Climate Change in Prehistory: The End of the

How did humankind deal with the extreme challenges of the last Ice Ageï¿½ How have the relatively benign post-Ice Age conditions affected the evolution and spread of humanity across the globeï¿½ By setting our genetic history in the context of climate change during prehistory, the origin of many features of our modern world are identified and presented in this illuminating book. It reviews the aspects of our physiology and intellectual development that have been influenced by climatic factors, and how features of our lives - diet, language and the domestication of animals - are also the product of the climate in which we evolved. In short: climate change in prehistory has in many ways made us what we are today. Climate Change in Prehistory weaves together studies of the climate with anthropological, archaeological and historical studies, and will fascinate all those interested in the effects of climate on human development and history.

Preface

ix

Acknowledgements

xi

1 Introduction

1

(17)

1.1 Cave paintings

2

(6)

1.2 DNA sequencing

8

(2)

1.3 Archaeological foundations

10

(1)

1.4 Where do we start?

11

(1)

1.5 What do we cover?

12

(4)

1.6 Climate rules our lives

16

(1)

1.7 The interaction between history and climate change

17

(1)

2 The climate of the past 100,000 years

18

(56)

2.1 Defining climate change and climatic variability

19

(3)

2.2 The emerging picture of climate change

22

(4)

2.3 Proxy data

26

(5)

2.4 Do ice-core and ocean-sediment data relate to human experience?

31

(6)

2.5 Changes during the last ice age

37

(6)

2.6 The end of the last ice age

43

(4)

2.7 The Holocene

47

(4)

2.8 Changes in climate variability

51

(5)

2.9 Just how chaotic is the climate?

56

(1)

2.10 Changes in sea level

57

(6)

2.11 Causes of climate change

63

(7)

2.12 The lunatic fringe

70

(2)

2.13 Conclusion: a climatic template

72

(2)

3 Life in the ice age

74

(61)

3.1 The climatology of the last ice age

75

(7)

3.2 The early stages of the ice age

82

(4)

3.3 Oxygen Isotope Stage Three (OIS3)

86

(7)

3.4 The last glacial maximum (LGM)

93

(6)

3.5 The implications of greater climatic variability

99

(3)

3.6 Lower sea levels

102

(2)

3.7 Genetic mapping

104

(5)

3.8 Walking out of Africa

109

(6)

3.9 The transition to the Upper Palaeolithic

115

(4)

3.10 Settling on the plains of Moravia

119

(1)

3.11 Life on the mammoth steppes of Asia

120

(4)

3.12 Shelter from the storm

124

(1)

3.13 The first fishermen of Galilee

125

(2)

3.14 Wadi Kubbaniya and the Kom Ombo Plain

127

(2)

3.15 Three-dog nights

129

(3)

3.16 Of lice and men

132

(3)

4 The evolutionary implications of living with the ice age

135

(34)

4.1 Bottlenecks

136

(5)

4.2 The Upper Palaeolithic Revolution

141

(3)

4.3 Europeans' palaeolithic lineage

144

(3)

4.4 Physique

147

(1)

4.5 The broad spectrum revolution

148

(3)

4.6 Concerning tortoises and hares

151

(2)

4.7 Gender roles

153

(7)

4.8 Anthropomorphisation: a pathetic fallacy or the key to survival?

160

(5)

4.9 The importance of networks

165

(2)

4.10 Did we domesticate dogs or did dogs domesticate us?

167

(2)

5 Emerging from the ice age

169

(67)

5.1 The North Atlantic Oscillation

170

(5)

5.2 Europe, the Middle East and North Africa

175

(4)

5.3 East and South Asia

179

(2)

5.4 Africa and the southern hemisphere

181

(1)

5.5 North America

182

(2)

5.6 Mass extinctions of big game

184

(4)

5.7 The origins of agriculture

188

(5)

5.8 Natufian culture

193

(1)

5.9 Çatalhöyük

194

(3)

5.10 People and forests move back into northern Europe

197

(7)

5.11 The spread of farming into Europe

204

(3)

5.12 The peopling of the New World

207

(7)

5.13 Concerning brown bears and hairless dogs

214

(1)

5.14 A European connection?

215

(2)

5.15 Flood myths

217

(5)

5.16 The formation of the Nile Delta

222

(1)

5.17 The lost Saharan pastoral idyll

223

(9)

5.18 The Bantu expansion

232

(1)

5.19 ENSO comes and ENSO goes

233

(3)

6 Recorded history

236

(25)

6.1 Climatic conditions in Europe during the mid-Holocene

237

(2)

6.2 East Asia in the mid-Holocene

239

(1)

6.3 Agricultural productivity: the abundance of Mesopotamia

240

(4)

6.4 Egypt: a paradigm for stability

244

(4)

6.5 The price of settling down

248

(2)

6.6 The first great 'dark age'

250

(5)

6.7 The demonisation of the pig

255

(1)

6.8 The Sea Peoples

256

(2)

6.9 The continuing catalogue of 'dark ages'

258

(3)

7 Our climatic inheritance

261

(24)

7.1 Did we have any choice?

262

(3)

7.2 Regaining our palaeolithic potential

265

(5)

7.3 Warfare

270

(6)

7.4 Climatic determinism: the benefits of temperate zones

276

(6)

7.5 Ambivalence to animals

282

(1)

7.6 Updating of gender roles

283

(2)

8 The future

285

(18)

8.1 Climate change and variability revisited

286

(5)

8.2 Are we becoming more vulnerable to climatic variability?

291

(2)

8.3 Can we take global warming in our stride?

293

(2)

8.4 Which areas are most vulnerable to increased variability?

295

(3)

8.5 The threat of the flickering switch

298

(4)

8.6 Supervolcanoes and other natural disasters

302

(1)

Appendix: Dating

303

(9)

Glossary

312

(11)

References

323

(18)

Bibliography

341

(6)

Index

347

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

Summary

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials