mining. In assessing these challenges, this research focuses on addressing the following questions: 1) How vulnerable is Jamaica’s pre-Columbian archaeological record, 2) What actions can be taken to mitigate these impacts, and 3) What are the strategies which need to be considered and implemented to address the protection of these sites amidst the changing climate. I will undertake an analysis through the utilization and review of documented site inventories and historical and contemporary observations of environmental changes and impacts at these sites, where they exist. In addition, it utilizes some field assessments of selected pre-Columbian sites exposed to these impacts – where possible, supported by the use of various tools to arrive at data driven conclusions regarding impacts, and the potential effects of future climate change at these sites. The research concludes with specific recommendations for mitigation, adaptation planning and management responses in relation to assuring the safeguarding and resilience of these sites where possible.

Session organizers: Caroline Heitz, Amy Bogaard, Felix Riede, Albert Hafner

Global warming is currently one of the biggest societal challenges that also affects scientific disciplines like archaeology. This was emphasized by the ‘EAA 2021 Kiel Statement on Archaeology and Climate Change’. The effects of climatic changes on ancient civilizations have been studied since the early 20th century, but the range of research topics regarding climate change and archaeology has expanded considerably in recent years.
In this session we seek to gain a deeper understanding of the thematic interdependencies among the many contemporary ’archaeology of climate change’ by mapping these fields of research and their diversity. This involves a broad range of topics, from new, interdisciplinary approaches to research on the impact and social response to climate change in the past, over threats to archaeological heritage due to climate change today and the relevance of insights from archaeologies’ unique long-term perspective for the present and future challenges of global warming. Not least, climate change communication is also becoming an acute topic in archaeological practice, from sustainable excavation methods to public outreach, from carbon-reduction in conference organization to museum exhibitions. We invite scholars from all archaeologies and adjacent disciplines to present their latest theoretical, methodological as well as case study-based work to discuss the following questions:
- How do current experiences and societal debates influence our hypothesis and narratives of the past regarding climate change?
- What terminology and interdisciplinary methodologies need further development to research climatic changes and climate related hazards in the past?
- How is global warming endangering archaeological sites and what measures could be taken to ensure their preservation?
- How can we translate archaeological research results to relevant publics, and what are major hurdles?

With these questions, we would like to carve out the current debates, to explore the future avenues for the
‘archaeologies of climate change’.

The Caribbean region as a whole is impacted by numerous natural phenomena, some of which are exacerbated by climate change and varying anthropogenic causes. These anthropogenic causes in turn exacerbate the effects of climate change. Coastal areas in particular, have been referenced as being at the forefront of these effects, resulting in increased threats to these areas and the archaeological record located there, calling on us to broaden our understanding of these new vulnerabilities. Throughout the region, there are documented cases of the effects of climate change on coastal archaeological sites, evidenced by destruction from continued sea level rise (SLR), wave action, coastal erosion, storm surges and increased incidences of coastal inundation. Jamaica’s varied geo-physical characteristics have contributed to varying levels of coastal susceptibility, evidenced through localized erosion, coastal inundation and flooding from storms. This paper explores the challenges associated with safeguarding Jamaica’s coastal pre-Columbian heritage amidst the changing climate, and within the context of this heritage already being severely affected by other well documented impacts such as infrastructural development and mining. In assessing these challenges, this research focuses on addressing the following questions: 1) How vulnerable is Jamaica’s pre-Columbian archaeological record, 2) What actions can be taken to mitigate these impacts, and 3) What are the strategies which need to be considered and implemented to address the protection of these sites amidst the changing climate. I will undertake an analysis through the utilization and review of documented site inventories and historical and contemporary observations of environmental changes and impacts at these sites, where they exist. In addition, it utilizes some field assessments of selected pre-Columbian sites exposed to these impacts – where possible, supported by the use of various tools to arrive at data driven conclusions regarding impacts, and the potential effects of future climate change at these sites. The research concludes with specific recommendations for mitigation, adaptation planning and management responses in relation to assuring the safeguarding and resilience of these sites where possible.

In the Copper Age and until the end of the Bronze Age (ca. 4000-500 BCE), very different settlement patterns and dynamics can be observed in Europe. We can identify various settlement types ranging from farmsteads, hamlets or village-like structures up to fortified settlements and the so-called mega-sites in different regions at the same time. The developments of house layouts differ on a temporal scale and even within individual settlements, likely in response to economic activities, but possibly also by socio-political organizational structures. Additionally, for some regions we can recognise a connection between changes in house and settlement structures to climatic events. Yet, a more extensive evaluation of the interplay between different factors-particularly climatic events-on supra-regional and internal settlement patterns is missing. To deepen this discussion, we ask the following questions: How did people live together and organise themselves in the European Copper and Bronze Ages? Where, when, and how can we possibly identify particular settlement patterns, considering possible problems in determining contemporaneity? Is there a correlation between house or settlement structures and changing climatic conditions or are recognized patterns related to other factors like settlement size, site location, network integration, economy (e.g. subsistence strategies, metal production, etc.)? Are certain spatio-temporal differences detectable? Our focus is not limited to one area, but to the whole of Europe, in order to gather and discuss an overview of the research regarding these issues. With this session, we would like to bring together different studies on settlement structures and climate of the Copper and Bronze Ages. Contributions are invited from archaeology (including its sub-disciplines) and climate science, as well as environmental science, ecology, and demographic studies.

South American arid lands present unique constellations of climatic risk to their human inhabitants, due to volatile events that can create markedly different hydroclimate conditions over interannual–centennial scales. However, a main driver of such volatility – the El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) – occurs with semiregular periodicity. Paleoclimatic and archeological evidence indicate not only that the strength and periodicity of ENSO patterns have changed over the late-Holocene, but their impacts were likely recognized, adapted to, and perhaps capitalized upon by agriculturalists employing adaptive risk strategies. We examine relationships over the last 1.3 kyr between ENSO periodicity, ecological transitions, and archeological settlement in Peru’s Chicama Valley through a coupled paleohydroclimate and agroecology model. We reconstruct periods when ENSO-like conditions dominated past hydroclimates and present a quantitative, spatially-explicit analysis of ecological productivity during modern ENSO-positive hydroclimate conditions. We show that archeological settlement patterns are sensitive to these transformations and reflect efforts to capitalize on expanded agroecological niches. Such expanded niches potentially offset the adverse impacts and risks associated with abrupt ENSO climate events. These results suggest archeological communities were aware of ENSO risk and managed productive strategies accordingly, highlighting the importance of a risk calculus that considers the net ecological effects of climate events.