Climate and causation in the Swedish Iron Age : learning from the present to understand the past

Exploring causal relations : the societal effects of climate change

Auteur(s) et Affiliation(s)

WIDGREN, M.

Dept. of Human Geography, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Suede

NIELSEN, J.Ø

Dept. of Anthropology, Univ., Copenhagen, Danemark

Waterworlds Research Centre, Univ., Copenhagen, Danemark

REENBERG, A.

Waterworlds Research Centre, Univ., Copenhagen, Danemark

Description :
This paper reassesses the role of climate as a factor shaping changes in settlement and landscape in the Swedish Iron Age (500 BC–AD 1050). Recent research in this field is evaluated and the explicitly climate deterministic standpoint of many recent natural science texts is criticized. Learning from recent approaches to climate change in the social sciences is crucial for understanding society–climate relationships in the past. The paper concludes that we are not yet in a position to fully evaluate the role of the new evidence of abrupt climate change in 850 BC, at the beginning of the Iron Age. Regarding the crisis in the mid-first millennium AD, however, new climate data indicate that a dust veil in AD 536–537 might have aggravated the economic and societal crisis known from previous research.

Type de document :
Article de monographie

Source :
Geografisk tidsskrift, issn : 1903-2471, 2012, vol. 112, n°. 2, p. 126-134, nombre de pages : 9, Références bibliographiques : 42 ref.

Date :
2012

Identifiants :
eurl : http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00167223.2012.741886, doi : http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00167223.2012.741886

Editeur :
Pays édition : Danemark, Kobenhavn, Det Kongelige Danske Geografiske Selskab

Langue :
Anglais