| 1. |
- Weiberg, Erika, 1971-, et al.
(författare)
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The socio-environmental history of the Peloponnese during the Holocene: Towards an integrated understanding of the past
- 2016
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Ingår i: Quaternary Science Reviews. - : Elsevier BV. - 0277-3791 .- 1873-457X. ; 136, s. 40-65
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Published archaeological, palaeoenvironmental, and palaeoclimatic data from the Peloponnese in Greece are compiled, discussed and evaluated in order to analyse the interactions between humans and the environment over the last 9000 years. Our study indicates that the number of human settlements found scattered over the peninsula have quadrupled from the prehistoric to historical periods and that this evolution occurred over periods of climate change and seismo-tectonic activity. We show that societal development occurs both during periods of harsh as well as favourable climatic conditions. At some times, some settlements develop while others decline. Well-known climate events such as the 4.2 ka and 3.2 ka events are recognizable in some of the palaeoclimatic records and a regional decline in the number and sizes of settlements occurs roughly at the same time, but their precise chronological fit with the archaeological record remains uncertain. Local socio-political processes were probably always the key drivers behind the diverse strategies that human societies took in times of changing climate. The study thus reveals considerable chronological parallels between societal development and palaeoenvironmental records, but also demonstrates the ambiguities in these correspondences and, in doing so, highlights some of the challenges that will face future interdisciplinary projects. We suggest that there can be no general association made between societal expansion phases and periods of advantageous climate. We also propose that the relevance of climatic and environmental regionality, as well as any potential impacts of seismo-tectonics on societal development, need to be part of the interpretative frameworks.
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| 3. |
- Izdebski, Adam, et al.
(författare)
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Realising consilience : How better communication between archaeologists, historians and natural scientists can transform the study of past climate change in the Mediterranean
- 2016
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Ingår i: Quaternary Science Reviews. - : Elsevier BV. - 0277-3791 .- 1873-457X. ; 136, s. 5-22
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- 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.
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| 4. |
- Weiberg, Erika, 1971-, et al.
(författare)
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Human-environment dynamics in the ancient Mediterranean : Keywords of a research field
- 2022
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Ingår i: Opuscula. - : Editorial Committee of the Swedish Institutes at Athens and Rome (ECSI). - 2000-0898. ; 15, s. 221-252
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Human-environment dynamics in past societies has been a major field ofresearch in the Mediterranean for a long time, but has grown significantly following the increase in the number and quality of palaeoclimate and palaeoenvironmental records in the last two decades. Here we sketch the outline of this field of research based on 1,531 author keywords from 280 peer-reviewed articles published in 78 different scientific journals during 2016–2021. Sourced from the Web of Science, the selected studies cover the time span from the Neolithic to the Roman period across the Mediterranean and provide a large number of entry points for the interested reader regardless of their prior knowledge and specific interests.The results make evident the breadth and interdisciplinary nature of this research and show that it is possible to approach questions of human environment dynamics in many and diverse ways. Among other things, our overview outlines the importance of temporal and spatial scales, as well as the elusive nature of causality, and highlights that monocausal models connecting climate events and societal collapse are increasingly replaced by scenarios favouring more nuanced renditions of the sequence of events within which internal societal factors are given more room for play.
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| 5. |
- Weiberg, Erika, 1971-, et al.
(författare)
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Mind or Matter? : People-Environment Interactions and the Demise of Early Helladic II Society in the Northeastern Peloponnese
- 2013
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Ingår i: American Journal of Archaeology. - : University of Chicago Press. - 0002-9114 .- 1939-828X. ; 117:1, s. 1-31
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The centuries surrounding 2200 B.C.E. (the year commonly used to mark the transition between the second and third phases of the Early Bronze Age) were transformative times in the Aegean. At some locations, development continued and accelerated; in many places, however, several societal characteristics and supraregional traits seem to have been abandoned. Life continued through these changes, but it appears to have been altered and simplified. In this review of previous research on the period, the geographic focus is on the northeastern Peloponnese, and the interpretative focus is on the human dimension behind the events. This case study explores the framework of resilience-theory and the new questions it stimulates-to form a better understanding of the actual composition of the changes and their complexity. For archaeology, a focus on resilience could be a focus on human creativity in dealing with life through continually changing circumstances. We argue, therefore, that resilience theory offers a compelling way to map and understand the cultural change documented in the archaeological record of the Mediterranean.
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| 10. |
- Bonnier, Anton, et al.
(författare)
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Examining Land-Use through GIS-Based Kernel Density Estimation : A Re-Evaluation of Legacy Data from the Berbati-Limnes Survey
- 2019
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Ingår i: Journal of field archaeology. - : ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD. - 0093-4690 .- 2042-4582. ; 44:2, s. 70-83
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The use of archaeological survey data for evaluation of landscape dynamics has commonly been concerned with the distribution of settlements and changes in number of recorded sites over time. Here we present a new quantitative approach to survey-based legacy data, which allows further assessments of the spatial configuration of possible land-use areas. Utilizing data from an intensive archaeological survey in the Berbati-Limnes area, Greece, we demonstrate how GIS-based kernel density estimations (KDE) can be used to produce cluster-based density surfaces that may be linked to past land-use strategies. By relating density surfaces to elevation and slope, it is also possible to quantify shifts in the use of specific environments on a regional scale, allowing us to model and visualize land-use dynamics over time. In this respect, the approach provides more multifaceted information to be drawn from archaeological legacy data, providing an extended platform for research on human-environment interactions.
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