Hurricanes as Agents of Cultural Change: Integrating Paleotempestology and the Archaeological Record

Summary

Hurricanes are major climatological events with significant impacts in tropical and extra-tropical regions worldwide. Despite this, little research has been undertaken on the effects of hurricanes and other intense storms on prehistoric societies. New evidence from the field of paleotempestology—the study of past hurricane activity using geological proxy techniques, such as lagoon sediments and speleothems—is shedding light on how hurricanes varied over the Holocene in terms of frequency, geographic distribution, and magnitude. This information, in conjunction with archaeological data from coastal locations, may provide a means for helping us better understand mechanisms for human adaptation and resilience in the face of abrupt, high-magnitude climatic events. The purpose of this paper is twofold: 1) to summarize the current state of knowledge of Holocene hurricane variability in a key region—the Caribbean—where recent findings have identified a number of centennial-scale periods of hurricane "hyperactivity"; and 2), to identify and evaluate the ways that human responses to hurricane activity can be identified in the archaeological record at different spatial and temporal scales, including house and dwelling architecture, to the planning of settlements in protected areas, to regional-scale migration and demographic change.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 22221