15 research outputs found
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The medieval climate anomaly and Byzantium: a review of the evidence on climatic fluctuations, economic performance and societal change
At the beginning of the Medieval Climate Anomaly, in the ninth and tenth century, the medieval
eastern Roman empire, more usually known as Byzantium, was recovering from its early medieval
crisis and experiencing favourable climatic conditions for the agricultural and demographic growth.
Although in the Balkans and Anatolia such favourable climate conditions were prevalent during the
eleventh century, parts of the imperial territories were facing significant challenges as a result of
external political/military pressure. The apogee of medieval Byzantine socio-economic development,
around AD 1150, coincides with a period of adverse climatic conditions for its economy, so it becomes
obvious that the winter dryness and high climate variability at this time did not hinder Byzantine
society and economy from achieving that level of expansion. Soon after this peak, towards the end of
the twelfth century, the populations of the Byzantine world were experiencing unusual climatic
conditions with marked dryness and cooler phases. The weakened Byzantine socio-political system
must have contributed to the events leading to the fall of Constantinople in AD 1204 and the sack of
the city. The final collapse of the Byzantine political control over western Anatolia took place half
century later, thus contemporaneous with the strong cooling effect after a tropical volcanic eruption in
AD 1257.
We suggest that, regardless of a range of other influential factors, climate change was also an
important contributing factor to the socio-economic changes that took place in Byzantium during the
Medieval Climate Anomaly. Crucially, therefore, while the relatively sophisticated and complex Byzantine
society was certainly influenced by climatic conditions, and while it nevertheless displayed a significant
degree of resilience, external pressures as well as tensions within the Byzantine society more broadly
contributed to an increasing vulnerability in respect of climate impacts.
Our interdisciplinary analysis is based on all available sources of information on the climate and
society of Byzantium, that is textual (documentary), archaeological, environmental, climate and
climate model-based evidence about the nature and extent of climate variability in the eastern
Mediterranean. The key challenge was, therefore, to assess the relative influence to be ascribed to
climate variability and change on the one hand, and on the other to the anthropogenic factors in the
evolution of Byzantine state and society (such as invasions, changes in international or regional
market demand and patterns of production and consumption, etc.). The focus of this interdisciplinar
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Modelling climate and societal resilience in the Eastern Mediterranean in the last Millennium
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
Class dynamics of development: a methodological note
This article argues that class relations are constitutive of developmental processes and central to understanding inequality within and between countries. In doing so it illustrates and explains the diversity of the actually existing forms of class relations, and the ways in which they interplay with other social relations such as gender and ethnicity. This is part of a wider project to re- vitalise class analysis in the study of development problems and experiences
Administrative Continuities and Structural Transformations in East Roman Military Organisation ca. 580-640
Haldon John F. Administrative Continuities and Structural Transformations in East Roman Military Organisation ca. 580-640. In: L'armée romaine et les Barbares du IIIe au VIIe siècle. Actes du Colloque International organisé par le Musée des Antiquités Nationales et l'URA 880 du CNRS. Saint-Germain-en-Laye, 24-28 février 1990. Chelles : Association française d'archéologie mérovingienne, 1993. pp. 45-53. (Mémoires de l'Association française d'archéologie mérovingienne
Quelques conclusions pour l’empire d’Orient
Haldon John F. Quelques conclusions pour l’empire d’Orient. In: L'armée romaine et les Barbares du IIIe au VIIe siècle. Actes du Colloque International organisé par le Musée des Antiquités Nationales et l'URA 880 du CNRS. Saint-Germain-en-Laye, 24-28 février 1990. Chelles : Association française d'archéologie mérovingienne, 1993. pp. 465-466. (Mémoires de l'Association française d'archéologie mérovingienne
Historical landscape change in Cappadocia (central Turkey): a palaeoecological investigation of annually laminated sediments from Nar lake
The army and the economy: The allocation and redistribution of surplus wealth in the Byzantine state
History meets palaeoscience : Consilience and collaboration in studying past societal responses to environmental change
History and archaeology have a well-established engagement with issues of premodern societal development and the interaction between physical and cultural environments; together, they offer a holistic view that can generate insights into the nature of cultural resilience and adaptation, as well as responses to catastrophe. Grasping the challenges that climate change presents and evolving appropriate policies that promote and support mitigation and adaptation requires not only an understanding of the science and the contemporary politics, but also an understanding of the history of the societies affected and in particular of their cultural logic. But whereas archaeologists have developed productive links with the paleosciences, historians have, on the whole, remained muted voices in the debate until recently. Here, we suggest several ways in which a consilience between the historical sciences and the natural sciences, including attention to even distant historical pasts, can deepen contemporary understanding of environmental change and its effects on human societies