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Molloy B, Jovanović D, Bruyere C, Estanqueiro M, Birclin M, Milašinović L, Šalamon A, Penezić K, Ramsey CB, Grosman D. Resilience, innovation and collapse of settlement networks in later Bronze Age Europe: New survey data from the southern Carpathian Basin. PLoS One 2023; 18:e0288750. [PMID: 37948415 PMCID: PMC10637690 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0288750] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/27/2023] [Accepted: 07/04/2023] [Indexed: 11/12/2023] Open
Abstract
Societies of the later Early to Middle Bronze Age (ca. 2200-1600 BC) in the Carpathian Basin exhibited complex, hierarchical and regionally influential socio-political organisation that came to an abrupt end in the 16th century BC. Considered a collapse by some, this change was characterised by abandonment of virtually all central places / nodes in settlement networks. Until recently, the complexity that characterised the period was believed to have substantially diminished alongside depopulation. This model was reinforced by a combination of the loss of established external networks and low-resolution knowledge of where and how people lived in the first stages of the Late Bronze Age (between 1600 and 1200 BC). We contest the idea of a diminished Late Bronze Age and argue that a fully opposite trajectory can be identified-increased scale, complexity and density in settlement systems and intensification of long-distance networks. We present results of a settlement survey in the southern Pannonian Plain using remote and pedestrian prospection, augmented by small-scale excavations. New absolute dates are used to define the occupational history of sites dating primarily between 1500-1200 BC. We argue that climate change played a substantial role in in the transformation of settlement networks, creating a particular ecological niche enabling societies to thrive. New and specific forms of landscape exploitation developed that were characterised by proximity to wetlands and minor watercourses. In this context, the largest monuments of Bronze Age Europe were created and inhabited. In considering the origins and demise of these megasites and related settlements, we provide a new model for Late Bronze Age societies in the Carpathian Basin and their regional relevance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Barry Molloy
- UCD School of Archaeology, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin, Ireland
| | | | - Caroline Bruyere
- UCD School of Archaeology, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin, Ireland
| | - Marta Estanqueiro
- UCD School of Archaeology, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin, Ireland
- Centre for Studies in Archaeology, Arts and Heritage Sciences (CEAACP), University of Coimbra, Largo da Porta Férrea, Coimbra, Portugal
| | | | | | | | | | | | - Darja Grosman
- Darja Grosman, Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia
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Manning SW, Kocik C, Lorentzen B, Sparks JP. Severe multi-year drought coincident with Hittite collapse around 1198-1196 BC. Nature 2023; 614:719-724. [PMID: 36755095 PMCID: PMC9946833 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-05693-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/14/2022] [Accepted: 12/30/2022] [Indexed: 02/10/2023]
Abstract
The potential of climate change to substantially alter human history is a pressing concern, but the specific effects of different types of climate change remain unknown. This question can be addressed using palaeoclimatic and archaeological data. For instance, a 300-year, low-frequency shift to drier, cooler climate conditions around 1200 BC is frequently associated with the collapse of several ancient civilizations in the Eastern Mediterranean and Near East1-4. However, the precise details of synchronized climate and human-history-scale associations are lacking. The archaeological-historical record contains multiple instances of human societies successfully adapting to low-frequency climate change5-7. It is likely that consecutive multi-year occurrences of rare, unexpected extreme climatic events may push a population beyond adaptation and centuries-old resilience practices5,7-10. Here we examine the collapse of the Hittite Empire around 1200 BC. The Hittites were one of the great powers in the ancient world across five centuries11-14, with an empire centred in a semi-arid region in Anatolia with political and socioeconomic interconnections throughout the ancient Near East and Eastern Mediterranean, which for a long time proved resilient despite facing regular and intersecting sociopolitical, economic and environmental challenges. Examination of ring width and stable isotope records obtained from contemporary juniper trees in central Anatolia provides a high-resolution dryness record. This analysis identifies an unusually severe continuous dry period from around 1198 to 1196 (±3) BC, potentially indicating a tipping point, and signals the type of episode that can overwhelm contemporary risk-buffering practices.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sturt W Manning
- Cornell Tree-Ring Laboratory, Department of Classics and Cornell Institute of Archaeology and Material Studies, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA.
- The Cyprus Institute, Nicosia, Cyprus.
| | - Cindy Kocik
- Mississippi Valley Archaeology Center, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, La Crosse, WI, USA
| | - Brita Lorentzen
- Cornell Tree-Ring Laboratory, Department of Classics and Cornell Institute of Archaeology and Material Studies, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA
- Department of Anthropology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA
| | - Jed P Sparks
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA
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Doumet-Serhal C, Gimatzidis S, Weninger B, von Rüden C, Kopetzky K. An interdisciplinary approach to Iron Age Mediterranean chronology through combined archaeological and 14C-radiometric evidence from Sidon, Lebanon. PLoS One 2023; 18:e0274979. [PMID: 36893143 PMCID: PMC9997926 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0274979] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/09/2022] [Accepted: 09/07/2022] [Indexed: 03/10/2023] Open
Abstract
The construction of the Iron Age Mediterranean chronology began in the Levant based on historical evidence and has been additionally supported in recent decades by means of radiocarbon analysis, although with variable precision and ratification. It is only in recent years that new evidence in the Aegean and the western Mediterranean has opened discussion towards its further acceptance as an authoritative i.e. highly reliable, and widely applicable historiographic network. Altogether, the Mediterranean Iron Age chronology has only undergone minor changes during the last hundred years. The Phoenician metropolis of Sidon in southern Lebanon now provides a new, large and robust dataset obtained through a combination of archaeological and 14C-radiometric analysis of materials from stratified contexts that allow their statistical assessment. The appearance of substantial amounts of pottery of Greek, Cypriot and Egyptian origin together with Phoenician local wares in a long stratigraphy is a benefit for the synchronisation of regional pottery styles and allows wider geographic correlation of relative chronological systems. The close association of the archaeological data with a long series of AMS-14C-dates on short-lived samples provides new evidence for the absolute dating of many of the regional pottery styles that are represented in the stratigraphy of Sidon, and contributes towards a considerable improvement of the Mediterranean chronology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Claude Doumet-Serhal
- Laboratoire UMR 8167 Orient et Méditerranée, CNRS, Paris, France
- Director of the Sidon Excavations, Sidon, Lebanon
| | - Stefanos Gimatzidis
- Austrian Archaeological Institute, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, Austria
- * E-mail: ,
| | | | - Constance von Rüden
- Institute for Archaeological Studies - Pre- and Protohistory, Ruhr-University Bochum, Bochum, Germany
| | - Karin Kopetzky
- Austrian Archaeological Institute, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, Austria
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Lawrence D, Palmisano A, de Gruchy MW. Collapse and continuity: A multi-proxy reconstruction of settlement organization and population trajectories in the Northern Fertile Crescent during the 4.2kya Rapid Climate Change event. PLoS One 2021; 16:e0244871. [PMID: 33428648 PMCID: PMC7799814 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0244871] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/01/2020] [Accepted: 12/17/2020] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
The rise and fall of ancient societies have been attributed to rapid climate change events. One of the most discussed of these is the 4.2kya event, a period of increased aridity and cooling posited as the cause of societal changes across the globe, including the collapse of the Akkadian Empire in Mesopotamia. Studies seeking to correlate social and climatic changes around the 4.2kya event have tended to focus either on highly localized analyses of specific sites or surveys or more synthetic overviews at pan-continental scales, and temporally on the event and its aftermath. Here we take an empirical approach at a large spatial scale to investigate trends in population and settlement organization across the entirety of Northern Fertile Crescent (Northern Mesopotamia and the Northern Levant) from 6,000 to 3,000 cal BP. We use Summed Probability Distributions of radiocarbon dates and data from eighteen archaeological surveys as proxies for population, and a dataset of all settlements over ten hectares in size as a proxy for the degree of urbanization. The goal is to examine the spatial and temporal impact of the 4.2kya event and to contextualize it within longer term patterns of settlement. We find that negative trends are visible during the event horizon in all three proxies. However, these occur against a long-term trend of increased population and urbanization supported through unsustainable overshoot and the exploitation of a drier zone with increased risk of crop failure. We argue that the 4.2kya event occurred during a period of unprecedented urban and rural growth which may have been unsustainable even without an exogenous climate forcing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dan Lawrence
- Department of Archaeology, Durham University, Durham, United Kingdom
| | - Alessio Palmisano
- Department of Ancient History, Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich, München, Germany
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