Climate, disease and society in late-medieval Ireland

Campbell, D. M.; Ludlow,

doi:10.3318/priac.2020.120.13

Cited by 8 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 14 publications

(14 reference statements)

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“…To compare building activity history with the price of grain we used the 300year detrended European grain price average as published by Ljungqvist et al (2022). This grain price record consists of 56 series from cities across most of central and western Europe, 19894 Hollstein, 1980;Becker, 1991;Kelly et al, 2002;Westphal, 2002Westphal, , 2003 Ireland Francis Ludlow 40 Baillie, 1982Baillie, , 1995Baillie, , 1999Baillie, , 2006Brown and Baillie, 2012;Campbell and Konieczny, 2009Konieczny, , 2010Konieczny, , 2011Konieczny, , 2012Ruszczyk and Konieczny, 2012;Klajmon, 2013;Spyt et , 1987, 1993, 1998Miles, 1997;Meeson, 2012 *Digitized from data published in Vernacular Architecture originating from numerous investigators. standardized to z-scores relative to the 1546-1650 period.…”

Section: Other Datasets Used For Comparisonsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The strongest association between European building activity rates and metrics of societal well-being is found with the grain price average for Europe (see section "Building Activity, Grain Price Level, Economic Well-Being, and Climatic Change"). Grain was the main (>70%) calorie source for most of the population (Allen, 2000;Collet and Schuh, 2018), despite some minor regional variation as per the notable focus on dairying in Gaelic Ireland (Campbell and Ludlow, 2020). Considering this, and the fact that grain price levels reflected the interplay of supply and demand (Persson, 1999), it is reasonable to use grain price levels as an indicator for both the availability of food, and the average standard of living (Campbell, 2016).…”

Section: Comparison With Other Indicators Of Societal Well-beingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In Europe, there are limited examples in archeological and historical research of using felling dates for reconstructing building activity changes at large spatial scales, but several smallscale studies have provided valuable insights into demographic declines or the timing of societal crises (Baillie, 1982(Baillie, , 1995(Baillie, , 1999Mallory and Baillie, 1988;Schweingruber, 1988;Wrobel and Eckstein, 1993;Nicolussi, 2002;Eckstein, 2007), and also into past settlement and demographic dynamics in the Swiss Alps (Büntgen et al, 2006), the northwestern Carpathian arc (Büntgen et al, 2013), the north-eastern France (Tegel et al, 2016), in Sweden (Bartholin, 1989(Bartholin, , 1990Lagerås et al, 2016), in parts of Norway (Thun and Svarva, 2018), in eastern Austria (Grabner et al, 2018), and Ireland (Brown and Baillie, 2012;Campbell and Ludlow, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Regional Patterns of Late Medieval and Early Modern European Building Activity Revealed by Felling Dates

et al. 2022

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Although variations in building activity are a useful indicator of societal well-being and demographic development, historical datasets for larger regions and longer periods are still rare. Here, we present 54,045 annually precise dendrochronological felling dates from historical construction timber from across most of Europe between 1250 and 1699 CE to infer variations in building activity. We use geostatistical techniques to compare spatiotemporal dynamics in past European building activity against independent demographic, economic, social and climatic data. We show that the felling dates capture major geographical patterns of demographic trends, especially in regions with dense data coverage. A particularly strong negative association is found between grain prices and the number of felling dates. In addition, a significant positive association is found between the number of felling dates and mining activity. These strong associations, with well-known macro-economic indicators from pre-industrial Europe, corroborate the use of felling dates as an independent source for exploring large-scale fluctuations of societal well-being and demographic development. Three prominent examples are the building boom in the Hanseatic League region of northeastern Germany during the 13th century, the onset of the Late Medieval Crisis in much of Europe c. 1300, and the cessation of building activity in large parts of central Europe during armed conflicts such as the Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648 CE). Despite new insights gained from our European-wide felling date inventory, further studies are needed to investigate changes in construction activity of high versus low status buildings, and of urban versus rural buildings, and to compare those results with a variety of historical documentary sources and natural proxy archives.

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Section: Other Datasets Used For Comparisonsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Comparison With Other Indicators Of Societal Well-beingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Regional Patterns of Late Medieval and Early Modern European Building Activity Revealed by Felling Dates

et al. 2022

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“…A late European winter frost or flood could have devastating effects on summer harvests and potentially propel elevated bread prices, as in the case of the French Revolution. Thus, with a growing abundance of well-dated proxy reconstructions of climate and volcanic forcing, recent studies have increasingly examined impacts of volcanism and extreme weather on historical events and societal developments (e.g., Zhang et al, 2011;Büntgen et al, 2011Büntgen et al, , 2016Büntgen et al, , 2020Manning et al, 2017;Campbell and Ludlow, 2020;McConnell et al, 2020;Gao et al, 2021b). Other studies have in various ways highlighted the importance of conducting such investigations with an understanding of the relevant historical and societal contexts to avoid simplistic, monocausal or environmentally deterministic linkages between extreme weather or climate anomalies and historical events (Haldon et al, 2018;van Bavel et al, 2019;Chen et al, 2020;D'Arrigo et al, 2020;Degroot et al, 2021;Guillet et al, 2021;.…”

Section: Final Considerationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climatic, weather and socio-economic conditions corresponding with the mid-17th century eruption cluster

Stoffel

Corona

Ludlow

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Abstract. The mid-17th century is characterized by a cluster of explosive volcanic eruptions in the 1630s and 1640s, deteriorating climatic conditions culminating in the Maunder Minimum as well as political instability and famine in regions of Western and Northern Europe as well as China and Japan. This contribution investigates the sources of the eruptions of the 1630s and 1640s and their possible impact on contemporary climate using ice-core, tree-ring and historical evidence, but will also look into the socio-political context in which they occurred and the human responses they may have triggered. Three distinct sulfur peaks are found in the Greenland ice core record in 1637, 1641–42 and 1646. In Antarctica, only one unambiguous sulfate spike is recorded, peaking in 1642. The resulting bipolar sulfur peak in 1641–1642 can likely be ascribed to the eruption of Mount Parker (6° N, Philippines) on December 26, 1640, but sulfate emitted from Koma-ga-take (42° N, Japan) volcano on July 31, 1641, has potentially also contributed to the sulphate concentrations observed in Greenland at this time. The smaller peaks in 1637 and 1646 can be potentially attributed to the eruptions of Hekla (63° N, Iceland) and Shiveluch (56° N, Russia), respectively. To date, however, none of the candidate volcanoes for the mid-17th century sulphate peaks have been confirmed with tephra preserved in ice cores. Tree-ring and written sources point to severe and cold conditions in the late 1630s and early 1640s in various parts of Europe, and to poor harvests. Yet the early 17th century was also characterized by widespread warfare across Europe – and in particular the Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648), rendering any attribution of socio-economic crisis to volcanism challenging. In China and Japan, historical sources point to extreme droughts and famines starting in the late 1630s, and thus preceding the eruptions by some years. The case of the eruption cluster in the late 1630s and early 1640s and the climatic and societal conditions recorded in its aftermath thus offer a textbook example of difficulties in (i) unambiguously distinguishing volcanically induced cooling, wetting or drying from natural climate variability, and (ii) attributing political instability, harvest failure and famines solely to volcanic climatic impacts. This example shows that the impacts of past volcanism must always be studied within the contemporary socio-economic contexts, but that it is also time to most past reductive framings and sometimes reactionary oppositional stances in which climate (and environment more broadly) either is or is not deemed an important contributor to major historical events.

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“…Rhynchospora) values, and the E. cinerea record is interrupted. These changes point to increased wetness that may be a consequence of general climate deterioration that followed the early Medieval warm period [87]. More detailed analyses are, however, desirable before firm conclusions regarding climate change are reached.…”

Section: Letterfrack Connemara National Park (Pine Dendrochronology A...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Holocene Vegetation Dynamics, Landscape Change and Human Impact in Western Ireland as Revealed by Multidisciplinary, Palaeoecological Investigations of Peat Deposits and Bog-Pine in Lowland Connemara

2021

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Palaeoecological investigations, involving pollen analysis, dendrochronology, and radiocarbon dating of bog-pine, provide the basis for reconstruction of vegetation dynamics, landscape development, and human impact in two contrasting parts of lowland northern Connemara, western Ireland, namely Ballydoo and Derryeighter in the east, and Renvyle/Letterfrack/Cleggan at the Atlantic coast some 40 km to the west. The history of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) is traced in detail. Standout features include the dominant role the tree played from the early Holocene onwards and especially at Ballydoo, its ability to grow on peat surfaces (so-called pine flush) over the course of several millennia during the mid-Holocene (centred on c. 5 ka), and its demise in a three-step fashion to become regionally extinct at c. 2.3 ka. The factors influencing these developments, including climate change, are discussed. Another natural phenomenon, namely the spread of blanket bog, is shown to be an on-going process since the early mid-Holocene, with accelerated spread taking place during the Neolithic and Bronze Age. The course of human impact, as reflected in pollen records and in archaeological field monuments, including megaliths and prehistoric stone walls, is reconstructed in detail.

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Climate, disease and society in late-medieval Ireland

Cited by 8 publications

References 14 publications

Regional Patterns of Late Medieval and Early Modern European Building Activity Revealed by Felling Dates

Regional Patterns of Late Medieval and Early Modern European Building Activity Revealed by Felling Dates

Climatic, weather and socio-economic conditions corresponding with the mid-17th century eruption cluster

Holocene Vegetation Dynamics, Landscape Change and Human Impact in Western Ireland as Revealed by Multidisciplinary, Palaeoecological Investigations of Peat Deposits and Bog-Pine in Lowland Connemara

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