Climate fluctuations and trajectories to complexity in the Neolithic: towards a theory

@article{Gronenborn2009ClimateFA,
  title={Climate fluctuations and trajectories to complexity in the Neolithic: towards a theory},
  author={Detlef Gronenborn},
  journal={Documenta Praehistorica},
  year={2009},
  volume={36},
  pages={97-110}
}
  • D. Gronenborn
  • Published 31 December 2009
  • Environmental Science
  • Documenta Praehistorica
Theories about the emergence and spread of farming in western Eurasia have a long research history. Occasionally, climate fluctuations have served as explanations for short-term culture change. However, the entire Holocene climate fluctuation sequence has so far not been regarded. First steps towards a theory which combines the successive stages in Neolithization and early to Mid-Holocene climate fluctuations are described. 
View PDF
63 Citations
Highly Influential Citations
11
Background Citations
30

Figures from this paper

63 Citations

Citation Type

Citation Type

Holocene climate change and prehistoric settlement in the lower Danube valley
The 8200 calBP climate event and the spread of the Neolithic in Eastern Europe
At 8200 calBP, the beginning of the Atlantic period, there was a drastic change from  warm and humid climatic conditions to cold conditions. The abrupt cooling at 8200 calBP has been  documented in…
Holocene Supra-Regional Environmental Changes as Trigger for Major Socio-Cultural Processes in Northeastern Africa and the Sahara
This contribution presents the environmental changes that occurred over the last ten millennia in a vast region of North Africa, encompassing the Central Sahara, the Greater Nile Valley and the Horn…
A simulation of the Neolithic transition in Western Eurasia
The problem of the neolithisation process chronology in Povolzhye
The Lower and Middle Volga basin regions border the Caucasus and Central Asia in the South. These regions are important in the study of the neolithisation process in Europe and the chronology of…
Adaptation of settlement strategies to environmental conditions in southern Slovakia in the Neolithic and Eneolithic
Environmental conditions such as climate, topography, and soil conditions had an impact on prehistoric settlement strategies. By studying changes in settlement structure in the Nitra, Hron and Ipel’…
Human responses to early Holocene climate variability in eastern Fennoscandia
AEA 2012 Conference Reading: Socioecological dynamics at the time of Neolithic transition in Iberia
Abstract The Western Mediterranean, spanning southern Italy to Portugal, can be considered a single archaeological unit where the diagnostic characteristics of Early Neolithic contexts share common…
Climatic Influences on Appearance and Development of Neolithic Cultures in Southern Outskirts of Carpathian Basin
Abstract Southern outskirts of Carpathian basin, namely the region between Sava, Drava and Danube rivers, have specific climate conditions today partially influenced by geological structure and…
Radiocarbon dates, climatic events, and social dynamics during the Early Neolithic in Mediterranean Iberia
...
...

References

SHOWING 1-10 OF 136 REFERENCES
Neolithic transition in Europe: the radiocarbon record revisited
Understanding the introduction of farming and the adoption of Neolithic culture continues to be a major research objective in Europe. The authors make use of a new database of radiocarbon dates from…
Climate Change and Cultural Dynamics: A Global Perspective on Mid-Holocene Transitions
The Middle Holocene epoch (8,000 to 3,000 years ago) was a time of dramatic changes in the physical world and in human cultures. Across this span, climatic conditions changed rapidly, with cooling in…
Mid-Holocene climatic and cultural dynamics in Northern Europe
Climate Change and Socio-Political Crises: Some Cases from Neolithic Central Europe
Abstract In recent years, data on an increasing number of violent conflicts within and between Central European Neolithic societies has come to light through both archaeological and physical…
Mid- to Late Holocene climate change: an overview
Holocene Climate Variability on Centennial-to-Millennial Time Scales: 2. Internal and Forced Oscillations as Possible Causes
The climate of Western and Northern Europe is closely linked to the meridional circulation of the Atlantic Ocean, and climate variability on centennial-to-millennial time scales in this realm may…
Neolithic Dispersals from the Levantine Corridor: a Mediterranean Perspective
Abstract The earliest agro-pastoralists of the Near East are generally held to have emerged in a narrow Levantine Corridor. Agricultural life initially spread from this discrete core zone in the…
Migration, acculturation and culture change in western temperate Eurasia,
After the introduction of the pottery tradition of La Hoguette and contemporaneous research on Earliest LBK about 10 to 15 years ago, research onthe spread of farming in Central Europe had somewhat…
The 8200 cal BP abrupt environmental change and the Neolithic transition: A Mediterranean perspective
The 8200 calBP ‘climate event’ and the process of neolithisation in south-eastern Europe
Climate anomalies between 8247–8086 calBP are discussed in relation to the process of transition farming and to demographic dynamics and population trajectories in south-eastern Europe.
...
...