2024/2025

Climate, Crops, and Crisis?

Examining Agricultural Adaptation and Resilience to Climate Change in Prehistory

Natural Sciences /
Social Sciences

Principal investigators

Rosie (Rosemary Rhiannon) Bishop

Associate Professor
University of Stavanger (UiS)
Year at CAS
Research Area
Archaeology

Abstract

How resilient were prehistoric farmers to climate deterioration? The project at CAS will provide an innovative, interdisciplinary dialogue to determine the best methods for identifying agricultural adaptation, resilience and vulnerability to climate change in the archaeological record. We will focus specifically on two case-study areas - Northern Scotland and Southern Norway - with similar climatic but contrasting cultural and agricultural histories, during the 4th to 1st millennium BC. A considerable quantity of data is available from different disciplines for the study area, and by integrating this data, we can now provide a sophisticated understanding of human-climate interactions in the past. The results will provide time-depth for understanding human adaptations to climate, with resonance beyond archaeology.