Moments of crisis: climate change in Scottish prehistory

There is strong evidence for many key turning points in Scottish and north-west European prehistory – what we call moments of ‘crisis’ – to be associated with evidence for widespread and abrupt natural changes in climate. Association or coincidence are not cause, though, and the abrupt climatic chan...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Tipping, Richard, Bradley, Richard, Sanders, Jeff, McCulloch, Robert, Wilson, Robert
Other Authors: Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Reading, Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, University of St Andrews, orcid:0000-0001-5542-3703
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 2012
Subjects:
Environmental Geography
Environmental History
Environmental Change
North Atlantic
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1893/20594
http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archiveDS/archiveDownload?t=arch-352-1/dissemination/pdf/vol_142/142_0009_0025.pdf
http://dspace.stir.ac.uk/bitstream/1893/20594/1/Tipping%20et%20al%20Moments%20of%20crisis%20PSAS%202012.pdf
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Summary:There is strong evidence for many key turning points in Scottish and north-west European prehistory – what we call moments of ‘crisis’ – to be associated with evidence for widespread and abrupt natural changes in climate. Association or coincidence are not cause, though, and the abrupt climatic change in Scottish prehistory is proposed in a review of the many new data-sets of prehistoric climate change affecting the North Atlantic region. The case is made that Scotland in prehistory, because of its location in the North Atlantic region, should become a testing-ground of the relation between prehistoric society and climate change, to move debate beyond merely coincidence matching.

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