Climate Change in Prehistory: The End of the Reign of Chaos

Cover......Page 1
Half-title......Page 3
Title......Page 5
Copyright......Page 6
Contents......Page 7
Preface......Page 11
Acknowledgements......Page 13
1 Introduction......Page 15
1.1 Cave paintings......Page 16
1.2 DNA sequencing......Page 22
1.3 Archaeological foundations......Page 24
1.4 Where do we start?......Page 25
1.5 What do we cover?......Page 26
1.6 Climate rules our lives......Page 30
1.7 The interaction between history and climate change......Page 31
2 The climate of the past 100000 years......Page 32
2.1 Defining climate change and climatic variability......Page 33
2.2 The emerging picture of climate change......Page 36
2.3 Proxy data......Page 40
2.4 Do ice-core and ocean-sediment data relate to human experience?......Page 45
2.5 Changes during the last ice age......Page 51
2.6 The end of the last ice age......Page 57
2.7 The Holocene......Page 61
2.8 Changes in climate variability......Page 65
2.9 Just how chaotic is the climate?......Page 70
2.10 Changes in sea level......Page 71
2.11 Causes of climate change......Page 77
2.12 The lunatic fringe......Page 84
2.13 Conclusion: a climatic template......Page 85
3 Life in the ice age......Page 88
3.1 The climatology of the last ice age......Page 89
3.2 The early stages of the ice age......Page 96
3.3 Oxygen Isotope Stage Three (OIS3)......Page 100
3.4 The last glacial maximum (LGM)......Page 107
3.5 The implications of greater climatic variability......Page 113
3.6 Lower sea levels......Page 116
3.7 Genetic mapping......Page 118
3.8 Walking out of Africa......Page 123
3.9 The transition to the Upper Palaeolithic......Page 129
3.10 Settling on the plains of Moravia......Page 133
3.11 Life on the mammoth steppes of Asia......Page 134
3.12 Shelter from the storm......Page 138
3.13 The first fishermen of Galilee......Page 139
3.14 Wadi Kubbaniya and the Kom Ombo Plain......Page 141
3.15 Three-dog nights......Page 143
3.16 Of lice and men......Page 146
4 The evolutionary implications of living with the ice age......Page 149
4.1 Bottlenecks......Page 150
4.2 The Upper Palaeolithic Revolution......Page 155
4.3 Europeans\' palaeolithic lineage......Page 158
4.4 Physique......Page 161
4.5 The broad spectrum revolution......Page 162
4.6 Concerning tortoises and hares......Page 165
4.7 Gender roles......Page 167
4.8 Anthropomorphisation: a pathetic fallacy or the key to survival?......Page 174
4.9 The importance of networks......Page 179
4.10 Did we domesticate dogs or did dogs domesticate us?......Page 181
5 Emerging from the ice age......Page 183
5.1 The North Atlantic Oscillation......Page 184
5.2 Europe, the Middle East and North Africa......Page 189
5.3 East and South Asia......Page 193
5.4 Africa and the southern hemisphere......Page 195
5.5 North America......Page 196
5.6 Mass extinctions of big game......Page 198
5.7 The origins of agriculture......Page 202
5.8 Natufian culture......Page 207
5.9 Çatalhöyük......Page 209
5.10 People and forests move back into northern Europe......Page 211
5.11 The spread of farming into Europe......Page 218
5.12 The peopling of the New World......Page 221
5.13 Concerning brown bears and hairless dogs......Page 228
5.14 A European connection?......Page 229
5.15 Flood myths......Page 231
5.16 The formation of the Nile Delta......Page 236
5.17 The lost Saharan pastoral idyll......Page 237
5.18 The Bantu expansion......Page 246
5.19 ENSO comes and ENSO goes......Page 247
6 Recorded history......Page 250
6.1 Climatic conditions in Europe during the mid-Holocene......Page 251
6.2 East Asia in the mid-Holocene......Page 253
6.3 Agricultural productivity: the abundance of Mesopotamia......Page 254
6.4 Egypt: a paradigm for stability......Page 258
6.5 The price of settling down......Page 262
6.6 The first great ‘dark age’......Page 264
6.7 The demonisation of the pig......Page 269
6.8 The sea peoples......Page 270
6.9 The continuing catalogue of ‘dark ages’......Page 272
7 Our climatic inheritance......Page 275
7.1 Did we have any choice?......Page 276
7.2 Regaining our palaeolithic potential......Page 279
7.3 Warfare......Page 284
7.4 Climatic determinism: the benefits of temperate zones......Page 290
7.5 Ambivalence to animals......Page 296
7.6 Updating of gender roles......Page 297
8 The future......Page 299
8.1 Climate change and variability revisited......Page 300
8.2 Are we becoming more vulnerable to climatic variability?......Page 305
8.3 Can we take global warming in our stride?......Page 307
8.4 Which areas are most vulnerable to increased variability?......Page 309
8.5 The threat of the flickering switch......Page 312
8.6 Supervolcanoes and other natural disasters......Page 316
A.1 Rings and layers......Page 317
A.2 Radioactive dating......Page 319
A.3 Burnt flints and broken teeth......Page 322
A.4 Adopting a common dating approach......Page 324
Glossary......Page 326
References......Page 336
Bibliography......Page 354
Index......Page 360