Conference: Climate and Ancient Societies

Climate, and human responses to it, plays an integral part in the formation of society. Thus when climate change occurs, the result of either natural or human causes, societies should react and adapt – but do they? If so, what is the nature of that change, and are the responses positive or negative for the long term survival of society and its peoples? Archaeology, steeped in interdisciplinary studies and dealing with a longue durée view of society, offers detailed and verifiable insights into climate changes in the past: causes, responses and consequences. This conference, held under the umbrella of the University of Copenhagen’s Climate and Sustainability initiative (http://climate.ku.dk/), is held in memory of Stine Rossel, archaeozoologist and member of the Department of Cross Cultural & Regional Studies, who had a keen research interest in climate and past societies.

The conference has four major themes as outlined below, each dealing with understanding past climates, human impact, and sustainability. Fields range from general to specific Near East. Interested participants may submit paper titles and abstracts (no more than 200 words) for consideration to the e-mail address [email protected] until January 31 2009, the selection of papers will be made through blind review by members of the conference’s Scientific Committee.

Accepted speakers will exchange their papers before the conference.

The conference fee will be 350 DKK for salaried participants and 250 DKK for students. Fees can be paid when the reviewing process has been finished.

Conference sessions

1. Holocene Climate Reconstruction
Keynote speaker and organiser: Neil Roberts, University of Plymouth
This session adopts a holistic and global approach to reconstructing Holocene climates. Ways of measuring and assessing climatic variation are considered thematically and methodologically, drawing on material from a variety of sources such as ice core pollen, deep sea sediment cores, lacustrine sediments, and faunal and floral studies. Methods and approaches to Holocene climate reconstruction will range from general, world-wide perspectives to more focussed studies on the
Mediterranean area and the Near East. Papers that deal with new approaches in method and analysis as well as recent results of innovative field projects are especially encouraged.

2. Responses of Complex Societies to Climatic Variation
Keynote speaker and organiser: Jason Ur, Harvard University
The complex and continuing changing relationship between complex societies and the environment in which they exist is the focus of this session. With an emphasis on human response to climatic change, special attention will be paid to exploring social change, resilience and collapse in the face of climate change in the past. It is expected that this session will range from case studies to regional analyses with an unambiguous Mediterranean and Middle Eastern focus.

3. Archaeological Evidence for Pollution and its Ecological Implications
Keynote speaker and organiser: Richard Meadow, Harvard University
The subject of the direct or indirect impact of human behaviour on plant and animal communities is central to contemporary archaeological research. This session will explore this topic, notably the adverse effect of human activity on the environment, for example the depletion of game animals seen in shifts in the abundance of certain species. Special focus will be paid to investigating the severe and sometimes destructive pollution of the environment through human behaviour. It is expected that this session will have a clear Mediterranean and Middle Eastern focus.

4. Stable Isotope Analysis in the Middle East
Keynote speaker and organiser: Nanna Noe-Nygaard, University of Copenhagen
This session takes as its core subject new perspectives and possible problems in stable isotope analysis in the field of environmental studies. Papers will explore the potential of stable isotope analysis in archaeological research and the many new avenues of approach it offers, without disregarding the prospective problems associated with the application of the still emergent fields of ancient DNA and stable isotope analysis to archaeology.

Scientific committee:
Mette Marie Hald, Pernille Bangsgaard Jensen, Susanne Kerner, Alan Walmsley (CNA, ToRS,
University of Copenhagen) and the keynote speakers.