Climate history is a rapidly evolving field of study that aims to: firstly reconstruct climate conditions over past centuries and millennia; and secondly understand how societies perceived and responded to changing climates and extreme weather. These aims can be best achieved by combining evidence from natural and human archives.

 

In this module we will examine the historical development of natural archives such as tree-rings and ice-cores and introduce how they can be used to reveal past climate variations. We will then examine how this information can be combined with evidence from human archives, including written and archaeological records, to understand the social impacts of climate change and extreme weather.

 

In doing so, we will draw upon case studies of major episodes of climate change in areas such as ancient Egypt, Babylonia, the ancient American Southwest, medieval Ireland, Japan, China, and beyond. We will examine the role explosive volcanic eruptions and rapid changes in the Sun’s output of energy played in causing extreme weather (that was often accompanied by major human impacts such as famine, disease and conflict), before studying how these societies adapted to these changes.