Archaeological evidence and non-evidence for climatic change

Abstract

‘Climate' is often used by historians to explain phenomena for which they cannot otherwise account. Accordingly, much of what has been written about climatic effects and climatic change must be read with extreme scepticism. Even though a disturbance may be obvious in the archaeological record, and it may be synchronous with a climatic event, a cause and effect relation should be demonstrated before one can say with any degree of confidence that the evidence is secure. Only when a number of separate lines of investigation agree on the same thing are we safe in positing true climatic ‘effect’ or ‘change’. This paper focuses on several instances in Mediterranean and Aegean archaeology where more or less satisfactory evidence for climatic change may be sought among a number of disciplines.