An introduction to Seshat: Global History Databank

Turchin, Peter; Whitehouse, Harvey; François, Pieter; Hoyer, Daniel; Alves, Abel A.; Baines, John; Baker, David P.; Bartkowiak, Marta; Bates, J.L.; Bennett, James E.; Bidmead, Julye; Bol, Peter K.; Ceccarelli, Alessandro; Christakis, Kostis S.; Christian, David; Covey, Alan; Angelis, Franco De; Earle, Timothy; Edwards, Neil R.; Feinman, Gary M.; Grohmann, Steph; Holden, Philip.B.; Júlíusson, Árni Daníel; Korotayev, Andrey V.; Kradin, Nikolay N.; Kristinsson, Axel; Larson, Jennifer; Litwin, Oren; Mair, Victor H.; Manning, J. G.; Manning, Patrick; Marciniak, Arkadiusz; McMahon, Gregory; Miksic, John N.; García, Juan Carlos Moreno; Morris, Ian D.; Mostern, Ruth; Mullins, Daniel; Oyebamiji, Oluwole; Peregrine, Peter N.; Petrie, Cameron A.; Prieser-Kapeller, Johannes; Rudiak-Gould, Peter; Sabloff, Paula L. W.; Savage, Patrick E.; Spencer, Charles; Stark, Miriam T.; Haar, Barend ter; Thurner, Stefan; Wallace, Vesna A.; Witoszek, Nina; Xie, Liye

doi:10.31235/osf.io/394w2

Cited by 8 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 4 publications

(4 reference statements)

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“…Twelve cases were selected from the Seshat Databank (seshatdatabank.info), which assembles historical and archaeological information (e.g. archaeological site reports, primary and secondary historical sources, demographic data, and the like) to provide an archive of both raw and pre-coded data to test hypotheses about long-term cultural stability and change (Turchin et al, 2018, 2020). The Seshat Databank “World Sample 30” provides data for cultural sequences at 30 locations across the globe, selected to minimize autocorrelation and maximize cultural and environmental diversity (http://seshatdatabank.info/methods/world-sample-30/).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate and social change at the start of the Late Antique Little Ice Age

Peregrine

2020

The Holocene

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The Late Antique Little Ice Age, spanning the period from 536 CE to roughly 560 CE, saw temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere drop by a degree C in less than a decade. This rapid cooling is thought to have caused widespread famine, epidemic disease, and social disruption. The relationship between cooling and social disruption is examined here using a set of high-resolution climate and historical data. A significant link between cooling and social disruption is demonstrated, but it is also demonstrated that the link is highly variable, with some societies experiencing dramatic cooling changing very little, and others experiencing only slight cooling changing dramatically. This points to variation in vulnerability, and serves to establish the Late Antique Little Ice Age as a context within which naturalistic quasi-experiments on vulnerability to climate change might be conducted.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate and social change at the start of the Late Antique Little Ice Age

Peregrine

2020

The Holocene

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“…The Seshat Project engages with academic historians and archaeologists, who are involved in the process in a number of ways, from helping design the codes being used, through to checking the data and helping with interpreting the patterns that emerge. Notably the process and our approach to data collection allows us to incorporate disagreements between academics about their interpretation of the past (see Turchin et al 2018 such that productivity in each is increased by growing them together. In our Oaxaca case study we have taken this into account by adjusting the yield based on the overall improvement in yield across all three crops.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Seshat: Global History Databank is an interdisciplinary project aiming to codify archaeological and historical variables in order to allow comparative analysis of human social evolution (Turchin et al, 2015;François et al 2016;Turchin et al 2018). The databank currently features codified information on the past 10,000 years within thirty bounded geographic regions, termed Natural Geographic Areas (NGAs, selected to provide good geographic breadth as well as encompass a range of historical societies, from chiefdoms to empires.…”

Section: Historical and Archaeological Data On Agricultural Practicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Combining historical and archaeological data with crop models to estimate agricultural productivity in past societies

Collins¹,

Oyebamiji²,

Edwards³

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Carrying capacity, population pressure, and agricultural productivity are of central importance to understanding key innovations in human social and cultural evolution. In this paper we outline how crop yield models can be combined with the historical and archaeological information about past societies compiled by Seshat: Global History Database to infer how agricultural productivity and potential have changed over time in different parts of the world. To aid comparative research we focus on developing a method for calculating the carrying capacity of a particular region based on a number of simplifying assumptions. Here we present two case studies demonstrating the calculation of ancient crop yields and carrying capacity for the regions of Latium (Italy) and Oaxaca (Mexico); regions selected to illustrate a number of different features of past agricultural systems, as well as different staple crops. We outline the strengths and weaknesses of this approach and discuss ways in which it could be adapted to address a range of research questions, e.g. relating to archaeological demography and anthropogenic change. Comparison of our reconstructed carrying capacity series with independent estimates of ancient population from these regions demonstrate broadly good agreement with some notable mismatches as well, highlighting a fruitful area of focus for future studies exploring the gap between achieved population and potential carrying capacity.

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“…Finally, we would benefit from computational and quantitative scientists refining the statistical methods or offering alternative analytical approaches. The Seshat project has already demonstrated that such a transdisciplinary collaboration is both possible and fruitful by bringing together humanities scholars and social and quantitative scientists (Turchin et al 2019b). Our goal in this article is even more ambitious, insofar as we propose to expand the scale of this collaboration beyond the Seshat project to explicitly include a broader network of voices, including potential critics.…”

Section: Methods Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Explaining the Rise of Moralizing Religions: A test of competing hypotheses using the Seshat Databank

Turchin¹,

Whitehouse²,

Larson³

et al. 2019

Preprint

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The causes, consequences, and timing of the rise of moralizing religions in world history have been the focus of intense debate. Progress has been limited by the availability of quantitative data to test competing theories, by divergent ideas regarding both predictor and outcomes variables, and by differences of opinion over methodology. To address all these problems, we utilize Seshat: Global History Databank, a vast storehouse of information designed to test theories concerning the drivers of social complexity in world history. In addition to the Big Gods hypothesis, which proposes that moralizing religion contributed to the success of increasingly large-scale complex societies, we consider the role of warfare, animal husbandry, and affluence in the rise of moralizing religions. Using a broad range of nuanced measures of moralizing religion, we find strong support for previous research showing that institutions endorsing beliefs in supernatural enforcement arise after, not before, the sharpest rises in social complexity in world history. In addition, our analyses suggest that intergroup warfare, supported by resource availability, played a significant role in driving the rise of both social complexity and moralizing religions. The data, methods, and results presented in this paper have been made publicly available online for others to inspect and critique, allowing additional analyses to be run and alternative assumptions to be tested, in parallel with peer review and prior to publication.

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An introduction to Seshat: Global History Databank

Cited by 8 publications

References 4 publications

Climate and social change at the start of the Late Antique Little Ice Age

Climate and social change at the start of the Late Antique Little Ice Age

Combining historical and archaeological data with crop models to estimate agricultural productivity in past societies

Explaining the Rise of Moralizing Religions: A test of competing hypotheses using the Seshat Databank

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