Comparative Archaeology and Paleoclimatology: Socio-cultural responses to a changing world

Description

Multidisciplinary Old and New World research, using high quality paleoenvironmental and archaeological data, looks for correlations between climatic oscillations and socio-cultural adjustments in nomadic hunter-gatherer, horticultural, sedentary agricultural, and early urbanized societies. The outright collapse of cultural systems, sometimes associated with radical climate change, is not readily demonstrated and some contributions attribute culture change primarily to human agency. Others indicate that different cultures in diverse regions and times employ varying adjustment strategies, including economic and technological innovations (i.e., agriculture, wheels, monumental architecture, metallurgy etc.) and exhibit religious and social upheaval, warfare,genocide, or migration in coping with a changing world. Front Cover Title Page Copyright Table of Contents List of Figures List of Tables List of Authors Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION Part I: Paleoclimate and Socio-Cultural Change in the New World Chapter 2: DANGEROUS REGIONS: A SOURCE OF CASCADING CULTURAL CHANGES Chapter 3: RISKY BUSINESS: CADDO FARMERS LIVING AT THE EDGE OF THE EASTERN WOODLANDS Chapter 4: ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE, POPULATION MOVEMENTS, AND THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL RECORD Part II: Paleoclimate and Socio-Cultural Change in the Old World: Africa Chapter 5: CLIMATE, CULTURE, AND CHANGE: FROM HUNTERS TO HERDERS IN NORTHEASTERN AND SOUTHWESTERN AFRICA Chapter 6: FITS AND STARTS: WHY DID DOMESTICATED ANIMALS ‘TRICKLE’ BEFORE THEY ‘SPLASHED’ INTO SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA? Chapter 7: SOCIO-CULTURAL RESPONSES TO A CHANGING ENVIRONMENT: THE SHASHE-LIMPOPO VALLEY SINCE CA. AD 900 Part III: Paleoclimate and Socio-Cultural Change in the Old World: Europe Chapter 8: MESOLITHIC SETTLEMENTS OF THE UKRAINIAN STEPPES: MIGRATION AS SOCIOCULTURAL RESPONSE TO A CHANGING WORLD Chapter 9: THE EARLY MEGALITHS OF SW ATLANTIC EUROPE AND THE INFERENCE OF THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC ORGANIZATION OF THEIR BUILDERS (8TH – 6TH MILLENNIUM BC) Chapter 10: PRE-NEOLITHIZATION: RECONSTRUCTING THE ENVIRONMENTAL BACKGROUND TO LIFE WAY CHANGES IN THE LATE MESOLITHIC OF THE CARPATHIAN BASIN Chapter 11: MESOLITHIC-NEOLITHIC TRANSITION IN THE CARPATHIAN BASIN: WAS THERE AN ECOLOGICAL TRAP DURING THE NEOLITHIC? Chapter 12: NEW DATA CONCERNING THE DETECTION AND NATUREOF HUMAN IMPACT ON THE MOHOS LAKES, NORTHEAST HUNGARY Chapter 13: LATE NEOLITHIC MAN AND ENVIRONMENT IN THE CARPATHIAN BASIN: A PRELIMINARY GEOARCHEOLOGICAL REPORT FROM CSŐSZHALOM AT POLGÁR Chapter 14: FRESHWATER MUSSELS AND LIFE IN THE LATE NEOLITHIC TELL OF HÓDMEZŐVÁSÁRHELY-GORZSA, SOUTHEAST HUNGARY Chapter 15: IMPRINTS OF THE ANTHROPOGENIC INFLUENCES IN A PEAT BOG FROM TRANSDANUBIA, HUNGARY Chapter 16: BREAKING UNNATURAL BARRIERS: COMPARATIVE ARCHAEOLOGY, CLIMATE, AND CULTURE CHANGE IN CENTRAL AND NORTHERN EUROPE (6100-2700 BC) Chapter 17: CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY IN THE CONTEXT OF CLIMATIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE IN THE LATE NEOLITHIC AND ENEOLITHIC OF THE MORAVA VALLEY Chapter 18: TAPHONOMIC PROCESSES AFFECTING MONUMENTAL EARTHEN ARCHITECTURE AS A PROXY FOR CLIMATIC CHANGE Chapter 19: NEOLITHIC SETTLEMENT IN THE CENTRAL EUROPEAN MOUNTAINS Chapter 20: SEPARATING NATURAL AND ANTHROPOGENIC INFLUENCES ON PAST ECOSYSTEMS: THE TESTATE AMOEBAE AND QUANTITATIVE PALEOENVIRONMENTAL RECONSTRUCTION Chapter 21: ENVIRONMENTAL AND CULTURAL CHANGE IN THE ALPS: SEEKING CONTINUITY IN THE BRONZE AGE LAKE-DWELLING TRADITION Chapter 22: SOCIETY AND ECOLOGY DURING THE MIDDLE BRONZE AGE OF SOUTHERN SCANDINAVIA Chapter 23: SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS