Theme:
5. (Extreme) Environments – Islands, Coasts, Margins, Centres
Session format:
Session with keynote presentation and discussion
Title:
Never Let a Good Crisis Go to Waste: Collapse, Adaptation and Resilience in the Central Mediterranean around the 1200 BC
Content:
The Central Mediterranean represented a key area within the vast and unprecedented exchange network that defines the Mediterranean in the second part of the 2nd mill BC and that apparently ended around 1200 BC. It was recently argued that the 1200 BC was a turning point for many European societies and that the climatic event recorded in this period (3.2 Ka BP) in various parts of Europe triggered important socio-economic changes. In particular, the decades around this year corresponded to a period of dramatic shifts in the Central/North Mediterranean (e.g. abandonment and reorganization of settlement, new forms of social organization), supposedly influenced by environmental change/stress. For instance, a complex range of ecological, economic and social factors has been evoked for the disappearance of the North Italian Terramare Culture or settlements of the Po Plain. However, many other regions deserve the same attention and the hypothesis of an environmental ‘crisis’ in this area still needs more robust evidence.
To what extent/ the 3.2 Ka BP event – if so – impact on the Central Mediterranean Late Bronze Age communities? Is it possible to detect adaptive responses (social, economic) to environmental changes at regional or lower level? Is it possible to detect short catastrophic events (e.g. frequent flooding, droughts)? Could have changes been induced or amplified by the widespread anthropogenic modifications on the ecosystems documented from around this period, through unsustainable practices (e.g. replacement of species, extensive agriculture, fire activity?).
In this session we address these questions with a multi-proxy approach (including, but not limited to, geo-archaeological, GIS-based and statistical, paleo-ecological, demographic) in order to compare archaeological evidence, landscape and environmental changes occurred around 1200 BC with possible shifts in the settlement forms and patterns or economic strategies. Different scale of analysis (site-based, cluster of sites, regional) are very welcomed.
Keywords:
Late Bronze Age, Central Mediterranean, 1200 BC ‘crisis’, Environmental and Cultural Change, Landscape, Climate and Society
Session associated with MERC:
no
Session associated with CIfA:
no
Session associated with SAfA:
no
Session associated with CAA:
no
Session associated with DGUF:
no
Session associated with other:
Main organiser:
Giacomo Vinci (Italy) 1
Co-organisers:
Claudia Speciale (Spain) 2
Serena Sabatini (Sweden) 3
Alessio Palmisano (Italy) 4
Affiliations:
1. University of Siena
2. IPHES Catalan Institute for Human Palaeoecology and Social Evolution
3. University of Gotheborg
4. University of Torino
THIS SESSION CAN NOT BE SELECTED AT THIS MOMENT