AD536 – Back to Nature
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 10957252 |
|---|---|
| Authors | John Moreland (0000-0002-0167-2541, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2018 |
| Volume | 89 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 91-111 |
| Publication date | 2018-04-22 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Acta Archaeologica (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0065-101X • E-ISSN: 1600-0390 |
| Publisher | Walter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE) |
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1600-0390.2018.12194.x |
| OpenAlex | W2910471401 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 13 |
| References cited | 69 |
A spate of archaeological, historical and scientific publications have recently argued that the dust veil from a volcanic eruption (or series of eruptions) caused climatic change, which ‘forced’ significant historical transformations in the middle of the sixth century AD. In this paper, I situate this phenomenon within a more general return to environmental determinism in archaeological explanation, a return which itself needs to be understood in the context both of contemporary fears about the devastation to be unleashed by the climatic change we have made, and of the rise of precise measurement in environmental and archaeological science. I do not doubt the reality of the climatic change reconstructed for AD536/546 but, given the coarseness of the dating of the historical transformations, I do question the causal connections drawn between the former and the latter. I suggest that for many archaeologists, the AD536 event (and similar phenomena) functions much as written texts once did – as both the framework for analysis and as the explanation of historical process
Archaeology · Context (archaeology · Determinism · Epistemology · Event (particle physics · Phenomenon · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Geology and Paleoclimatology Research · History · Philosophy · Tree-ring climate responses
Science, Morality, and the Roman Economy
The Fimbulwinter myth in the context of Nordic tree-ring climate proxy data
Becoming Europe
Collapse Studies in Archaeology from 2012 to 2023
A system of ups and downs
Climate and social change at the start of the Late Antique Little Ice Age
Fates of Romes
Hinterland Origins
What Happened at Augland? A Social Chronology for the Demise of a Roman Iron Age Ceramic Workshop in South Norway
Plague, Climate and Faith in Early Medieval Western Britain
Pyrotechnology in Turbulent Times
The Impact Of The 6th Century Crisis – Exploring Burials as a Proxy For Population Dynamics in Iron Age Scandinavia
The Climatic Resilience of the Sasanian Empire
Dust clouds, climate change and coins
Bristlecone pine tree rings and volcanic eruptions over the last 5000 yr
The Parting of the Sea
Early Medieval Settlements
The Fate of Rome
The causality analysis of climate change and large-scale human crisis
Timing and climate forcing of volcanic eruptions for the past 2,500 years
The environmental, archaeological and historical evidence for regional climatic changes and their societal impacts in the Eastern Mediterranean in Late Antiquity
Cooling and societal change during the Late Antique Little Ice Age from 536 to around 660 AD
Climate and the Collapse of Maya Civilization
Years of European Climate Variability and Human Susceptibility
A History of Archaeological Thought
Archaeology, Theory and the Middle Ages
Agriculture in Sweden, 800 BC–AD 1000
The Migration Period, Pre-Viking Age, and Viking Age in Estonia
Megadroughts, Enso, and the Invasion of Late-Roman Europe by the Huns and Avars
Framing the Early Middle Ages
Behind Heathendom
Selected Variae of Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator
Eruptions that Shook the World
Reviving the Grand Narrative
Tracing Old Norse Cosmology
Little Ice Age catastrophic storms and the destruction of a Shetland Island community
The influence of climatic change on the Late Bronze Age Collapse and the Greek Dark Ages
The Floods of 589 and Climate Change at the Beginning of the Middle Ages
Climate and causation in the Swedish Iron Age
Roman Britain and the English Settlements
Bronze Age myths? Volcanic activity and human response in the Mediterranean and North Atlantic regions
The Urban Revolution
Volcanism, Ecology and Culture
Climate Change during and after the Roman Empire
The First Towns
Climate and Documentary Sources
The Anglo-Saxon Achievement
Twilight of the gods? The 'dust veil event' of AD 536 in critical perspective
Environmental Determinism in Near Eastern Prehistory
| Unique citing works | 13 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2,17 |
| Citation span | 2020 - 2026 (7) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 13 |