Beyond one-way determinism: San Frediano’s miracle and climate change in Central and Northern Italy in late antiquity
Abstract Integrating palaeoclimatological proxies and historical records, which is necessary to achieve a more complete understanding of climate impacts on past societies, is a challenging task, often leading to unsatisfactory and even contradictory conclusions. This has until recently been the case...
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Springer Science and Business Media LLC
2021
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crspringernat:10.1007/s10584-021-03043-x 2023-05-15T17:35:03+02:00 Beyond one-way determinism: San Frediano’s miracle and climate change in Central and Northern Italy in late antiquity Zanchetta, Giovanni Bini, Monica Bloomfield, Kevin Izdebski, Adam Vivoli, Nicola Regattieri, Eleonora Isola, Ilaria Drysdale, Russell N. Bajo, Petra Hellstrom, John C. Wiśniewski, Robert Fallick, Anthony E. Natali, Stefano Luppichini, Marco Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Lucca European Research Council 2021 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10584-021-03043-x https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10584-021-03043-x.pdf https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10584-021-03043-x/fulltext.html en eng Springer Science and Business Media LLC https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 CC-BY Climatic Change volume 165, issue 1-2 ISSN 0165-0009 1573-1480 Atmospheric Science Global and Planetary Change journal-article 2021 crspringernat https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-021-03043-x 2022-01-04T14:38:23Z Abstract Integrating palaeoclimatological proxies and historical records, which is necessary to achieve a more complete understanding of climate impacts on past societies, is a challenging task, often leading to unsatisfactory and even contradictory conclusions. This has until recently been the case for Italy, the heart of the Roman Empire, during the transition between Antiquity and the Middle Ages. In this paper, we present new high-resolution speleothem data from the Apuan Alps (Central Italy). The data document a period of very wet conditions in the sixth c. AD, probably related to synoptic atmospheric conditions similar to a negative phase of the North Atlantic Oscillation. For this century, there also exist a significant number of historical records of extreme hydroclimatic events, previously discarded as anecdotal. We show that this varied evidence reflects the increased frequency of floods and extreme rainfall events in Central and Northern Italy at the time. Moreover, we also show that these unusual hydroclimatic conditions overlapped with the increased presence of “water miracles” in Italian hagiographical accounts and social imagination. The miracles, performed by local Church leaders, strengthened the already growing authority of holy bishops and monks in Italian society during the crucial centuries that followed the “Fall of the Roman Empire”. Thus, the combination of natural and historical data allows us to show the degree to which the impact of climate variability on historical societies is determined not by the nature of the climatic phenomena per se, but by the culture and the structure of the society that experienced it. Article in Journal/Newspaper North Atlantic North Atlantic oscillation Springer Nature (via Crossref) Climatic Change 165 1-2 |
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Open Polar |
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Springer Nature (via Crossref) |
op_collection_id |
crspringernat |
language |
English |
topic |
Atmospheric Science Global and Planetary Change |
spellingShingle |
Atmospheric Science Global and Planetary Change Zanchetta, Giovanni Bini, Monica Bloomfield, Kevin Izdebski, Adam Vivoli, Nicola Regattieri, Eleonora Isola, Ilaria Drysdale, Russell N. Bajo, Petra Hellstrom, John C. Wiśniewski, Robert Fallick, Anthony E. Natali, Stefano Luppichini, Marco Beyond one-way determinism: San Frediano’s miracle and climate change in Central and Northern Italy in late antiquity |
topic_facet |
Atmospheric Science Global and Planetary Change |
description |
Abstract Integrating palaeoclimatological proxies and historical records, which is necessary to achieve a more complete understanding of climate impacts on past societies, is a challenging task, often leading to unsatisfactory and even contradictory conclusions. This has until recently been the case for Italy, the heart of the Roman Empire, during the transition between Antiquity and the Middle Ages. In this paper, we present new high-resolution speleothem data from the Apuan Alps (Central Italy). The data document a period of very wet conditions in the sixth c. AD, probably related to synoptic atmospheric conditions similar to a negative phase of the North Atlantic Oscillation. For this century, there also exist a significant number of historical records of extreme hydroclimatic events, previously discarded as anecdotal. We show that this varied evidence reflects the increased frequency of floods and extreme rainfall events in Central and Northern Italy at the time. Moreover, we also show that these unusual hydroclimatic conditions overlapped with the increased presence of “water miracles” in Italian hagiographical accounts and social imagination. The miracles, performed by local Church leaders, strengthened the already growing authority of holy bishops and monks in Italian society during the crucial centuries that followed the “Fall of the Roman Empire”. Thus, the combination of natural and historical data allows us to show the degree to which the impact of climate variability on historical societies is determined not by the nature of the climatic phenomena per se, but by the culture and the structure of the society that experienced it. |
author2 |
Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Lucca European Research Council |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Zanchetta, Giovanni Bini, Monica Bloomfield, Kevin Izdebski, Adam Vivoli, Nicola Regattieri, Eleonora Isola, Ilaria Drysdale, Russell N. Bajo, Petra Hellstrom, John C. Wiśniewski, Robert Fallick, Anthony E. Natali, Stefano Luppichini, Marco |
author_facet |
Zanchetta, Giovanni Bini, Monica Bloomfield, Kevin Izdebski, Adam Vivoli, Nicola Regattieri, Eleonora Isola, Ilaria Drysdale, Russell N. Bajo, Petra Hellstrom, John C. Wiśniewski, Robert Fallick, Anthony E. Natali, Stefano Luppichini, Marco |
author_sort |
Zanchetta, Giovanni |
title |
Beyond one-way determinism: San Frediano’s miracle and climate change in Central and Northern Italy in late antiquity |
title_short |
Beyond one-way determinism: San Frediano’s miracle and climate change in Central and Northern Italy in late antiquity |
title_full |
Beyond one-way determinism: San Frediano’s miracle and climate change in Central and Northern Italy in late antiquity |
title_fullStr |
Beyond one-way determinism: San Frediano’s miracle and climate change in Central and Northern Italy in late antiquity |
title_full_unstemmed |
Beyond one-way determinism: San Frediano’s miracle and climate change in Central and Northern Italy in late antiquity |
title_sort |
beyond one-way determinism: san frediano’s miracle and climate change in central and northern italy in late antiquity |
publisher |
Springer Science and Business Media LLC |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10584-021-03043-x https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10584-021-03043-x.pdf https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10584-021-03043-x/fulltext.html |
genre |
North Atlantic North Atlantic oscillation |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic North Atlantic oscillation |
op_source |
Climatic Change volume 165, issue 1-2 ISSN 0165-0009 1573-1480 |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-021-03043-x |
container_title |
Climatic Change |
container_volume |
165 |
container_issue |
1-2 |
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1766134092122816512 |