Abandonment Of Settlements Research Articles

Humans in Animalscapes: Reconstructing Vermin-HumanInteractions in Rural Anatolia and Mesopotamia (ca. 1600–1850)

One of the most frequent cases in which vermin appear in Ottoman official correspondence is when they “attack” or “invade” human settlements, consuming or destroying food produced specifically for human consumption. Until effective ways and tools to manage them emerged in the late nineteenth century, communities withstood flies, locusts, and rats. Indeed, specific categories of animals subsumed within the category of vermin/haşarat seem to have become among the biggest troublemakers in rural Anatolia and Mesopotamia. These vermin caused not only short-term scarcity of food, especially concerning during famines, but also writ-large settlement abandonment, resulting in the temporary and even long-term problems of rural/regional economic systems. Yet very few Ottoman historians have reconstructed these stories within a critical animal history perspective. While it is true that these attacks and invasions of vermin created great burdens on human (and other animal) communities throughout history globally, the ways we historians have handled such cases tend to be anthropocentric. Here I argue for an ontological turn towards spatial aspects of vermin lives within human settlements and thus position my line of thinking about interaction from the ground-up, both literally and figuratively. From early-modern Ottoman discourses about vermin and the strategies used to cope with them from dictionaries/lexicons, literary and scientific texts, legal codices, and archival material, I develop a new analytical tool to understand interaction between humans and vermin as competition over perceived and actual space. I argue that we approach vermin behavior from the perspective of a spatial consciousness that constructed extended liminal configurations of space, which I call animalscapes. Human communities in Anatolia and Mesopotamia on the other hand, acknowledged the vermin perception of animalscapes and negotiated their place within, until the invention of chemical weapons against vermin at the end of the nineteenth century.

Directions and tendencies of migration of the population into urban areas of the republic of Srpska

This paper covers internal migrations in the Republic of Srpska, in the period 2007-2015 and their impact to urban and peri-urban development of urban areas of the Republic. Migration directions show a continuity of permanent abandonment of rural areas and settlement of urban and peri-urban areas of the Republic, also including the migrations (immigration) from the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The scope of migrations has the trend of decrease as result of decrease in the rural population of the Republic of Srpska and its aging. Urban centres of the northern part of the Republic of Srpska (Banja Luka, Doboj, Bijeljina, Prijedor and Gradiška) have the largest scope of immigration, due to a number of attractive factors. In the southern part of the Republic, in the sub-Mediterranean area, the City of Trebinje is the main immigration area for the population of eastern Herzegovina, but also, more and more, for the population of the rest of the Republic of Srpska, as well for the wider regional environment. Spatial scope of research consists of eight cities in the Republic of Srpska, which defined the status of the city in the period from 1995 to 2019. Those cities are: Banjaluka, Bijeljina, Prijedor, Gradiška, Doboj, Istočno Sarajevo, Zvornik and Trebinje. The specificities in the territorial organization of the Republic of Srpska are the result of complex socio-political processes and the formation of the entity line of demarcation in post-war period (1992-1995), between the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republic of Srpska. Given the physiognomy of space and developmental processes, the Republic of Srpska has complex settlement function. In four urban areas, Istočno Sarajevo, Doboj, Zvornik and Trebinje, the settlements are divided by the entity line, which caused the migrations. In 2014, population migration was also affected by administrative separation of the municipality of Stanari from the Doboj city area. Due to the above mentioned, compared to other cities of the Republic, Doboj has the highest negative values of the migration balance in the observed period (2007-2016). Statistical data from the Federal Bureau of Statistics of BiH and the Republic Institute of the Republic of Srpska were used in research related to migrations, as well as other relevant statistical material produced in the period from 1991 to 2016. The key demographic indicators, internal migrations, immigration and emigration and migration balance were taken into consideration. In order to compare the research areas, data were prepared on the basis of demographic indicators. Conclusions on spatial integration of migration, as well as its direction, have been drawn based on internal migration, spatial distribution of population and change in number of inhabitants in urban and suburban settlements.

Studying abandoned settlements’ renaissance in the context of rural geography: perspectives for Prespes, Greece

ABSTRACT This paper attempts to reveal the opportunities that could arise from the revival of abandoned settlements rich in architecturally interesting buildings in the rural renaissance context. Concepts such as settlement abandonment, land abandonment, back to land movement, and rural renaissance are behind the need for the rural settlements’ renaissance and are analyzed briefly herein. The paper focuses on the municipality of Prespes in Greece, a natural habitat with plenty of abandoned or declining settlements. The outstanding landscape, the deserted buildings that still have architectural interest and the area's rurality provide an interdisciplinary frame for looking into the renaissance of abandoned rural settlements from a new perspective. Area censuses reveal abandoned, sparsely populated or declining settlements, which could follow specially designed action plans for their revitalization; the land cover also indicates development opportunities for each settlement. Finally, the paper outlines proposals for the revitalization and sustainable development of the study area.

Severe Little Ice Age drought in the midcontinental United States during the Mississippian abandonment of Cahokia

Drought has long been suspected as playing an important role in the abandonment of pre-Columbian Native American settlements across the midcontinental United States between 1350 and 1450 CE. However, high-resolution paleoclimatic reconstructions reflecting local effective moisture (the ratio of precipitation to evaporation) that are located in proximity to Mississippi period (1050–1450 CE) population centers are lacking. Here, we present a 1600-year-long decadally resolved oxygen isotope (δ18O) record from Horseshoe Lake (Collinsville, IL), an evaporatively influenced oxbow lake that is centrally located within the largest and mostly densely populated series of Mississippian settlements known as Greater Cahokia. A shift to higher δ18O in the Horseshoe Lake sediment record from 1200 to 1400 CE indicates that strongly evaporative conditions (i.e., low effective moisture) were persistent during the leadup to Cahokia’s abandonment. These results support the hypothesis that climate, and drought specifically, strongly impacted agriculturally based pre-Columbian Native American cultures in the midcontinental US and highlights the susceptibility of this region, presently a global food production center, to hydroclimate extremes.

Multiple trajectories of grassland fragmentation, degradation, and recovery in Russia's steppes

AbstractOver the 20th century, the Eurasian steppes underwent drastic land‐cover changes. Much progress was made studying cropland expansion and the post‐1990 (i.e., post‐Soviet) agricultural land abandonment in Eurasia. However, the alteration of steppe landscapes may include other disturbances, such as oil and gas development, formal and informal roads and garbage dumps, which were not systematically documented. Considering the example of the steppe Orenburg Province in Russia, we reconstructed agricultural land‐cover change dynamics using Landsat and Sentinel‐2 imagery from 1990 to 2018. Furthermore, we used very high‐resolution imagery and assessed the patterns and determinants of other steppe landscape anthropogenic disturbances. Our study showed that, despite steppe recovery due to widespread cropland abandonment from 1990 to 2018, the steppes, including the recovered steppe patches, underwent fragmentation due to informal roads, oil and gas development, shrub encroachment, garbage dumps and quarries, as well as abandonment of settlements and buildings. Only 6.4% of the sampled 7859 1×1 km blocks in 2018 showing grassland extent had no documented disturbances. The mapped disturbances occurred primarily near settlements and roads, while some disturbances occurred in remote areas. Given the accessibility of steppes, our study calls for a urgent need to systematically document alternatives to agricultural land uses in the steppes of Eurasia and other parts of the global grassland biome.

Terraced Fields, Irrigation Systems and Agricultural Production in Early Islamic Palestine and Jordan

Contrary to previous analysis that suggested a rapid deterioration and abandonment of settlements and their related agricultural fields in Early Islamic Palestine and Jordan, recent studies point to a continuity of agricultural landscapes, to the introduction of new water management technologies, and to the diffusion of new types of crops into the region between the 8th and the 11th centuries. Forty years after Andrew Watson published his paradigmatic study on an “Islamic Agricultural Revolution,” this article, based on recent archaeological studies and new dating methodologies, suggests a modified view of “continuity in change” of agricultural practices in the Early Islamic period. Along the continuity in traditional agricultural strategies, the introduction of new plant species and water management technologies into the region gradually changed the economic basis of the local populations. The evaluation of several case-studies from the hinterland of Jerusalem, the Negev highlands, the ?Arabah Valley, and southern Jordan, show that together with the continuity of existing agricultural practices in the Mediterranean area and in the Negev Highlands, new irrigation technologies, cultivation methodologies and plant species were introduced to the Jordan and ?Arabah Valleys following the Arab conquest. This process affected the patterns of consumption and distribution of agricultural goods and triggered a change in dietary and dining habits.

“Unwanted Guests”: Evidence of Parasitic Infections in Archaeological Mortuary Contexts

Parasites have had a significant impact on the course of human history—parasites have caused the deaths of countless individuals, have resulted in the abandonment of settlements, and have even affected the outcome of wars. It is curious, therefore, that archaeologists, even those engaged in dialogues about health, well-being, and sanitation in past populations, have paid relatively little attention to the impact that parasites might have had on those populations. Therefore, it is worthwhile to explore some of the impacts of parasites on relatively recent history, describe the development of the field of parasite studies in archaeology, and outline a variety of laboratory methods that can be used to identify evidence of parasites in archaeological samples. Perhaps once more archaeologists are aware of the importance of parasitological testing of archaeological remains, more informed interpretations of past population health, as it relates to parasitic disease, can be constructed.

Territorial Effects of Shared-Living Heritage Regeneration

The paper presents further steps of study started by authors in recent years, as part of the widest international research collaboration, which focuses on shared life and regeneration of abandonment of rural settlements as strategies for the development of sustainable territories. This research aims to understand how the regeneration of ancient community buildings impacts on the sustainable development of the local context. To understand these effects, the research considered four traditional typologies of community buildings, from different cultures: Tulou (China), Cascina (Italy), Hacienda (Mexico), and Marae (New Zealand). Among the tens/hundreds of contemporary regeneration interventions, three contemporary projects per each of these typologies have been selected. To assess the territorial impact of the projects a new approach has been defined using Expert Interviews as the methodology, so as to be able to have an assessment directly by experts in the fields of regenerative projects and sustainable development. The Expert Interviews were held based on a questionnaire that assessed the effects of the projects. For the evaluation of the projects, two categories of indicators have been selected: (1) United Nations SDGs, (2) architectural regeneration indicators generated by the study “The Role of Cultural Heritage in Sustainable Development: Multidimensional Indicators as Decision-Making Tool”, by Francesca Nocca, published in Sustainability (2017, 9, 1882). The research outputs show how the urban-architectural regeneration of these historical typologies can be clearly associated with indications of sustainable development. The results also show that in all four cultures the regeneration of historic buildings provides many benefits to local communities by successfully mixing different income groups and the inclusion of marginalized or vulnerable groups.

Fire history and human activity revealed through poly cyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) records at archaeological sites in the middle reaches of the Yellow River drainage basin, China

Disentangling the role of natural and anthropogenic factors is a major challenge in paleofire studies. Here, we introduce the molecular biomarkers of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAHs), combined with charcoal and black carbon in sediments of archaeological sites, to identify anthropogenic signals of environmental change during the middle Holocene. In the prehistoric period, an intensified-fire regime period, inferred on the basis of PAHs, char and macro-charcoal levels, has been attributed to intensified anthropogenic biomass burning from dry crop cultivation between 6500 and 5000 and 3900–3600 yr BP., corresponding to the earliest Chinese settlements during the Miaodigou & Banpo IV Culture and the development of the Erlitou Culture under drier climate conditions. Subsequently, the fire frequency decreased notably between 4500 and 4000 yr BP. as the climate became wetter and there were shifts in the frequency of high-magnitude floods, corresponding to the abandonment of late Neolithic settlements in the floodplain. Changes in the PAH fluxes in sediments are positively correlated with intensified-fire regime periods, consistent with the charcoal and black carbon fluxes during those periods. Principal component analysis of PAH fluxes suggests that these intensified-fire events have a pyrogenic signature, implying that the PAHs were derived from biomass burning of fuelwood and other woody plants. In this study, PAHs in loess sediments have been used as the indicators of anthropogenic biomass burning through time. Meanwhile, PAHs also record the shift of modes of production and the evolution of human settlements as well as the choices made in response to limited natural resources. To comprehensively analyze the paleofire records of PAHs, charcoal and black carbon combined with multiproxy evidence are needed to understand wildfire history as well as human land use and social and cultural development across the study regions in depth.

Spatial Development of the 1507–1510 Plague in Poland and Its Consequences. Kalisz District Case Study

Abstract The article discusses the causes and effects of the plague which is said to have spread over many Polish towns in 1507. The focus is on its possible causes, related to the occurrence of droughts and floods in Central Europe in the late 15th and early 16th century. Available sources from the late mediaeval period have also been analysed for the recorded perceptions of the extreme climatic and weather conditions. Special attention has been paid to the issues of intensity and spatial distribution of the effects of the plague on the example of one district. The analysis covered a variety of issues such as settlement changes, prices of basic goods or even some pollen data. The main results of the study indicate that the climatic extremes at the turn of the 16th century exerted a long-term impact on the society and economy of the region. They also contributed to the abandonment of settlements on rural sites.

Historical settlement abandonment in the middle Hexi Corridor linked to human-induced desertification

Understanding past human-environment interactions over a long time-scale offers an analogue to predict, adapt and mitigate the environmental issues caused by global change and human activities in the future. The transient existence of historical cities from arid northern China can provide a valuable reference for this issue. In this study, we investigated a set of sand dunes which accumulated alongside the city wall of South Heishuiguo ancient city (SHC) from the middle Hexi Corridor in arid northern China. Dating these dune sands can provide the timing of both desertification and city abandonment. A series of sand samples (a total of 20) were collected, and their ages were determined by luminescence dating of K-feldspar fraction. The results suggest an abrupt sand dune accumulation between 0.40 ± 0.03 ka and 0.25 ± 0.02 ka, corresponding to 1590–1790 CE. This study confirms a phase of desertification between the late 16th century and the late 18th century in the Hexi Corridor, and the abandonment of the SHC at the ~17th century. In order to assess the anthropogenic influences on desertification, we also reconstructed the population history of the Hexi Corridor over the last 2000 years based on historical literature as a quantitative index of human activity intensity. By comparison of the timing of onset of desertification around the SHC with robust paleoclimate and historical population reconstructions, we conclude that (1) the desertification of 1590–1790 CE was likely the result of considerably enhanced human activities between the late Ming and the early Qing Dynasties, as this period was dominated by a relatively moist climate and could restrain the sand deflation; and (2) the desertification in turn caused abandonment of SHC as the impact of environmental changes on people.

Climate stability and societal decline on the margins of the Byzantine empire in the Negev Desert

Understanding past human settlement of inhospitable regions is one of the most intriguing puzzles in archaeological research, with implications for more sustainable use of marginal regions today. During the Byzantine period in the 4th century CE, large settlements were established in the arid region of the Negev Desert, Israel, but it remains unclear why it did so, and why the settlements were abandoned three centuries later. Previous theories proposed that the Negev was a “green desert” in the early 1st millennium CE, and that the Byzantine Empire withdrew from this region due to a dramatic climatic downturn. In the absence of a local climate archive correlated to the Byzantine/Early Islamic transition, testing this theory has proven challenging. We use stable isotopic indicators of animal dietary and mobility patterns to assess the extent of the vegetative cover in the desert. By doing so, we aim to detect possible climatic fluctuations that may have led to the abandonment of the Byzantine settlements. The findings show that the Negev Desert was not greener during the time period under investigation than it is today and that the composition of the animals’ diets, as well as their grazing mobility patterns, remained unchanged through the Byzantine/Early Islamic transition. Favoring a non-climatic explanation, we propose instead that the abandonment of the Negev Byzantine settlements was motivated by restructuring of the Empire’s territorial priorities.

LA PUGNA HISPANO-LUSA POR EL CONTROL DE LOS MARES: DE LA EXPEDICIÓN DE CEVALLOS A LA FRUSTRADA COLONIZACIÓN DE FERNANDO POO (1776-1783)

This article addresses the study of Spanish projects to end Portuguese smuggling in the Colonia del Sacramento. Taking advantage of the conjuncture of the War of Independence of the United States, an expedition was carried out by Pedro de Cevallos with the objective of occupying Santa Catarina and the colony. The Crown decided to exchange the first for the islands of Fernando Poo and Annobon in Guinea, which in reality were not Portuguese possessions. This led to a disastrous and failed colonization project that ended with the abandonment of such settlements and a high number of human losses during that attempt.

EXPLAINING VARIABILITY IN ON-FLOOR ASSEMBLAGES: THE BEHAVIORAL-CONTEXTUAL METHOD

AbstractWe present a behavioral-contextual method for studying abandonment-related assemblages in order to ascribe them to a settlement abandonment scenario. Our approach examines the vertical and horizontal architectural contexts of assemblages, along with the nature of reconstructible vessels and other artifacts. This method accounts for gradual, rapid, mundane, and ceremonial abandonment scenarios, and for abandonment with anticipated return. Two advantages of this model are its replicability and its proposition of a shared taxonomy leading away from the concept of problematic deposits. The method is contextualized with two distinct case studies from the southern Maya lowlands: the palace of La Corona, Guatemala and an agricultural household group from greater Minanha, Belize. These dissimilar but contemporary (ca. A.D. 900) contexts revealed complex abandonment-related assemblages, including pre-abandonment middens,de factoand secondary material, and on-floor, exposed offerings. Both case studies are argued to reflect gradual, organized abandonment scenarios, although with significant temporal and behavioral distinctions.

Medieval Climate Variability in the eastern Amazon-Cerrado regions and its archeological implications

The South American Monsoon System is responsible for the majority of precipitation in the continent, especially over the Amazon and the tropical savannah, known as ‘Cerrado’. Compared to the extensively studied subtropical and temperate regions the effect of the Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA) on the precipitation over the tropics is still poorly understood. Here, we present a multiproxy paleoprecipitation reconstruction showing a consistent change in the hydrologic regime during the MCA in the eastern Amazon and ‘Cerrado’, characterized by a substantial transition from humid to drier conditions during the Early (925-1150 C.E.) to Late-MCA (1150-1350 C.E.). We compare the timing of major changes in the monsoon precipitation with the expansion and abandonment of settlements reported in the archeological record. Our results show that important cultural successions in the pre-Columbian Central Amazon, the transition from Paredão to Guarita phase, are in agreement with major changes in the hydrologic regime. Phases of expansion and, subsequent abandonment, of large settlements from Paredão during the Early to Late-MCA are coherent with a reduction in water supply. In this context we argue that the sustained drier conditions during the latter period may have triggered territorial disputes with Guarita leading to the Paredão demise.

A reappraisal of the 1599 earthquake in Cascia (Italian Central Apennines): Hypothesis on the seismogenic source

In this study, we investigate a little-known earthquake that struck Cascia and its environs (Central Italian Apennines) in 1599, causing 50 casualties and the destruction and abandonment of several settlements. As in current seismic catalogues the characterization of this event is based on the anonymous account of a single source, we conducted research using public and private archives and libraries that allow recovering many unpublished contemporary accounts of the earthquake. This information permitted a more detailed evaluation of the macroseismic effects and a doubling of the number of intensity datapoints, resulting in a more robust earthquake epicentral parameters. Next, we conducted a geological field survey within the newly defined mesoseismic area aimed at finding possible evidence of active tectonics, likely faults with indications of recent movements and with an attitude fitting both the 1599 highest intensity distribution and the regional stress field. We found evidence for Holocene surface faulting along the Cascia and Mount Alvagnano faults that we consider responsible for the 1599 earthquake, and possibly also for a twin event in 1979 and the much stronger Norcia earthquake in 1703.

New evidence of early Iron Age to Medieval settlements from the southern fringe of Thar Desert (western Great Rann of Kachchh), India: Implications to climate-culture co-evolution

Two hitherto unexplored settlements at Karim Shahi and Vigakot are reported from the uninhabited hyper-arid region of the western Great Rann of Kachchh (GRK), located near southern fringe of Thar Desert, Gujarat, NW India. The archaeological evidence, supported by radiocarbon and optical chronology indicate presence of settlement from the Early Iron Age to Early Historic (~3100–2300 years B.P.) and Historic to Medieval (~1500–900 years B.P.) periods. This would imply that following the Harappan decline, the GRK was still a hospitable terrain for the sustenance of human settlements' during the Early Iron Age. Isotopic and micro-botanical evidence indicate that relatively higher rainfall than today sustained the hydrological system until around the Medieval period. We propose that the early withdrawal of the late Holocene Inter Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) and resultant monsoon decline accounts for the abandonment of settlement in the western (Sindh-Baluchistan) domain. As a consequence, the rivers in the western domain dried early, while the fluvial system in the southern/eastern domain (Sorath/Cholistan in Gujarat/Ghaggar-Hakra-Nara interfluve) was sustained due to monsoonal rain at least up to 1600 years B.P. The settlements were subsequently disrupted due to a combination of hyper-arid climate and infrequent tectonic activity sometime between the late Medieval and recent time. The settlement migration in the southern/eastern domain, as far into the Rann and desert fringe during this period was possibly a nonpareil ancient analogue of modern “climate refugee and refugia” (Warner, 2011; Morelli et al., 2016) induced by anthropogenic climate change.

The site mapping of Kakucs-Turján by the means of horizontal and vertical proxies: Combining field and basic laboratory methods of geoarchaeology and archaeological prospection

The homogenous cultural identity that emerged during the Middle Bronze Age (2000–1450 cal BC) in the central territory of the Carpathian Basin is identified uniformly as the Vatya culture. The Vatya people created multi-layered tells, open air horizontal, as well as fortified settlements along the western and eastern bank of the Danube river. These archaeological sites are significant elements of both the cultural and natural heritage of the Carpathian Basin. Their significance does not only lie within the possibility to reconstruct the life, society and material culture of Vatya populations, but the buried soils and anthropogenic sediments hold significant information on prehistoric human-environment interactions, and on site formation processes that occurred after the abandonment of the individual settlements. Geophysical prospection methods and field walking helped to locate and identify the tripartite structure of Kakucs-Turján archaeological site within the territory of the Danube–Tisza Interfluve. The settlement was established on the border of different geographical micro-regions and at the conjunction of dissimilar natural geographical environments. The stratigraphy of the site was described by the means of high resolution and focused series of hand auger observations, as well as on the basis of basic soil physical and chemical parameters. The detailed macro-morphological description of the soil core profiles aimed at precisely identifying the soilscape of the site and its vicinity, the stratigraphy of the anthropogenic and natural sediments of the settlement, but also to facilitate our understanding of the site formation process. Data gained by the means of geoarchaeological methods not only form the basis of environmental historical conclusions, but reveals mosaics of the interaction between ancient human populations and their environment.

Natural Hazards, Human Factors, and “Ghost Towns”: a Multi-Level Approach

The abandonment of inhabited places is a phenomenon that concerns many countries worldwide and Italy particularly where a large number of deserted settlements are hosted. Many are the factors driving and conditioning the abandonment of a site, such as natural extreme events (e.g. earthquakes, landslides, and floods) and/or human (not) actions. Once the site is abandoned, the built-up area experiences a progressive physical decay so posing problems about the policies to be adopted to manage and maintain the buildings (or their ruins). That being stated, the article proposes an integrated methodological approach to analyse both the natural/human factors causing the abandonment of settlements and conservation state of deserted places over time. To test the methodology, we considered the old town of Craco (Basilicata, Southern Italy) as a case study. That “ghost town”, whose fascinating urban and natural landscapes have been the set of numerous international films, was gradually transferred to other two places since the 1960s due to the landslides that have affected the site over the centuries. Three were the explicit key aims of the research. The first was to scrutinise the activations/reactivations of the landslides jointly with their effects on the built environment so to critical go over the actions put into the field by the institutions to mitigate the hydrogeological risk. The second was to examine whether and how the landslide occurrences conditioned the urban growth of the Craco over time. The third was to investigate in relation to the vegetation growth in the Craco downtown over the last 15 years or so, to infer clues on future decay trends and conservation strategies of the built environment. The purposes were reached considering a geological-geomorphological, historical, and remote-sensing approach. In detail, the first goal was met (re)considering a cross-correlated analysis, in diachronic key, of edited/unedited archive sources with geological/geomorphological perspectives. The second was followed up performing the analysis of the Craco urban growth over the centuries and correlating it with the history of landslide occurrences. The third target was pursued by means of NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) time series obtained from Landsat TM and Sentinel 2 data along with HSV (Hue, Saturation, Value) colour system techniques applied to multi-date Google Earth photos. From the perspective angle, the results of this research can contribute to setup proper resilience strategies for sites subject to hydrogeological hazard similar to that affects Craco, thus helping to identify conservation plans as well as enhancement policies of “ghost towns”.

Climate variability of the Common Era (AD 1–2000) in the eastern North American Arctic: Impacts on human migrations

The eastern North American Arctic has a complex 5000-year prehistory, during which many human population movements occurred over great distances. Archaeologists have interpreted these movements as resulting from many factors, however the effects of climate change are often hypothesized as primary drivers that can “push” human groups to leave some regions, or “pull” them to move to others. Here, we examine climate change at the regional scale over the Common Era using Arctic paleoclimate data derived from a wide suite of biological proxies and geochemical tracers. We consider available statistical composites of high resolution (sub-decadal) paleo-temperature reconstructions for the Arctic region, as well as local-scale reconstructions at century or sub-century scale resolution in three focal regions of archaeological significance relevant to population movements: Victoria Island, Foxe Basin/Baffin Island, and the High Arctic (Ellesmere Island/Northwestern Greenland). We emphasize the two most widespread, though variable, climate change events characteristic of this period: the Medieval Climatic Anomaly and Little Ice Age in the second millennium AD; we also evaluate the evidence for the Roman Warm Period and Dark Ages Cold Period in the first millennium AD, as context for later events. We integrate information on the timing and magnitude of these events across the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, and assess the degree to which they coincide with current understanding of major population movements, with particular emphasis on three migration episodes. First, the expansion of Late Dorset Paleo-Inuit to the Central and High Arctic beginning in the late first millennium AD is plausibly linked to warming temperatures of the MCA. Second, the migration of Thule Inuit from Alaska to the Eastern Arctic beginning ca AD 1250 is not linked to warmer temperatures as previously hypothesized, and is therefore more likely related to social factors in Alaska. Third, the abandonment of northern regions and new settlement of southern regions by Inuit in the mid-second millennium AD is likely linked to a combination of cooling climate and increasing availability of European trade goods. Together, these three case studies indicate that linkages between climate change and migration are complex, variable, and mediated through social and economic factors.