Realising consilience: How better communication between archaeologists, historians and natural scientists can transform the study of past climate change in the Mediterranean

This paper reviews the methodological and practical issues relevant to the ways in which natural scientists, historians and archaeologists may collaborate in the study of past climatic changes in the Mediterranean basin. We begin by discussing the methodologies of these three disciplines in the context of the consilience debate, that is, attempts to unify different research methodologies that address similar problems. We demonstrate that there are a number of similarities in the fundamental methodology between history, archaeology, and the natural sciences that deal with the past ("palaeoenvironmental sciences"), due to their common interest in studying societal and environmental phenomena that no longer exist. The three research traditions, for instance, employ specific narrative structures as a means of communicating research results. We thus present and compare the narratives characteristic of each discipline; in order to engage in fruitful interdisciplinary exchange, we must first understand how each deals with the societal impacts of climatic change. In the second part of the paper, we focus our discussion on the four major practical issues that hinder communication between the three disciplines. These include terminological misunderstandings, problems relevant to project design, divergences in publication cultures, and differing views on the impact of research. Among other recommendations, we suggest that scholars from the three disciplines should aim to create a joint publication culture, which should also appeal to a wider public, both inside and outside of academia

Le PROOF nouveau est arrivé

International audienc

Polyaromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) distributions in the Seine River and its estuary

International audienc

Impact of the East Asian monsoon rainfall changes on the erosion of the Mekong River basin over the past 25,000 yr.

International audienc

Acton et les scientifiques embarqués à bord du "Joides Resolution". La campagne de forage "Leg ODP 172" sur la marge continentale nord-ouest Atlantique: des résultats préliminaires prometteurs

International audienc

Erosional history of the eastern Tibetan Plateau since 190 kyr ago: clay mineralogical and geochemical investigations from the southwestern South China Sea

International audienc

Development of new proxies to assess the 20th century variability of the North West Africa upwelling [résumé]

International Conference AWA (ICAWA), Dakar, SEN, 09-/12/2014 - 11/12/201

Development of new proxies to assess the 20th century variability of the North West Africa upwelling [résumé]

International Conference AWA (ICAWA), Dakar, SEN, 09-/12/2014 - 11/12/201

Decadal variability of sea surface temperatures off North Iceland over the last 2000 years

International audienceOcean variability at decadal time-scales remains poorly described partly because of the scarcity of high temporal resolution marine records. Here, we present a reconstruction of Sea Surface Temperatures (SSTs) over the past twomillennia at unprecedented temporal resolution (2 to 5 years), from a marine core located off North Iceland. Alkenone paleothermometry was used to infer SST variability, and tephrochronology to build the age model. Spectral analyses of the SSTsignal indicate intermittent 20–25 year oscillations, with periods of strong and weak power, that are likely reflecting the ocean response to wind forcing, presumably the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). Warmer SSTs and paleo-magnetic proxy data, between 1000 and 1350 year A.D., overlapping theMedievalWarm Period (MWP), suggest enhanced heat transport across the Denmark Strait by the North Icelandic IrmingerCurrent (NIIC). This is in contrast with the subsequent period, which includes the Little IceAge (LIA), showing continuous cooling towards the 20th century.Reduced NIIC flow through theDenmark Strait likely resulting from higher freshwater and sea ice export from the Arctic would account for the observed colder conditions