Climate Science and Ancient History: Decoding “Human” and “Natural” Archives - 27-28/11/2018, Basel
In this colloquium we want to discuss the challenges connected to a joint interpretation of human and natural archives in the ancient Mediterranean, the problems inherent in a collaboration between ancient historians and the natural sciences (terminology, project design, publication culture), methods to solve discrepancies between information gained from the textual and archaeological evidence on the one hand and tree rings, ice cores and speleothems on the other one, the methodological difficulties in distinguishing between correlation and causality, and methods of assessing the impact of climatic variability or change on ancient societies without oversimplifying their causal connections. The keynote lecture will be delivered by Jürg Luterbacher (Giessen) on “Reconstructing Climate back to Greek and Roman Times: Challenges, Opportunities, and Uncertainties”.
FECHA/DATE/DATA : 27-28/11/2018
LUGAR/LOCATION/LUOGO: Departement Altertumswissenschaften, Basel Universität, (Basel, Switzerland)
ORGANIZADOR/ORGANIZER/ORGANIZZATORE: Sabine R. Huebner; The Basel Climate Science and Ancient History Lab.
INSCRIPCIÓN/REGISTRATION/REGISTRAZIONE:
Se ruega enviar un email a /please contact /sono pregati di inviare una e-mail a sabine.huebner@unibas.ch.
PROGRAMA/PROGRAM/PROGRAMMA:
Tuesday, November 27
13:30 Welcome & Introduction
Panel Chair: Sabine R. Huebner
14:00 ADAM W. SCHNEIDER (UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO BOULDER):
“New Data for an Old Question: New Paleoclimate Proxy Archives and their Potential Implications for Understanding Societal Disruptions in the Archaic Aegean during the 8th–7th Centuries BC”
14:30 RUBEN POST (UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA):
“Perceptions of and Responses to Climate Change in Classical and Hellenistic Greece”
15:00 ANTON BONNIER (UPPSALA UNIVERSITY):
“Domesticated Landscapes of the Peloponnese: Speleothem Data, Climate Variability and Land-Use Dynamics in the Hellenistic and Roman Peloponnese”
15:30 JOANA SEGUIN (CHRISTIAN-ALBRECHTS-UNIVERSITY, KIEL):
“Lake Stymphalia Sediment Record Reveals Late Antiquity Temperature Fluctuations in Southern Greece”
16:00 Coffee Break
Panel Chair: Serena Causo
16:30 PAUL ERDKAMP (VRIJE UNIVERSITEIT BRUSSEL):
“Climate Change and the Productive Landscape in the Mediterranean in the Roman period”
17:00 COSIMO DAMIANO DIELLA & SARAH MURGOLO
(UNIVERSITÀ DEGLI STUDI DI FIRENZE & UNIVERSITY OF BONN):
“Between Archeology and Geology. Climate Changes and Variation of the Coastline in Central – Northern Apulia: The Roman city of Salapia and Ariscianne District (Barletta, Italy)”
17:30 General Discussion
18:00 Apéro
18:30 Keynote Lecture
JÜRG LUTERBACHER (JUSTUS-LIEBIG-UNIVERSITY GIESSEN):
“Reconstructing Climate back to Greek and Roman Times: Challenges, Opportunities, and Uncertainties”
20:00 Conference Dinner
Wednesday, November 28
Panel Chair: Matthias Stern
09:00 JOSEPH MANNING (YALE UNIVERSITY):
“Volcanic Forcing of Nile Variability and Ptolemaic History?”
09:30 SABINE R. HUEBNER & MARKUS STOFFEL
(UNIVERSITY OF BASEL & UNIVERSITY OF GENEVA):
“Reconstructing Egyptian Climate during the Graeco-Roman Millennium: Natural and Human Archives”
10:00 PAUL KELLY (KING’S COLLEGE LONDON):
“Climate Risks and the Economy of Roman Egypt”
10:30 Coffee Break
11:00 IRENE SOTO (UNIVERSITY OF BASEL):
“Beyond the Nile: Wells, Desertification, and Economic Resilience in the Western Oases of Roman Egypt”
11:30 General Discussion
12:00 Lunch Break
Panel Chair: Irene Soto
14:00 JOSEPH R. MCCONNELL (DESERT RESEARCH INSTITUTE, NEVADA):
“Lead Pollution Archived in Greenland Ice as a Proxy for Economic Activity during European Antiquity”
14:30 JONATHAN P. STANFILL (UNIVERSITY OF PORTLAND):
“A Deafening Silence: The Challenges of Writing an Environmental History of the Goths”
15:00 ADAM IZDEBSKI (MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE, JENA):
“Was Byzantium Resilient to Climate Change? State of the Question and Ways Forward”
15:30 Coffee Break
Panel Chair: Jürg Luterbacher
16:00 MATTHEW JACOBSON (UNIVERSITY OF READING):
“A Collapse of Himyar? Correlative Causality and South Arabia in the 6th Century CE”
16:30 LIANG EMLYN YANG (CHRISTIAN-ALBRECHTS-UNIVERSITY, KIEL):
“The Role of Environment in the Socio-Cultural Changes along the Historical Silk Road in Central Asia”
17:00 Final Discussion