Abstract
To what extent did climate change steer the trajectories of early societies? The final
prehistoric (Developed to Late Iron Age) and early medieval periods in Ireland witnessed
several major transformations in settlement, economy, material culture and ideology. Here,
we review the palaeoenvironmental records to contextualise these transformations in terms of
both climate oscillations and land-use history to evaluate whether climate change may have
played a role in altering the socio-economic or political framework. We find little evidence
that climate change coincided with major cultural alterations in the archaeological record,
with pollen records providing important insights into ongoing human activity during times of
reduced archaeological visibility. Although palaeoenvironmental records rarely provide
sufficient chronological resolution with which to test the effects of abrupt environmental
changes on populations, we note no lasting impacts following the proposed downturns that
would implicate climate as a determinant of enduring cultural change during these periods.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 129-158 |
Number of pages | 30 |
Journal | Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy: Section C, Archaeology, Celtic Studies, History, Linguistics, Literature |
Volume | 120C |
Early online date | 08 Jun 2020 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2020 |