Third Millennium BC Climate Change and Old World Collapse

1. Front Matter

   Pages I-XIV

   PDF

2. Nile Floods and Political Disorder in Early Egypt

   • Fekri A. Hassan

   Pages 1-23

3. Environmental Change and Human Adaptational Failure at the End of the Early Bronze Age in the Southern Levant

   • Arlene M. Rosen

   Pages 25-38

4. Evidence for Mid-Holocene Environmental Change in the Western Khabur Drainage, Northeastern Syria

   • Frank Hole

   Pages 39-66

5. Environmental Fluctuations, Agricultural Production and Collapse: A View from Bronze Age Upper Mesopotamia

   • Tony J. Wilkinson

   Pages 67-106

6. The Scenario of Environmental Degradation in the Tell Leilan Region, Ne Syria, During the Late Third Millennium Abrupt Climate Change

   • Marie-Agnès Courty, Harvey Weiss

   Pages 107-147

7. Cultural Change in the Aegean c.2200BC

   • Sturt W. Manning

   Pages 149-171

8. The Third Millennium BC in Iberia: Chronometric Evidence for Settlement Histories and Socio-cultural Change

   • Katina T. Lillios

   Pages 173-191

9. Climate and the Eclipse of the Ancient Cities of the Indus

   • Gregory L. Possehl

   Pages 193-243

10. Sociopolitical Discontinuity in the Near East C. 2200 B.C.E.: Scenarios from Palestine and Egypt

    • Karl W. Butzer

    Pages 245-296

11. Holocene Climate Change and Man in the Present Day Sahara Desert

    • Nicole Petite-Maire, L. Beufort, N. Page

    Pages 297-308

12. Mid-Holocene Dry Spells in Bohemia, Central Europe

    • Vaclav Cilek

    Pages 309-320

13. Geomorphologic Arguments for Mid- to Late Holocene Environmental Change in Central Anatolian (Pluvial) Lake Basins

    • Oğuz Erol

    Pages 321-350

14. The Late Holocene Environmental and Climate Shift in Russia and Surrounding Lands

    • Constantin V. Krementski

    Pages 351-370

15. Environmental and Climatic Changes Between 3 and 5ka BP in Southeastern Ukraine

    • Natalia P. Gerasimenko

    Pages 371-399

16. Mid- to Late Holocene Changes in Central Europe Climate and Man

    • Klaus D. Jäger

    Pages 401-408

17. The Age and Causes of Mid-Late Holocene Environmental Change in Southwest Turkey

    • Neil Roberts, Warren J. Eastwood, Henry F. Lamb, John C. Tibby

    Pages 409-429

18. Bronze Age Regression and Change of Sedimentation on the Aegean Coastal Plains of Anatolia (Turkey)

    • İlhan Kayan

    Pages 431-450

19. Environmental Changes in Holocene Lacustrine Sequences from Karapinar in the Konya Plain (Turkey)

    • C. Kuzucuoğlu, M. Karabiyikoğlu, M. Fontugne, J-F. Pastre, T. Ercan

    Pages 451-463

20. Proxy Indications of Holocene Winter Rains in Southwest Asia Compared with Simulated Rainfall

    • Reid A. Bryson

    Pages 465-473

Around 4000 years ago the advanced urban civilizations in Egypt, Mesopotamia and India suddenly collapsed. What happened? Did a prolonged drought cause the breakdown of social order? Recent discoveries from all over the world strongly support the suspected link of the collapse with climate. The volume presents the findings of more than 40 researchers and provides a review on the relevant information. It appears that a major shift of the precipitation pattern affected many parts of the world at approximately the same time, with disastrous effects on the nomadic populations of Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe. Can a similar climate shift with a serious adverse impact on society happen again? In a world facing global warming, there could be many lessons to be learned from the experiences of ancient societies.

• Archäologie
• Geschichte
• Global warming
• Klimaveränderung
• Paläoklimatologie
• Precipitation
• archeology
• climate change
• history
• paleoclimatology
• social collapse
• sozialer Zusammenbruch

• Department of Geology, Istanbul Technical University, Ayazağa, Istanbul, Turkey

  H. Nüzhet Dalfes

• Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, Palisades, USA

  George Kukla

• Departments of Anthropology and New Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Yale University, New Haven, USA

  Harvey Weiss

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