Societal Cycling Influenced by Climatic Variability Among Early Agricultural Communities: Comparative Perspectives from Belize and Croatia

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Global Perspectives on Climate-Human Population Dynamics During the Late Holocene" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Archaeological studies continue to highlight the extreme variability in sociopolitical responses to prehistoric fluctuations in climate, from the emergence to complete breakdown of hierarchical societies. These processes were likely more volatile among early farming communities with high degrees of environmental dependency. Using new high-precision AMS 14C dates and regional paleoclimate proxy datasets, we compare the developmental trajectories of early agricultural groups from two disparate world regions: Belize and Croatia. Results suggest that changes in climate regimes correspond to alternating cycles of sociopolitical integration and fragmentation in both regions. Our research provides a framework for understanding the complex relationships between society and environment the promoted resilience or induced vulnerability in response to dramatic climate shifts.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Global Perspectives on Climate-Human Population Dynamics During the Late Holocene   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 23659