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Braun T, Breitenbach SFM, Skiba V, Lechleitner FA, Ray EE, Baldini LM, Polyak VJ, Baldini JUL, Kennett DJ, Prufer KM, Marwan N. Decline in seasonal predictability potentially destabilized Classic Maya societies. COMMUNICATIONS EARTH & ENVIRONMENT 2023; 4:82. [PMID: 38665192 PMCID: PMC11041697 DOI: 10.1038/s43247-023-00717-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/15/2022] [Accepted: 02/15/2023] [Indexed: 04/28/2024]
Abstract
Classic Maya populations living in peri-urban states were highly dependent on seasonally distributed rainfall for reliable surplus crop yields. Despite intense study of the potential impact of decadal to centennial-scale climatic changes on the demise of Classic Maya sociopolitical institutions (750-950 CE), its direct importance remains debated. We provide a detailed analysis of a precisely dated speleothem record from Yok Balum cave, Belize, that reflects local hydroclimatic changes at seasonal scale over the past 1600 years. We find that the initial disintegration of Maya sociopolitical institutions and population decline occurred in the context of a pronounced decrease in the predictability of seasonal rainfall and severe drought between 700 and 800 CE. The failure of Classic Maya societies to successfully adapt to volatile seasonal rainfall dynamics likely contributed to gradual but widespread processes of sociopolitical disintegration. We propose that the complex abandonment of Classic Maya population centres was not solely driven by protracted drought but also aggravated by year-to-year decreases in rainfall predictability, potentially caused by a regional reduction in coherent Intertropical Convergence Zone-driven rainfall.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tobias Braun
- Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Leibniz Association, P.O. Box 60 12 03 D-14412 Potsdam, Germany
| | | | - Vanessa Skiba
- Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Leibniz Association, P.O. Box 60 12 03 D-14412 Potsdam, Germany
| | - Franziska A. Lechleitner
- Department of Chemistry, Biochemistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences and Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, Freiestrasse 3, Bern, 3012 Switzerland
| | - Erin E. Ray
- Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, 87131 NM USA
| | - Lisa M. Baldini
- School of Health & Life Sciences, Teesside University, Middlesbrough, TS1 3BX UK
| | - Victor J. Polyak
- Radiogenic Isotope Laboratory, Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, 87131 NM USA
| | | | - Douglas J. Kennett
- Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara, 93106 CA USA
| | - Keith M. Prufer
- Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, 87131 NM USA
- Center for Stable Isotopes, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, 87131 NM USA
| | - Norbert Marwan
- Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Leibniz Association, P.O. Box 60 12 03 D-14412 Potsdam, Germany
- Institute of Geosciences, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, 14476 Germany
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2
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Feinman GM, Carballo DM, Nicholas LM, Kowalewski SA. Sustainability and duration of early central places in prehispanic Mesoamerica. Front Ecol Evol 2023. [DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2023.1076740] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/06/2023] Open
Abstract
During the last millennium BCE, central places were founded across many regions of western (non-Maya) Mesoamerica. These early central places differed in environmental location, size, layout, and the nature of their public spaces and monumental architecture. We compare a subset of these regional centers and find marked differences in their sustainability--defined as the duration of time that they remained central places in their respective regions. Early infrastructural investments, high degrees of economic interdependence and collaboration between domestic units, and collective forms of governance are found to be key factors in such sustainability.
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3
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Finestone EM, Breeze PS, Breitenbach SFM, Drake N, Bergmann L, Maksudov F, Muhammadiyev A, Scott P, Cai Y, Khatsenovich AM, Rybin EP, Nehrke G, Boivin N, Petraglia M. Paleolithic occupation of arid Central Asia in the Middle Pleistocene. PLoS One 2022; 17:e0273984. [PMID: 36269723 PMCID: PMC9586385 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0273984] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/24/2022] [Accepted: 08/19/2022] [Indexed: 11/07/2022] Open
Abstract
Central Asia is positioned at a crossroads linking several zones important to hominin dispersal during the Middle Pleistocene. However, the scarcity of stratified and dated archaeological material and paleoclimate records makes it difficult to understand dispersal and occupation dynamics during this time period, especially in arid zones. Here we compile and analyze paleoclimatic and archaeological data from Pleistocene Central Asia, including examination of a new layer-counted speleothem-based multiproxy record of hydrological changes in southern Uzbekistan at the end of MIS 11. Our findings indicate that Lower Palaeolithic sites in the steppe, semi-arid, and desert zones of Central Asia may have served as key areas for the dispersal of hominins into Eurasia during the Middle Pleistocene. In agreement with previous studies, we find that bifaces occur across these zones at higher latitudes and in lower altitudes relative to the other Paleolithic assemblages. We argue that arid Central Asia would have been intermittently habitable during the Middle Pleistocene when long warm interglacial phases coincided with periods when the Caspian Sea was experiencing consistently high water levels, resulting in greater moisture availability and more temperate conditions in otherwise arid regions. During periodic intervals in the Middle Pleistocene, the local environment of arid Central Asia was likely a favorable habitat for paleolithic hominins and was frequented by Lower Paleolithic toolmakers producing bifaces.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emma M. Finestone
- Department of Anthropology, The Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Cleveland, OH, United States of America
- Department of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany
- * E-mail:
| | - Paul S. Breeze
- Department of Geography, Kings College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Sebastian F. M. Breitenbach
- Department of Geography and Environmental Sciences, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom
| | - Nick Drake
- Department of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany
- Department of Geography, Kings College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Laura Bergmann
- Department of Physical Geography, Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, Eichstätt, Germany
| | - Farhod Maksudov
- National Center of Archaeology, Uzbekistan Academy of Sciences, Tashkent, Uzbekistan
| | - Akmal Muhammadiyev
- National Center of Archaeology, Uzbekistan Academy of Sciences, Tashkent, Uzbekistan
| | - Pete Scott
- Centre for Microscopy, Characterisation and Analysis, The University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia
| | - Yanjun Cai
- Institute of Global Environmental Change, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China
| | - Arina M. Khatsenovich
- Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russia
| | - Evgeny P. Rybin
- Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russia
| | - Gernot Nehrke
- Alfred-Wegener-Institut Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung, Bremerhaven, Germany
| | - Nicole Boivin
- Department of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany
- School of Social Science, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
- Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada
- Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, United States of America
| | - Michael Petraglia
- Department of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany
- School of Social Science, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
- Human Origins Program, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, United States of America
- Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia
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4
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Li R, Li B, Chen W, Liu P, Xie M, Zhang Y, Wang S, Li Y, Dong G. The alteration from agricultural to nomadic regimes resulted in human livelihood transformation in North-Central China during the 12th century: The archaeobotanical evidence. FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE 2022; 13:978147. [PMID: 36186048 PMCID: PMC9523409 DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2022.978147] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/25/2022] [Accepted: 08/16/2022] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
Human livelihoods provided a crucial economic foundation for social development in ancient times and were influenced by various factors including environmental change, agricultural origin and intensification, as well as long-distance exchange and culinary tradition. The effect of geopolitical change on human subsistence, especially the shifts between agricultural and nomadic regimes, has not been well understood due to the absence of detailed historical records and archaeological evidence. During the 12th century, the control of the Zhengding area in Hebei Province of north-central China changed from the Northern Song (960-1127 CE) to the Jurchen Jin Dynasty (Jin Dynasty; 1115-1234 CE). Recent excavation of the Zhengding Kaiyuan Temple South (ZKS) site in the area provides a rare opportunity to study human livelihood transformation in relation to geopolitical change. In total, 21,588 charred crop caryopses including foxtail millet, wheat, broomcorn millet, hulled barley, and rice, and other carbonized remains including 55.15 g of boiled foxtail millet and 353.5 g of foxtail millet caryopses were identified, and nine AMS 14C dates of crop remains were obtained from the Northern Song and Jin layers at the ZKS site. This revealed that the dominant plant subsistence transformed from wheat to foxtail millet during the change from the Northern Song to the Jin Dynasties in Zhengding area. By comparing with historical documents and paleoclimate records, we propose that this abnormal shift of primary staple food from the relatively high-yield wheat to low-yield foxtail millet was induced by the traditional dietary preference for foxtail millet in the nomadic Jin society. The Jin government levied foxtail millet as taxation and promoted massive immigration from northeastern China to north-central China to consolidate their rule, which resulted in the adoption of foxtail millet as the most important crop in Zhengding area. The advantage for the cultivation of this frost-sensitive crop in north-central China over northeast China was probably enhanced by notable cold events during the 12th century, while the primary influencing factor for the transformation of human livelihoods in north-central China during that period was geopolitics rather than climate change.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ruo Li
- Key Laboratory of Western China’s Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China
| | - Bing Li
- School of Geographical Sciences, Hebei Normal University, Shijiazhuang, China
| | - Wei Chen
- Hebei Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, Shijiazhuang, Hebei, China
| | - Peilun Liu
- Key Laboratory of Western China’s Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China
| | - Mingxia Xie
- School of Geographical Sciences, Hebei Normal University, Shijiazhuang, China
| | - Yunqing Zhang
- Hebei Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, Shijiazhuang, Hebei, China
| | - Sai Wang
- School of Geographical Sciences, Hebei Normal University, Shijiazhuang, China
| | - Yuecong Li
- School of Geographical Sciences, Hebei Normal University, Shijiazhuang, China
- Hebei Key Laboratory of Environmental Change and Ecological Construction, Shijiazhuang, China
| | - Guanghui Dong
- Key Laboratory of Western China’s Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China
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Abstract
The influence of climate change on civil conflict and societal instability in the premodern world is a subject of much debate, in part because of the limited temporal or disciplinary scope of case studies. We present a transdisciplinary case study that combines archeological, historical, and paleoclimate datasets to explore the dynamic, shifting relationships among climate change, civil conflict, and political collapse at Mayapan, the largest Postclassic Maya capital of the Yucatán Peninsula in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries CE. Multiple data sources indicate that civil conflict increased significantly and generalized linear modeling correlates strife in the city with drought conditions between 1400 and 1450 cal. CE. We argue that prolonged drought escalated rival factional tensions, but subsequent adaptations reveal regional-scale resiliency, ensuring that Maya political and economic structures endured until European contact in the early sixteenth century CE. The influence of climate on premodern civil conflict and societal instability is debated. Here, the authors combine archeological, historical, and paleoclimatic datasets to show that drought between 1400-1450 cal. CE escalated civil conflict at Mayapan, the largest Postclassic Maya capital of the Yucatán Peninsula.
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6
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De Dreu CKW, Gross J, Reddmann L. Environmental stress increases out-group aggression and intergroup conflict in humans. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2022; 377:20210147. [PMID: 35369744 PMCID: PMC8977653 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2021.0147] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Peaceful coexistence and trade among human groups can be fragile and intergroup relations frequently transition to violent exchange and conflict. Here we specify how exogenous changes in groups' environment and ensuing carrying-capacity stress can increase individual participation in intergroup conflict, and out-group aggression in particular. In two intergroup contest experiments, individuals could contribute private resources to out-group aggression (versus in-group defense). Environmental unpredictability, induced by making non-invested resources subject to risk of destruction (versus not), created psychological stress and increased participation in and coordination of out-group attacks. Archival analyses of interstate conflicts showed, likewise, that sovereign states engage in revisionist warfare more when their pre-conflict economic and climatic environment were more volatile and unpredictable. Given that participation in conflict is wasteful, environmental unpredictability not only made groups more often victorious but also less wealthy. Macro-level changes in the natural and economic environment can be a root cause of out-group aggression and turn benign intergroup relations violent. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Intergroup conflict across taxa’.
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Affiliation(s)
- Carsten K W De Dreu
- Social, Economic and Organizational Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands.,Center for Research in Experimental Economics and Political Decision Making (CREED), University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Jörg Gross
- Social, Economic and Organizational Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Lennart Reddmann
- Social, Economic and Organizational Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
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7
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Climate change-induced population pressure drives high rates of lethal violence in the Prehispanic central Andes. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2022; 119:e2117556119. [PMID: 35446706 PMCID: PMC9169923 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2117556119] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Understanding the influence of climate change and population pressure on human conflict remains a critically important topic in the social sciences. Long-term records that evaluate these dynamics across multiple centuries and outside the range of modern climatic variation are especially capable of elucidating the relative effect of—and the interaction between—climate and demography. This is crucial given that climate change may structure population growth and carrying capacity, while both climate and population influence per capita resource availability. This study couples paleoclimatic and demographic data with osteological evaluations of lethal trauma from 149 directly accelerator mass spectrometry 14C-dated individuals from the Nasca highland region of Peru. Multiple local and supraregional precipitation proxies are combined with a summed probability distribution of 149 14C dates to estimate population dynamics during a 700-y study window. Counter to previous findings, our analysis reveals a precipitous increase in violent deaths associated with a period of productive and stable climate, but volatile population dynamics. We conclude that favorable local climate conditions fostered population growth that put pressure on the marginal and highly circumscribed resource base, resulting in violent resource competition that manifested in over 450 y of internecine warfare. These findings help support a general theory of intergroup violence, indicating that relative resource scarcity—whether driven by reduced resource abundance or increased competition—can lead to violence in subsistence societies when the outcome is lower per capita resource availability.
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8
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Climate and demography drive 7000 years of dietary change in the Central Andes. Sci Rep 2022; 12:2026. [PMID: 35132100 PMCID: PMC8821598 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-05774-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/11/2021] [Accepted: 01/13/2022] [Indexed: 12/31/2022] Open
Abstract
Explaining the factors that influence past dietary variation is critically important for understanding changes in subsistence, health, and status in past societies; yet systematic studies comparing possible driving factors remain scarce. Here we compile the largest dataset of past diet derived from stable isotope δ13C‰ and δ15N‰ values in the Americas to quantitatively evaluate the impact of 7000 years of climatic and demographic change on dietary variation in the Central Andes. Specifically, we couple paleoclimatic data from a general circulation model with estimates of relative past population inferred from archaeologically derived radiocarbon dates to assess the influence of climate and population on spatiotemporal dietary variation using an ensemble machine learning model capable of accounting for interactions among predictors. Results reveal that climate and population strongly predict diet (80% of δ15N‰ and 66% of δ13C‰) and that Central Andean diets correlate much more strongly with local climatic conditions than regional population size, indicating that the past 7000 years of dietary change was influenced more by climatic than socio-demographic processes. Visually, the temporal pattern suggests decreasing dietary variation across elevation zones during the Late Horizon, raising the possibility that sociopolitical factors overrode the influence of local climatic conditions on diet during that time. The overall findings and approach establish a general framework for understanding the influence of local climate and demography on dietary change across human history.
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9
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Pompeani DP, Bird BW, Wilson JJ, Gilhooly WP, Hillman AL, Finkenbinder MS, Abbott MB. Severe Little Ice Age drought in the midcontinental United States during the Mississippian abandonment of Cahokia. Sci Rep 2021; 11:13829. [PMID: 34226591 PMCID: PMC8257696 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-92900-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/01/2020] [Accepted: 06/14/2021] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Drought has long been suspected as playing an important role in the abandonment of pre-Columbian Native American settlements across the midcontinental United States between 1350 and 1450 CE. However, high-resolution paleoclimatic reconstructions reflecting local effective moisture (the ratio of precipitation to evaporation) that are located in proximity to Mississippi period (1050-1450 CE) population centers are lacking. Here, we present a 1600-year-long decadally resolved oxygen isotope (δ18O) record from Horseshoe Lake (Collinsville, IL), an evaporatively influenced oxbow lake that is centrally located within the largest and mostly densely populated series of Mississippian settlements known as Greater Cahokia. A shift to higher δ18O in the Horseshoe Lake sediment record from 1200 to 1400 CE indicates that strongly evaporative conditions (i.e., low effective moisture) were persistent during the leadup to Cahokia's abandonment. These results support the hypothesis that climate, and drought specifically, strongly impacted agriculturally based pre-Columbian Native American cultures in the midcontinental US and highlights the susceptibility of this region, presently a global food production center, to hydroclimate extremes.
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Affiliation(s)
- David P Pompeani
- Department of Geology, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, 66506, USA.
| | - Broxton W Bird
- Department of Earth Science, Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis, IN, 46202, USA
| | - Jeremy J Wilson
- Department of Anthropology, Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis, IN, 46202, USA
| | - William P Gilhooly
- Department of Earth Science, Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis, IN, 46202, USA
| | - Aubrey L Hillman
- Department of Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences, University at Albany, State University of New York, Albany, NY, 12222, USA
| | - Matthew S Finkenbinder
- Department of Environmental Engineering and Earth Science, Wilkes University, Wilkes-Barre, PA, 18766, USA
| | - Mark B Abbott
- Department of Geology and Environmental Science, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, 15260, USA
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10
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Wilson KM, Codding BF. The Marginal Utility of Inequality : A Global Examination across Ethnographic Societies. HUMAN NATURE-AN INTERDISCIPLINARY BIOSOCIAL PERSPECTIVE 2021; 31:361-386. [PMID: 33523386 DOI: 10.1007/s12110-020-09383-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 12/15/2020] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Despite decades of research, we still lack a clear explanation for the emergence and persistence of inequality. Here we propose and evaluate a marginal utility of inequality hypothesis that nominates circumscription and environmental heterogeneity as independent, necessary conditions for the emergence of intragroup material inequality. After coupling the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample (SCCS) with newly generated data from remote sensing, we test predictions derived from this hypothesis using a multivariate generalized additive model that accounts for spatial and historical dependence as well as subsistence mode. Our analyses show that the probability a society will be stratified increases significantly as a function of proxies of environmental heterogeneity and environmental circumscription. This supports the hypothesis that increasing environmental heterogeneity and circumscription drives the emergence and persistence of inequality among documented societies across the globe. We demonstrate how environmental heterogeneity and circumscription produce situations that limit individuals' options so that some may find it in their best interest to give up some autonomy for material gain, while others may find it in their best interest to give up some material resources for another individual's time or deference. These results support the marginal utility of inequality framework and enable future explorations of the ecological conditions that facilitate the emergence of intragroup inequality through time and across the globe.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kurt M Wilson
- Department of Anthropology, University of Utah, 260 S. Central Campus Drive, Room 4625, Salt Lake City, UT, 84112, USA.
| | - Brian F Codding
- Department of Anthropology, University of Utah, 260 S. Central Campus Drive, Room 4625, Salt Lake City, UT, 84112, USA
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11
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Manning SW, Lorentzen B, Welton L, Batiuk S, Harrison TP. Beyond megadrought and collapse in the Northern Levant: The chronology of Tell Tayinat and two historical inflection episodes, around 4.2ka BP, and following 3.2ka BP. PLoS One 2020; 15:e0240799. [PMID: 33119717 PMCID: PMC7595433 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0240799] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/03/2020] [Accepted: 10/03/2020] [Indexed: 11/28/2022] Open
Abstract
There has been considerable focus on the main, expansionary, and inter-regionally linked or 'globalising' periods in Old World pre- and proto-history, with a focus on identifying, analyzing and dating collapse at the close of these pivotal periods. The end of the Early Bronze Age in the late third millennium BCE and a subsequent 'intermediate' or transitional period before the Middle Bronze Age (~2200-1900 BCE), and the end of the Late Bronze Age in the late second millennium BCE and the ensuing period of transformation during the Early Iron Age (~1200-900 BCE), are key examples. Among other issues, climate change is regularly invoked as a cause or factor in both cases. Recent considerations of "collapse" have emphasized the unpredictability and variability of responses during such periods of reorganization and transformation. Yet, a gap in scholarly attention remains in documenting the responses observed at important sites during these 'transformative' periods in the Old World region. Tell Tayinat in southeastern Turkey, as a major archaeological site occupied during these two major 'in between' periods of transformation, offers a unique case for comparing and contrasting differing responses to change. To enable scholarly assessment of associations between the local trajectory of the site and broader regional narratives, an essential preliminary need is a secure, resolved timeframe for the site. Here we report a large set of radiocarbon data and incorporate the stratigraphic sequence using Bayesian chronological modelling to create a refined timeframe for Tell Tayinat and a secure basis for analysis of the site with respect to its broader regional context and climate history.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sturt W. Manning
- Cornell Tree-Ring Laboratory, Department of Classics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, United States of America
| | - Brita Lorentzen
- Cornell Tree-Ring Laboratory, Department of Classics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, United States of America
| | - Lynn Welton
- Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
- Department of Archaeology, Durham University, Dawson Building, Durham, United Kingdom
| | - Stephen Batiuk
- Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Timothy P. Harrison
- Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
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12
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Two Thousand Years of Land-Use and Vegetation Evolution in the Andean Highlands of Northern Chile Inferred from Pollen and Charcoal Analyses. QUATERNARY 2018. [DOI: 10.3390/quat1030032] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
The European conquest of the New World produced major socio-environmental reorganization in the Americas, but for many specific regions and ecosystems, we still do not understand how these changes occurred within a broader temporal framework. In this paper, we reconstruct the long-term environmental and vegetation changes experienced by high-altitude wetlands of the southcentral Andes over the last two millennia. Pollen and charcoal analyses of a 5.5-m-long core recovered from the semi-arid puna of northern Chile indicate that while climatic drivers influenced vegetation turnaround, human land use and management strategies significantly affected long-term changes. Our results indicate that the puna vegetation mostly dominated by grasslands and some peatland taxa stabilized during the late Holocene, xerophytic shrubs expanded during extremely dry events, and peatland vegetation persisted in relation to landscape-scale management strategies by Andean pastoralist societies. Environmental changes produced during the post-conquest period included the introduction of exotic taxa, such as clovers, associated with the translocation of exotic herding animals (sheep, cattle, and donkeys) and a deterioration in the management of highland wetlands.
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13
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Jackson R, Arneborg J, Dugmore A, Madsen C, McGovern T, Smiarowski K, Streeter R. Disequilibrium, Adaptation, and the Norse Settlement of Greenland. HUMAN ECOLOGY: AN INTERDISCIPLINARY JOURNAL 2018; 46:665-684. [PMID: 30363683 PMCID: PMC6182579 DOI: 10.1007/s10745-018-0020-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/08/2023]
Abstract
There is increasing evidence to suggest that arctic cultures and ecosystems have followed non-linear responses to climate change. Norse Scandinavian farmers introduced agriculture to sub-arctic Greenland in the late tenth century, creating synanthropic landscapes and utilising seasonally abundant marine and terrestrial resources. Using a niche-construction framework and data from recent survey work, studies of diet, and regional-scale climate proxies we examine the potential mismatch between this imported agricultural niche and the constraints of the environment from the tenth to the fifteenth centuries. We argue that landscape modification conformed the Norse to a Scandinavian style of agriculture throughout settlement, structuring and limiting the efficacy of seasonal hunting strategies. Recent climate data provide evidence of sustained cooling from the mid thirteenth century and climate variation from the early fifteenth century. Archaeological evidence suggests that the Norse made incremental adjustments to the changing sub-arctic environment, but were limited by cultural adaptations made in past environments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rowan Jackson
- Geography, School of Geosciences, University of Edinburgh, Drummond Street, Edinburgh, Scotland EH8 9XP UK
- Department of Archaeology, School of Culture and Society, University of Aarhus, Moesgård Allé 20, 8270 Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Jette Arneborg
- Geography, School of Geosciences, University of Edinburgh, Drummond Street, Edinburgh, Scotland EH8 9XP UK
- Middle Ages, Renaissance and Numismatics, National Museum of Denmark, DK-1220 Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Andrew Dugmore
- Geography, School of Geosciences, University of Edinburgh, Drummond Street, Edinburgh, Scotland EH8 9XP UK
- Human Ecodynamics Research Centre & Doctoral Program in Anthropology, The Graduate Center, City University of New York, 365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10016-4309 USA
| | - Christian Madsen
- Middle Ages, Renaissance and Numismatics, National Museum of Denmark, DK-1220 Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Tom McGovern
- Human Ecodynamics Research Centre & Doctoral Program in Anthropology, The Graduate Center, City University of New York, 365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10016-4309 USA
- Hunter Zooarchaeology Laboratory, Department of Anthropology, Hunter College, City University of New York, 695 Park Ave, New York, NY 10021 USA
| | - Konrad Smiarowski
- Human Ecodynamics Research Centre & Doctoral Program in Anthropology, The Graduate Center, City University of New York, 365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10016-4309 USA
- Hunter Zooarchaeology Laboratory, Department of Anthropology, Hunter College, City University of New York, 695 Park Ave, New York, NY 10021 USA
| | - Richard Streeter
- School of Geography and Sustainable Development, Irvine Building, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, KY16 9AL UK
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14
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Climatic shocks associate with innovation in science and technology. PLoS One 2018; 13:e0190122. [PMID: 29364910 PMCID: PMC5783359 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0190122] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/13/2017] [Accepted: 12/08/2017] [Indexed: 01/26/2023] Open
Abstract
Human history is shaped by landmark discoveries in science and technology. However, across both time and space the rate of innovation is erratic: Periods of relative inertia alternate with bursts of creative science and rapid cascades of technological innovations. While the origins of the rise and fall in rates of discovery and innovation remain poorly understood, they may reflect adaptive responses to exogenously emerging threats and pressures. Here we examined this possibility by fitting annual rates of scientific discovery and technological innovation to climatic variability and its associated economic pressures and resource scarcity. In time-series data from Europe (1500–1900CE), we indeed found that rates of innovation are higher during prolonged periods of cold (versus warm) surface temperature and during the presence (versus absence) of volcanic dust veils. This negative temperature–innovation link was confirmed in annual time-series for France, Germany, and the United Kingdom (1901–1965CE). Combined, across almost 500 years and over 5,000 documented innovations and discoveries, a 0.5°C increase in temperature associates with a sizable 0.30–0.60 standard deviation decrease in innovation. Results were robust to controlling for fluctuations in population size. Furthermore, and consistent with economic theory and micro-level data on group innovation, path analyses revealed that the relation between harsher climatic conditions between 1500–1900CE and more innovation is mediated by climate-induced economic pressures and resource scarcity.
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15
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Hoggarth JA, Restall M, Wood JW, Kennett DJ. Drought and Its Demographic Effects in the Maya Lowlands. CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY 2017. [DOI: 10.1086/690046] [Citation(s) in RCA: 49] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/03/2022]
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16
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Bird BW, Wilson JJ, Gilhooly III WP, Steinman BA, Stamps L. Midcontinental Native American population dynamics and late Holocene hydroclimate extremes. Sci Rep 2017; 7:41628. [PMID: 28139698 PMCID: PMC5282493 DOI: 10.1038/srep41628] [Citation(s) in RCA: 42] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/07/2016] [Accepted: 12/21/2016] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Climate's influence on late Pre-Columbian (pre-1492 CE), maize-dependent Native American populations in the midcontinental United States (US) is poorly understood as regional paleoclimate records are sparse and/or provide conflicting perspectives. Here, we reconstruct regional changes in precipitation source and seasonality and local changes in warm-season duration and rainstorm events related to the Pacific North American pattern (PNA) using a 2100-year-long multi-proxy lake-sediment record from the midcontinental US. Wet midcontinental climate reflecting negative PNA-like conditions occurred during the Medieval Climate Anomaly (950-1250 CE) as Native American populations adopted intensive maize agriculture, facilitating population aggregation and the development of urban centers between 1000-1200 CE. Intensifying midcontinental socio-political instability and warfare between 1250-1350 CE corresponded with drier positive PNA-like conditions, culminating in the staggered abandonment of many major Native American river valley settlements and large urban centers between 1350-1450 CE during an especially severe warm-season drought. We hypothesize that this sustained drought interval rendered it difficult to support dense populations and large urban centers in the midcontinental US by destabilizing regional agricultural systems, thereby contributing to the host of socio-political factors that led to population reorganization and migration in the midcontinent and neighboring regions shortly before European contact.
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Affiliation(s)
- Broxton W. Bird
- Department of Earth Sciences, Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis, 46202, USA
| | - Jeremy J. Wilson
- Department of Anthropology, Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis, 46202, USA
| | - William P. Gilhooly III
- Department of Earth Sciences, Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis, 46202, USA
| | - Byron A. Steinman
- Large Lakes Observatory and Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Minnesota Duluth, Duluth, 55812, USA
| | - Lucas Stamps
- Department of Earth Sciences, Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis, 46202, USA
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17
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Lewandowsky S, Ballard T, Pancost RD. Uncertainty as knowledge. PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. SERIES A, MATHEMATICAL, PHYSICAL, AND ENGINEERING SCIENCES 2015; 373:rsta.2014.0462. [PMID: 26460108 PMCID: PMC4608032 DOI: 10.1098/rsta.2014.0462] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 09/03/2015] [Indexed: 06/05/2023]
Abstract
This issue of Philosophical Transactions examines the relationship between scientific uncertainty about climate change and knowledge. Uncertainty is an inherent feature of the climate system. Considerable effort has therefore been devoted to understanding how to effectively respond to a changing, yet uncertain climate. Politicians and the public often appeal to uncertainty as an argument to delay mitigative action. We argue that the appropriate response to uncertainty is exactly the opposite: uncertainty provides an impetus to be concerned about climate change, because greater uncertainty increases the risks associated with climate change. We therefore suggest that uncertainty can be a source of actionable knowledge. We survey the papers in this issue, which address the relationship between uncertainty and knowledge from physical, economic and social perspectives. We also summarize the pervasive psychological effects of uncertainty, some of which may militate against a meaningful response to climate change, and we provide pointers to how those difficulties may be ameliorated.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stephan Lewandowsky
- School of Experimental Psychology and Cabot Institute, University of Bristol, 12a Priory Road, Bristol BS8 1TU, UK School of Psychology, University of Western Australia, Crawley, Western Australia 6009, Australia
| | - Timothy Ballard
- School of Experimental Psychology and Cabot Institute, University of Bristol, 12a Priory Road, Bristol BS8 1TU, UK School of Psychology, University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland, Australia
| | - Richard D Pancost
- School of Experimental Psychology and Cabot Institute, University of Bristol, 12a Priory Road, Bristol BS8 1TU, UK School of Chemistry and Cabot Institute, University of Bristol, Cantock's Close, Bristol BS8 1TS, UK
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