Bronze Age Collapse Research Articles

BEFORE THE MIDDLE BRONZE AGE RE-URBANIZATION AT THE HINTERLAND SITE OF TOPRAKHİSAR HÖYÜK (HATAY, TÜRKİYE)

This article explores the Early Bronze Age IVB (ca. 2300-2100 BC) and Middle Bronze Age I (ca. 2100-1800 BC) levels encountered during the research-rescue excavations conducted at Toprakhisar Höyük, a peripheral site located in the hilly landscape of the Altınözü district of Hatay. The archaeological remains exposed provided the possibility to explore research questions regarding the Early Bronze Age collapse and Middle Bronze Age re-urbanization from the stand point of the highland periphery in relation to the city centers of Tell Tayinat and Tell Atchana in the Amuq Valley of Hatay. The mixed corpus of the ephemeral Early Bronze IVB assemblage that includes elements from the Early Transcaucasian to North Syrian cultural horizon was followed by the appearance of a new local material culture in the early phases of the Middle Bronze Age. This allows us to contribute to current debates, including the expansion of the Amorites and Hurrians, and brings forward a hypothesis developed around climate change induced long distance mobility patterns and cultural hybridization. The functional role of the site as an olive oil and wine producer has been suggested to be a strong economic aspect of the site in terms of its levels that witnessed environmental and anthropogenic stress followed by the subsequent urban expansion period.

Are civilizations destined to collapse? Lessons from the Mediterranean Bronze Age

As the world faces multiple crises, lessons from humanity’s past can potentially suggest ways to decrease disruptions and increase societal resilience. From 1200 to 1100 BCE, several advanced societies in the Eastern Mediterranean suffered dramatic collapse. Though the causes of the Late Bronze Age Collapse are still debated, contributing factors may include a “perfect storm” of multiple stressors: social and economic upheaval, earthquake clusters, climate change, and others. We examined how collapse might have propagated through the societies’ connections by modeling the Eastern Mediterranean Late Bronze Age trade and socio-political networks. Our model shows that the Late Bronze Age societies made a robust network, where any single node’s collapse was insufficient to catalyze the regional collapse that historically transpired. However, modeled scenarios indicate that some paired node disruptions could cause cascading failure within the network. Subsequently, a holistic understanding of the region’s network incentive structures and feedback loops can help societies anticipate compounding risk conditions that might lead to widespread collapse and allow them to take appropriate actions to mitigate or adapt societal dependencies. Such network analyses may be able to provide insight as to how we can prevent a collapse of socio-political, economic and trade networks similar to what occurred at the end of the Late Bronze Age. Though such data-intensive analytics were unavailable to these Bronze Age regions, modern society may be able to leverage historical lessons in order to foster improved robustness and resilience to compounding threats. Our work shows that civilization collapses are preventable; we are not necessarily destined to collapse.

Getting closer to the Late Bronze Age collapse in the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean, c. 1200 BC

‘The collapse c. 1200 BC’ in the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean—which saw the end of the Mycenaean kingdoms, the Hittite state and its empire and the kingdom of Ugarit—has intrigued archaeologists for decades. As Jesse Millek points out in Destruction and its impact, the idea of a swathe of near-synchronous destructions across the eastern Mediterranean is central to the narrative of the Late Bronze Age collapse: “destruction stands as the physical manifestation of the end of the Bronze Age” (p.6). Yet whether there was a single collapse marked by a widespread destruction horizon is up for debate. The two books reviewed here successfully reassess the simplistic and catastrophist characterisation of the end of the Late Bronze Age in the eastern Mediterranean and help provide a more nuanced picture.

Documenting a maritime mercantile community through surface survey: Porto Rafti Bay in the post-collapse Aegean

Survey around Porto Rafti Bay in Greece reveals evidence of a prosperous community that exploited near-shore islets for habitation and craft production following the Late Bronze Age collapse. Surface assemblages provide insights into the strategies undertaken by this mercantile maritime group aptly navigating a dynamic socioeconomic environment.

Joachim J. Krause, Omer Sergi, and Kristin Weingart, eds. Saul, Benjamin, and the Emergence of Monarchy in Israel: Biblical and Archaeological Perspectives

Joachim J. Krause, Omer Sergi, and Kristin Weingart, eds. <i>Saul, Benjamin, and the Emergence of Monarchy in Israel: Biblical and Archaeological Perspectives</i>

Collapse, complexity, and caprines: Zooarchaeological investigations of the Hittite state and its afters

• Zooarchaeological evidence from the collapse of the Hittite empire and its aftermath does not align well with conventional understandings of the reorganization that accompanies societal collapse. • Results from the Hittite capital demonstrate a surprising degree of continuity in the organization of the animal economy post-collapse. • Results from a rural center show that daily life outside the administrative heart of the empire was heavily affected by the political dissolution of the Hittite state. This paper analyzes zooarchaeological evidence from the Late Bronze Age collapse of the Hittite empire in central Turkey (ca. 1200 BCE), placing it in dialogue with broader discussions of societal collapse and its aftermath. Zooarchaeological data from the Hittite capital, Hattuşa, and from a nearby rural center, Çadır Höyük, are used to reconstruct day-to-day economic life in the Hittite heartland and to analyze local responses to the disintegration of the Hittite political superstructure. This work allows for the assessment of two common collapse narratives. The first assumes that the state is an integrated whole, characterized by massive scale systemic inter-dependence, so that when one aspect of the state’s organizational structure (e.g., its political system) fails, its other organizational structures (e.g., its economic systems) must follow. The second assumes that rural settlements tend to be considerably less affected by societal collapse than major centers. Drawing on several lines of zooarchaeological evidence, the results of this analysis show that, while changes in central Anatolian lifeways did occur following the collapse of the Hittite empire, the nature of these changes does not always follow the trajectories assumed in conventional narratives of societal collapse.

From the Editors

The editors are pleased to present this issue to our readers. It contains timely information on endangered cultural heritage sites including the latest facts about the use of antiquities to finance terrorism in Syria, a comprehensive architectural study of one of the forgotten churches of southern Syria, a methodical examination of modern graffiti at the splendid site of Jerash in Jordan, and a fascinating Forum section on the Late Bronze Age collapse in the ancient Near East.Presenting new evidence on the continuing destruction, looting, and illicit trading in Syrian antiquities, authors Isber Sabrine, Ristam Abdo, and Neil Brodie extensively document the involvement of Da’esh in these destructive practices. Through interviews with those who have personal knowledge of the pillaging of significant archaeological sites, the authors were able to obtain images of looted objects and, also, Da’esh administrative documents. They were also able to report, in this article, looting at some previously unknown archaeological sites. Providing abundant details about an issue that has received worldwide attention, this article includes very important, heretofore unpublished, information.Rama Al Rabady and Shatha Abu-Khafajah’s case study of the Lubbēn Large Church in southern Syria examines the place of this structure as an aula ecclesiae that represents a transition from secular to sacred church architecture following the earliest Christian house churches. They discuss the aspects of the architecture of the Lubbēn Large Church that add to the representation of divinity in the church in the context of historical, regional, and local conditions. The article also offers many comparisons with other southern Syrian churches in this region called Trachonitis in the New Testament. Lubbēn’s church was built during the height of Byzantine occupation in the region. Referencing the unusual flat roof of the apse, the study concludes that aulae ecclesiae like this one introduced the innovation of “divine light” in Christian churches.In “They Were Here,” Mairna Hussein Mustafa, Ramzi Mahmoud Al-Rousan, and Fadi Abedallah Bala’awi examine modern graffiti exhibited at the ancient city of Jerash for patterns and themes. Using a unique sampling technique, they examine these colorful but jarring scribbles on the ancient features of the city in order to gain insight into graffiti types and the motives of those who created them. Analyses like this one are important for conservation specialists because they address a very common problem at heritage sites. Looking at graffiti from the standpoint of its perpetrators leads the authors to a number of cogent recommendations on how to prevent this form of vandalism in the future.We are particularly enthusiastic about this issue’s Forum section featuring a debate on a significant topic in Near Eastern archaeology—the Late Bronze Age collapse. Noted expert on this topic Eric Cline starts off the dialogue by examining the work he has done on this subject over many years of study and publication, and he reaches some new conclusions. Guy Middleton revisits the archaeological evidence for the collapse while Raphael Greenberg raises and addresses the question of what collapsed in 1177. Norman Yoffee’s contribution problematizes the use of the term “collapse” in the historical context under discussion, and Aren Maeir shines a light on the question of what happened to Late Bronze Age cultures from a “Philistine” vantage point. Louise Hitchcock takes on the multiple meanings of the term “collapse”—to all of which Cline provides a rejoinder at the end of the Forum.Scholars from four different countries contribute to this issue’s Book Reviews section. Atilla Batmaz reviews Wine Jars and Jar Makers of Cyprus: The Ethnoarchaeology of Pitharia, by Gloria London; Marzia Cavriani reviews Byblos in the Late Bronze Age: Interactions between the Levantine and Egyptian Worlds, by Marwan Kilani; Marta Lorenzon reviews The City Gate in Ancient Israel and Her Neighbors: The Form, Function, and Symbolism of the Civic Forum in the Southern Levant, by Daniel A. Frese; and John Peter Oleson reviews Under the Mediterranean I: Studies in Maritime Archaeology, edited by Stella Demesticha and Lucy Blue.

“There Really Are 50 Eskimo Words For ‘Snow’”: 1177, Big Data, and the Perfect Storm of Collapse

“There Really Are 50 Eskimo Words For ‘Snow’”: 1177, Big Data, and the Perfect Storm of Collapse

A Brief Response

I’d like to begin my very brief response by thanking the editors of the journal and all of the respondents, especially those whose comments went beyond the article and addressed the book as a whole.After reading through the thoughtful responses, and noting many of the overlapping points, what came first to my mind is something that Norman Yoffee said about a decade ago, when he and Patricia McAnany compared studying societal collapse to viewing a low-resolution digital photograph: “It’s fine when small, compact, and viewed at a distance but dissolves into disconnected parts when examined up close” (McAnany and Yoffee 2010: 5) I would agree but prefer to use the analogy of looking at an Impressionist painting when specifically considering the Bronze Age Collapse and its aftermath, as I will say in the sequel, which I am currently in the process of completing. From far away, the picture of what happened is very clear: the world system as they had known it for several centuries by that point came to an end, and there was a measurable change or transition from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age; there is no question about that. But when we get up close, things become more granular; the individual dots (or societies) become more obvious or apparent to the eye; objections and exceptions begin to surface (as Aren Maeir and several other respondents note); and the overall picture becomes less clear, especially since some societies, or even specific subregions (as Guy Middleton and Raphael Greenberg point out), were able to transform and survive while others did not. Thus, while there was an overall collapse of the interconnected world in the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean at the end of the Late Bronze Age, there were also instances of resilience and transition at the regional level—we could perhaps co-opt the phrase “Nevertheless, they persisted” for such cases.I would urge those interested to read the entire revised version of my book, in order to get the full picture of which only a small portion has been presented here, for there it will become obvious that I am in complete agreement that there is in fact no obvious answer as to why any of this happened, as Middleton and others note; otherwise, it would have been “solved” long ago. And, no, it did not happen in a single year, as both Greenberg and Maeir correctly point out, and as I make perfectly clear at great length in the actual book, but instead did take about a century, so 1230–1130 BCE fits my suggested scenario to a tee.The various other suggestions by the respondents are spot on as well, and I do hope that a laser focus remains trained on this extremely interesting period and the centuries that followed. I remain astonished at the groundswell of interest shown in this period by members of the general public who profess (on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other social media) never to have previously heard of the Bronze Age Collapse. I hope that similar examinations of other periods, areas, and/or specific peoples will be written for the general public by other scholars. But I am also hopeful that there will indeed be additional collaborative research building within the scholarly community, perhaps along the lines of the solid and interesting recommendations made by Louise Hitchcock.

The Southern Levantine Roots of the Phoenician Mercantile Phenomenon

I propose here a new way to look at the process through which, following the Bronze Age collapse and culminating in the second half of the 9th century b.c.e., polities in south Lebanon became the most important Levantine commercial hubs in the Mediterranean and the main patrons of the so-called Phoenician expansion. My approach differs from others dealing with the Phoenician question in that its definitions are not projected from a yet-to-happen “Phoenician” phenomenon in the West. It is an archaeological bottom-up diachronic approach and considers the entire Levantine coast and not Lebanon only, which is traditionally considered the Phoenician homeland. I argue that what may be termed the earliest Phoenician mercantile maritime ventures, in the early Iron Age, were launched mainly from the Carmel Coast and were directed mainly toward Egypt. Gradually this phenomenon expanded geographically, a process that can be followed closely. It was stimulated and conditioned mainly by the effects of Egypt’s withdrawal from Canaan, by the Late Cypriot IIIA collapse, by the slow recovery of the Syrian coast in the early Iron Age, and by environmental factors. The paper synthesizes several decades of research on Mediterranean issues, mainly in connection to Tel Dor on Israel’s Carmel Coast.

Life and death of four individuals in the destruction of the Late Bronze Age city of Azekah, Israel

AbstractIn this article, we discuss the skeletal remains of four individuals discovered trapped below destruction debris of Building T2/627 at the site of Tel Azekah, Israel, dating to the late 12th Century BCE. Osteological analysis shows that these individuals suffered from anemia and other systemic illness during their lives. Patterns of musculoskeletal stress markers show that they were likely highly active; in the context of artifacts recovered from the building, we suggest that specific activities included grinding grain and carrying heavy objects. Heat damage to the remains shows that the bodies were extensively burned. The archaeological and osteological evidence suggest that a high temperature fire fueled by flammable goods stored in the building caused the building to collapse on top of these individuals, preserving their burnt remains in situ. Together, these lines of evidence enhance our understanding of these individuals' ways of life and manners of death against the backdrop of the “crisis years” of the Late Bronze Age Collapse during the end of the 2nd Millennium BCE.

Debasement of silver throughout the Late Bronze – Iron Age transition in the Southern Levant: Analytical and cultural implications

The study of silver, which was an important mean of currency in the Southern Levant during the Bronze and Iron Age periods (~1950–586 BCE), revealed an unusual phenomenon. Silver hoards from a specific, yet rather long timespan, ~1200–950 BCE, contained mostly silver alloyed with copper. This alloying phenomenon is considered here for the first time, also with respect to previous attempts to provenance the silver using lead isotopes. Eight hoards were studied, from which 86 items were subjected to chemical and isotopic analysis. This is, by far, the largest dataset of sampled silver from this timespan in the Near East. Results show the alloys, despite their silvery sheen, contained high percentages of Cu, reaching up to 80% of the alloy. The Ag–Cu alloys retained a silvery tint using two methods, either by using an enriched silver surface to conceal a copper core, or by adding arsenic and antimony to the alloy. For the question of provenance, we applied a mixing model which simulates the contribution of up to three end members to the isotopic composition of the studied samples. The model demonstrates that for most samples, the more likely combination is that they are alloys of silver from Aegean-Anatolian ores, Pb-poor copper, and Pb-rich copper from local copper mines in the Arabah valley (Timna and Faynan). Another, previously suggested possibility, namely that a significant part of the silver originated from the West Mediterranean, cannot be validated analytically. Contextualizing these results, we suggest that the Bronze Age collapse around the Mediterranean led to the termination of silver supply from the Aegean to the Levant in the beginning of the 12th century BCE, causing a shortage of silver. The local administrations initiated sophisticated devaluation methods to compensate for the lack of silver – a suspected forgery. It is further suggested that following the Egyptian withdrawal from Canaan around the mid-12th century BCE, Cu–Ag alloying continued, with the use of copper from Faynan instead of Timna. The revival of long-distance silver trade is evident only in the Iron Age IIA (starting ~950 BCE), when silver was no longer alloyed with copper, and was imported from Anatolia and the West Mediterranean.

The Dipylon Mistress: Social and Economic Complexity, the Gendering of Craft Production, and Early Greek Ceramic Material Culture

This article considers the role of changing contexts of production in the evolution of ceramic material culture in early Greece. Rather than focusing on the aesthetics of ceramics or reading political and social change from patterns in ceramic style and consumption, we consider Early Iron Age (EIA) ceramic style in its context of production. Isolating the idiosyncratic aspects of EIA material culture and evaluating them in dialogue with the ethnographic record, we argue that dynamics of change in EIA ceramic repertoires may be best explained as the result of evolving contexts of production after the Bronze Age collapse that resulted in women having an increased and prominent role in potting and painting vessels. Likewise, stylistic changes occurring in the late eighth and seventh centuries BCE may be related to a transition back to a more complex economic structure in which ceramic style was driven by profit-seeking male potters.

Complexes of Late Bronze Age Molds from Tokivske

This paper deals with the Late Bronze Age complexes (deposits) of molds made of stone which were found near Tokivske village, Apostolivskyi region, Dnipropetrovsk oblast, at the eastern bank of the Kamianka River, Dnipro basin. Complexes included, respectively, three and seven matrixes mainly made of shale. Molds were used for production of bronze sickles, daggers, flat adzes, sleeve chisels, celts, round disc (mirror), pins, round plaques-buttons. Most of types are typical for the Middle Dnipro region. However, some of those have analogies in wide territories of Eurasia, from the Carpathians to Central Asia. The complexes of finds are contemporaneous to each other. It is confirmed by their dating and the presence of similar matrixes for the production of daggers in both complexes. Metal finds produced in Tokivske forms have analogies in complexes of Loboikivka (Middle Dnipro region, Donets region) and mainly the Ingul — Krasnyi Maiak (Lower Dnipro region, North-Western Pontic region) centers of metal production. Tokivske itself was located in the contact area of two large cultural complexes dated by the Middle Bronze Age, i.e. Zrubna (Berezhnivsko-Maivska Zrubna culture — BMZC) and Sabatynivka–Noua, to which those centers of metal production related. Similarities to the metal tools can be also found among the materials typical for the Central European deposits of Ópályi-Uriu-Domǎneşti. To a certain extent, analogies to the described finds are known in Kardashynka center of metal production belonging to Bilozerka culture. Therefore, the time of functioning of the workshop at the Tokivske site can be dated to the transition from Late Sabatynivka (BMZC-II after V. V. Otroshchenko) to Early Bilozerka time, BzD — HaA1 period according to P. Reineke or 13th—12th century BC. This was a time of the beginning of the so-called “The Bronze Age collapse”. In South-Eastern Europe the latter is marked by the decline of Noua–Sabatynivka and Zrubna (also known as Timber-Grave) cultural complexes and the formation of new cultures of the Final Bronze Age, from which Bilozerka and Bilohrudivka cultures were developed in the eastern bank of the Dnipro.

Maritime Worlds Collide: Agents of Transference and the Metastasis of Seaborne Threats at the End of the Bronze Age

Primary sources from the end of the Bronze Age have long been read as suggesting a time of chaotic transition, particularly with regard to threats from the sea that the established powers had no means of combatting. While the scale and severity of seaborne attacks seems to have increased in the late 13th century, these were not in themselves new phenomena, as a state of maritime threat seems to have been a constant for coastal polities and mariners in the Late Bronze Age eastern Mediterranean. However, a combination of internal and external factors in the late 13th and early 12th centuries combined to make these attacks more effective than they had been in the past, and polities more vulnerable to them. These included the rapid spread of improvements in maritime technology, particularly from the Aegean and the Levant, via high–intensity ‘zones of transference’, as well as an increase in the scale of ship­–based combat operations, due in part to the displacement of people during the Late Bronze Age collapse. This paper addresses this in two parts, beginning with the ‘background’ evidence for a constant state of maritime threat in the centuries leading up to the end of the Bronze Age, and concluding with the ‘foreground’ evidence for zones of transference and the transmission of groundbreaking elements of naval technology in the years surrounding the Late Bronze–Early Iron Age transition.

Iron Age Reciprocity

This paper focuses on reciprocity in the context of Bronze Age collapse and early Iron Age ‘reboot’. The highest level of Mycenaean hierarchy collapsed, but neither the entire system, nor the entire ideology, vanished with the palaces: the basileus and a warrior elite survived and moved into places of authority. The circulation of prestige goods through networks of relationships continued, connecting especially the Levant and Cyprus with Crete and Euboia in the early Iron Age. Such objects and the relationships they embody created and maintained control of space and time through long-distance connections with the eastern Mediterranean. Items such as Cypriot bronze stands and other drinking paraphernalia combined the practices of commensality with the ideology of lineage and ancestors previously utilized by the wanax, but now in support of a new order. The concept of ‘house societies’ is introduced to suggest that houses, both the structures and the concept of social grouping, materially manifest claims of duration and power. The monumental burial building of Toumba at Lefkandi may be staking such a claim, with exotic antiques (rather than Mycenaean heirlooms). In the aftermath of disruptions at the close of the Bronze Age, including perhaps those of elite lineages, Lefkandi may be an attempt to found a lineage or a ‘house’, constituted by feasting and gifts, creating a kinship different than one based strictly on birth.

Late Bronze Age Cultic Activity in Ancient Canaan: A View from Tel Burna

Excavations at Tel Burna, Israel, have uncovered portions of a large structure from the Late Bronze Age IIB, yielding numerous finds that suggest ritual and cultic practices occurred in the building, particularly in its central courtyard. This article presents the finds from the excavations, examining the meaning of the cultic artifacts discovered and comparing the building with the nearby Fosse Temple at Lachish. It is hoped that the discovery and presentation of the finds will help yield important information on cultic practices occurring in the 13th-century b.c.e. Shephelah.

Between the states: Iron Age interaction in southwestern Anatolia

This paper explores how Iron Age Anatolian communities constructed their identities within the fluid political and economic landscape of the Eastern Mediterranean after the Late Bronze Age collapse. Our study focuses on archaeological survey ceramics from sixteen sites in the Konya-Beyşehir region (KBR), south central Anatolia, a contested zone between the Phrygian and Neo-Assyrian polities. We use a combined stylistic and geochemical analysis to address political/economic interaction within this landscape. Comparing KBR site ceramic decorative styles with those of inland and coastal Anatolian sites allows us to identify local patterns of emulation. We differentiate emulation from actual exchange using geochemical elemental characterization. Together these techniques allow us to evaluate how local communities used emulation and exchange to construct their identities. Our results reveal that Iron Age KBR communities operated within a complex regional exchange sphere, and beyond this showed greatest affinity with Phrygian ceramic styles.

Drought and societal collapse 3200 years ago in the Eastern Mediterranean: a review

One of the goals of climate scientists is to understand how climate shifts may have changed the course of history and influenced culture at millennial timescales. Repeatedly, environmental degradation has upset the balance between people, their habitat, and the socioeconomic frameworks in which they live. Among these imbalances, drought, firmly rooted in people's minds as a catalyst of harvest failures and famines, remains a permanent threat because it may trigger or amplify social crises, leading to massive exoduses, conflicts, and political turmoil. The spiral of decline in which the flourishing Eastern Mediterranean civilizations were plunged 3200 years ago, and the ensuing chaos, remains a persistent riddle in Near Eastern history. Scholars tend to believe that this socioeconomic collapse was violent and culturally disruptive. Most of the coastal cities between Pylos and Gaza were destroyed, burned, and often left unoccupied, thereafter, putting an end to the elaborate network of international trade that ensured prosperity in the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean. The rural settlements that emerged have mainly persisted through adapted agropastoral activities and limited long‐distance trade. At the dusk of this event, regional cultures began to be poorly documented, leading historians to allude to a dark age that lasted for 300 years. Among the roots, tectonic instability and earthquakes, demographic imbalance between social groups, internal collapses, and technological innovations are commonly evoked. However, recent studies have mainly hypothesized about an impact of a centuries‐long drought behind the decline. Drought may have hastened the fall of the Old World by sparking famine, invasions, and conflicts, leading to the political, economic, and cultural chaos termed ‘Late Bronze Age collapse’. WIREs Clim Change 2015, 6:369–382. doi: 10.1002/wcc.345This article is categorized under: Climate, History, Society, Culture &gt; Major Historical Eras Paleoclimates and Current Trends &gt; Paleoclimate

Beyond Zero Population: Ethnohistory, Archaeology and the Khmer, Climate Change and the Collapse of Civilizations

A number of publications, both books and articles, have appeared in recent years attempting to prove that there is a correlation between global climate change and the collapse of complex human societies is one example where emphasis is placed on climate over human activity. This paper addresses a possible exception this emphasis of global effects. While societies under stress from weather changes may undergo significant economic and political change in response, Joseph Tainter has shown that a local systems analysis is best applied to determine the contribution of the internal dynamics of a society, rather than assign climate the ultimate effect. In this paper ethnohistorical and archaeological sources are reviewed indicating varied responses to climate challenge. We find that some, like Khmer society, are initially sustainable responses to local conditions and an exception to the proposed global collapse theory. However, failure of surrounding populations created pressures on Khmer society that destabilized adaptations to environmental stress forcing collapse. Like the Bronze Age collapse in the Mediterranean, local accommodation was insufficient for continuation on existing patterns. Others like the Japanese modified population densities and social forms to weather stress. Implications for today concern continued population growth worldwide and rising consumption are continued stresses that must be considered in the context of climate change. Pre- Neolithic population densities and modern technology could be a means of adapting human society to the constraints of quality of life and diminishing returns of technology.