A collapse of the Eastern Mediterranean? New results and theories on the interplay between climate and societies in Byzantium and the Near East, ca. 1000–1200 AD. (with seven appendices, including three tables and 33 figures)

Preiser-Kapeller, Johannes

doi:10.1553/joeb65s195

Cited by 9 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“… 2010 ; Litt et al . 2012 ; Preiser-Kapeller 2015 ; Flohr et al . 2017 ) in spite of recurring droughts and other natural and human induced calamities (Raphael 2013 ).…”

Section: Climate Conditions In the Study Periodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Modelling Climate and Societal Resilience in the Eastern Mediterranean in the Last Millennium

Xoplaki

Luterbacher

Wagner³

et al. 2018

Hum Ecol

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article analyses high-quality hydroclimate proxy records and spatial reconstructions from the Central and Eastern Mediterranean and compares them with two Earth System Model simulations (CCSM4, MPI-ESM-P) for the Crusader period in the Levant (1095–1290 CE), the Mamluk regime in Transjordan (1260–1516 CE) and the Ottoman crisis and Celâlî Rebellion (1580–1610 CE). During the three time intervals, environmental and climatic stress tested the resilience of complex societies. We find that the multidecadal precipitation and drought variations in the Central and Eastern Mediterranean cannot be explained by external forcings (solar variations, tropical volcanism); rather they were driven by internal climate dynamics. Our research emphasises the challenges, opportunities and limitations of linking proxy records, palaeoreconstructions and model simulations to better understand how climate can affect human history.

show abstract

“… 2010 ; Litt et al . 2012 ; Preiser-Kapeller 2015 ; Flohr et al . 2017 ) in spite of recurring droughts and other natural and human induced calamities (Raphael 2013 ).…”

Section: Climate Conditions In the Study Periodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“… 2012 ; Haldon et al . 2014 ; Luterbacher and Pfister 2015 ; Preiser-Kapeller 2015 ; Xoplaki et al . 2016 ; Fuks et al .…”

Section: Introductionunclassified

Modelling Climate and Societal Resilience in the Eastern Mediterranean in the Last Millennium

Xoplaki

Luterbacher

Wagner³

et al. 2018

Hum Ecol

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…These factors interfere with the matching of different records when trying to map the pattern of the period's climate. To understand the period investigators pull together information from various sources [22] and even historical period documents, in the latter case with the intention of linking the climatic history to human resilience and societal change [11,17,[25][26][27][28][29][30]. These studies and others, show that during the MCA, EM hydroclimate variability was large, fluctuating from significantly dry states to relatively wet ones, thus indicating a climatically uneven period.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Medieval Climate in the Eastern Mediterranean: Instability and Evidence of Solar Forcing

Kushnir

Stein

2019

Atmosphere

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper examines the hydroclimate history of the Eastern Mediterranean (EM) region during the 10th to 14th centuries C.E., a period known as the Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA), a time of significant historical turmoil and change in the region. The study assembles several regional hydroclimatic archives, primarily the Dead Sea reconstructed lake level curve together with the recently extracted deep-lake sediment record, the Soreq Cave speleothem record and its counterpart, the EM marine sediment record and the Cairo Nilometer record of annual maximum summer flood levels in lower Egypt. The Dead Sea record is a primary indicator of the intensity of the EM cold-season storm activity while the Nilometer reflects the intensity of the late summer monsoon rains over Ethiopia. These two climate systems control the annual rainfall amounts and water availability in the two regional breadbaskets of old, in Mesopotamia and Egypt. The paleoclimate archives portray a variable MCA in both the Levant and the Ethiopian Highlands with an overall dry, early-medieval climate that turned wetter in the 12th century C.E. However, the paleoclimatic records are markedly punctuated by episodes of extreme aridity. In particular, the Dead Sea displays extreme low lake levels and significant salt deposits starting as early as the 9th century C.E. and ending in the late 11th century. The Nile summer flood levels were particularly low during the 10th and 11th centuries, as is also recorded in a large number of historical chronicles that described a large cluster of droughts that led to dire human strife associated with famine, pestilence and conflict. During that time droughts and cold spells also affected the northeastern Middle East, in Persia and Mesopotamia. Seeking an explanation for the pronounced aridity and human consequences across the entire EM, we note that the 10th–11th century events coincide with the medieval Oort Grand Solar Minimum, which came at the height of an interval of relatively high solar irradiance. Bringing together other tropical and Northern Hemisphere paleoclimatic evidence, we argue for the role of long-term variations in solar irradiance in shaping the early MCA in the EM and highlight their relevance to the present and near-term future.

show abstract

“…17Preiser-Kapeller 2015: 201. The present author is indebted to Johannes Preiser-Kapeller for supplying a copy of this article.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…19In Preiser-Kapeller's words: “Mono-causal deterministic models of the impact of climatic conditions on political and economic developments are insufficient to capture the complex interplay between environmental parameters and social structures … the actual reaction of any ecosystem – including human societies – to environmental change does not only depend on the strength and frequency of these disturbances, but also on the capability of a system to resist or adapt to such changes” (Preiser-Kapeller 2015: 195–6).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Eclipse of Khurāsān in the twelfth century

Tor

2018

Bull. Sch. Orient. Afr. stud.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The province of Khurāsān constituted the centre of political, cultural, and religious life in the Sunni Islamic world from the ninth until the mid-twelfth century, after which Khurāsān was completely eclipsed. The question of how this occurred has remained almost completely unstudied; and the one study that there is does not consult the key primary literary sources for the time. The purpose of this article, therefore, is to re-examine what the primary sources reveal about the catastrophic cultural and political eclipse of Khurāsān in the mid-twelfth century, in order to demonstrate that this catastrophe was not due to “climate, cotton and camels” – in fact, Khurāsān was doing very well until the 1150s – but to concrete human agency and action: namely, the province's destruction by the rampaging Oghuz Turkmens after Sultan Sanjar had been taken captive by them in 1153, thus leading directly to the downfall of the Great Seljuq Sultanate.

show abstract

A collapse of the Eastern Mediterranean? New results and theories on the interplay between climate and societies in Byzantium and the Near East, ca. 1000–1200 AD. (with seven appendices, including three tables and 33 figures)

Cited by 9 publications

References 0 publications

Modelling Climate and Societal Resilience in the Eastern Mediterranean in the Last Millennium

Modelling Climate and Societal Resilience in the Eastern Mediterranean in the Last Millennium

Medieval Climate in the Eastern Mediterranean: Instability and Evidence of Solar Forcing

The Eclipse of Khurāsān in the twelfth century

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About