Proposal for GAFOS 2002 Meeting
 
  Geosciences
 
  Gerrit Lohmann


 
 
 
  Culture-Climate-Catastrophes
 
 



 
  Culture-Climate-Catastrophe (CCC) is a hot topic in archaeology, anthropology and climate research and links several disciplines together.
 
  Questions are related to: How did past cultures respond to multicentury-scale climate changes ? Placing the archeological record of cultural change within the context of detailed and well-dated paleoclimate records presents a new opportunity to examine how complex societies responded to persistent enviromental changes. Whole empires collapsed and their people were diminished to much lower subsistence levels, whereas in other cases populations migrated and adapted to new subsistence modes.
 
  Joint archeologic and paleoclimate histories illustrate past cultural responses to climate change: The collapse of the Akkadian (ca. 4200 years BP), Classic Mayan (ca. 1200 years BP), Mochica (1500 years BP), and Tiwanaku (ca.1000 years BP) empires.
 
  Anthropology provides a key perspective in the social sciences, history, and climate. Special focus has been set on the study of human evolution, past societies, diseases, and culture. Recently, there is an ongoing effort of to combine physical data with other kind of information in order to obtain insights into Earth history relevant for different scientific communities.
 
  I think the CCC topic is well situated for a frontiers meeting due to its interdisciplinary character and recent progress in the field of research (see some references below).
 
 
 
  References:
 
  Cullen, H.M., deMenocal, P.B., Hemming, S., Hemming, G., Brown, F.H., Guilderson, T. & Sirocko, F. (2000). Climate change and the collapse of the Akkadian empire: Evidence from the deep sea. Geology, 28. 379-382.
 
  deMenocal, P.B., Cultural responses to climate change during the late Holocene, Science, 292, 667-673, 2001.
 
  deMenocal, P.B, Ortiz, J., Guilderson, T., Adkins, J., Sarnthein, M., Baker, L., and Yarusinski, M., Abrupt onset and termination of the African Humid Period: Rapid climate response to gradual insolation forcing. Quat. Sci. Rev, 19, p. 347-361, 2000.
 
  Glaser, R. (2001): Klimageschichte Mitteleuropas - 1000 Jahre Wetter, Klima, Katastrophen. Wiss. Buchgesellschaft, (Darmstadt).
 
  Luterbacher, J., et al., 2000: Monthly mean pressure reconstruction for the Late Maunder Minimum Period (AD 1675-1715). International Journal of Climatology, 20: 1049-1066.
 
  Sandweiss, D.H. 1986. The Beach Ridges at Santa, Peru: El Niņo, Uplift, and Prehistory. Geoarchaeology 1:17-28.
 
  Sandweiss, D.H., J.B. Richardson III, E.J. Reitz, H.B. Rollins, and K.A. Maasch 1996. Geoarchaeological Evidence from Peru for a 5,000 BP Onset of El Niņo. Science 273:1531-1533.
 
  Sandweiss, D.H., H. McInnis, R.L. Burger, A. Cano, B. Ojeda, R. Paredes, M.C. Sandweiss, and M.D. Glascock 1998. Quebrada Jaguay: Early South American Maritime Adaptations. Science 281:1830-1832
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
National Academy of Sciences / Humboldt Foundation
  Frontiers of Science Symposia
  2002 Symposium on Culture-Climate-Catastrophe
 
 
 
 
 
 
  Speakers:
 
  Peter deMenocal, USA. Climate research. (also chair of the session)
 
  Daniel Sandweiss, USA. Anthropology.
 
  Gerald Haug, Dept. of Earth Sciences ETH-Center, Sonneggstr. 5, CH-8092 Zuerich, Switzerland. Geology.
  Tel.: +41 (0) 1 632 3676 Fax.: +41 (0) 1 632 1080 email: haug@erdw.ethz.ch
 
 
 
 
 
  Organizers:
 
  Gerrit Lohmann and Chris McKay