Note: Climate Change and Ancient Societies in Europe and the Near East -- Introduction -- Joseph G. Manning-Climate and Society: Past and Present -- Koenraad Verboven-Climate and Society: A Complex Story -- Paul Erdkamp-Climate and Society: Studying Ancient Worlds -- Bibliography -- Contents -- Notes on Contributors -- List of Figures -- List of Tables -- 1 A Historian's Introduction to Paleoclimatology -- Instrumental and Historical Sources -- Natural Proxy Data -- Glaciers -- Stable Isotopes -- Ice Cores -- Speleothems -- Lake Sediments -- Pollen -- Dendroclimatology -- Proxies and Climate Eras -- Bibliography -- 2 A Hard Row to Hoe: Ancient Climate Change from the Crop Perspective -- Introduction -- Climate Change and Wider Environmental Problems -- Plant Biology, Taxonomy, and Limiting Factors -- Photosynthesis, Transpiration, and Respiration -- Taxonomy, Genetic Variation, and Climate Change -- Variation, Adaptation, and the Resilience of Plants and Plant Populations -- Tolerance Ranges and Phenotypic Plasticity -- Populations and Resilience -- Atmospheric Changes and Carbon Isotope Discrimination in Ancient and Modern Crops -- Long Term Changes in Atmospheric CO2 and O3: Effects on Yield and Nutrition -- Plant Carbon Isotope Discrimination and Water Status in Archaeobotanical Specimens -- Climate Change and Human Agency -- Of Crops and Fields -- Crop Selection and Climate Change: Macro-archaeobotanical and Written Evidence -- Crops and the Distribution of the Effects of Climate Change -- Extreme Weather Events -- Temperature Distribution: Warm Weather and 'Climatic Optima' -- Water Availability -- Temperature Distribution: Chilling Requirements and Vernalization -- Climate Change: Economic Outcomes, Social Cooperation, and Resilience -- Economic Outcomes -- Social Cooperation and Resilience -- Conclusion -- Bibliography. , 3 Who Follows the Elephant Will Have Problems: Thought on Modelling Roman Responses to Climate (Changes) -- Introduction -- The Hohokam -- The Zerqa Triangle -- The Maya -- The Elephant in the Room -- Modelling the Right Romans? -- Languages of Change and Structure -- By Way of Conclusion -- Bibliography -- 4 Famines, Demographic Crises and Climate in Italy 1650-1913 -- The Long-Term Population Trend -- Phases and Cycles -- The Hypothesis -- Births and Deaths -- Incomes -- Incomes and Vital Rates: A Test -- Demographic Crises and Diseases -- The Contribution of Fertility -- Climate-Population -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- 5 Collapse and Resilience in Prehistoric Archaeology: Questioning Concepts and Causalities in Models of Climate-Induced Societal Transformations -- Introduction -- The Concepts of Collapse and Resilience in Archaeology -- Narratives of Collapse -- Resilience Theory (RT) -- The Adaptive Cycle (AC) Model -- Resilience Theory and Adaptive Cycles in Prehistoric Archaeology -- The Cultural Cycles Concept -- The Concept of Cyclical Social Resilience Strategies -- Reflections on Collapse and Resilience as Theoretical Frameworks -- Case Study: Climate-Induced Changes in Neolithic Lakeshore Settlement Practices in the Alpine Space Around 3400 BCE -- Current Narratives on Climate-Induced 'Settlement Gaps' -- Methodological Approach and Materials -- Archaeological Indicators -- Paleoclimatic Proxy Data -- Qualitative and Quantitative Methods -- Climate Deterioration and Settlement Decline Around 3400 BCE -- The Settlement Decline Around 3400 BCE-Qualitative Approach -- Significance Test of Settlement and Climate Fluctuations-Quantitative Approach -- Societal Collapse or Settlement Mobility as a Resilience Strategy Around 3400 BCE? -- Discussion -- Collapse Is Hard to Prove in Prehistoric Archaeology. , Adaptive Cycle Models and the Danger of Double Determinism -- In Favour of Analysing Socio-Environmental Relations from the Bottom-Up -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- 6 Climate, State Building and Political Change in Egypt During the Early Bronze Age: A Direct Relation? -- Introduction -- Ancient Egypt, 2160-2050 BC: A "Typical" Case of Climatic Change and Collapse? -- Recent Contributions of Archaeology: The End of a Myth -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- 7 Vulnerability to Climate Change in Late Bronze Age Peloponnese (Greece) -- Introduction -- Measures of Vulnerability -- Climate Exposure -- Food Supply and Sensitivity -- Food Resources -- Land Use and the Availability of Food -- Connectedness and Adaptive Capacity -- Climate and Society in the LBA -- Concluding Remarks -- Bibliography -- 8 Saving Up for a Rainy Day? Climate Events, Human-Induced Processes and Their Potential Effects on People's Coping Strategies in the Mycenaean Argive Plain, Greece -- Introduction [AB] -- Research History -- Climate in the Argive Plain Region [RT] -- Labour Cost Studies and the Argive Plain [AB] -- Construction [AB] -- LBA Agriculture -- LBA Agricultural Production and Its Organization [RT] -- Agricultural Cycle Data [AB] -- Climate's Impact on Rainfed Agriculture [RT] -- Discussion -- Agricultural Production and Crop Failures in the Argive Plain [RT] -- Numbers Related to Labour Involved in Building and Agricultural Activities [AB] -- Resilience Strategies [AB & -- RT] -- Numbers Related to Climate, Agriculture and Construction [AB & -- RT] -- Conclusions -- Bibliography -- 9 Peloponnesian Land Use Dynamics and Climate Variability in the First Millennium BCE -- Introduction -- Rural Landscape Trajectories in the First Millenium BCE -- Integrating Palaeoclimatic and Archaeological Datasets -- Results of the Integrated Analysis -- Discussion -- Conclusion. , Bibliography -- 10 Volcanic Eruptions, Veiled Suns, and Nile Failure in Egyptian History: Integrating Hydroclimate into Understandings of Historical Change -- Introduction -- Explosive Volcanism, Nile Variability, and Egyptian History -- Volcanic Hydroclimatic Impacts -- Societal Responses to Nile Flood Failure -- Further Reflections of Volcanic Phenomena and Hydroclimatic Stress: The Oracle of the Potter -- Conclusions -- Bibliography -- 11 The Environmental Imperialism of the Roman Empire in Northwestern Europe -- Introduction -- The Climate of Northwestern Europe -- Germany and the Rhine Basin -- Britain and the Thames Basin -- Landscape Stabilisation in the Post-Roman Period -- Conclusions -- Bibliography -- 12 Seasonal Drought on Roman Rivers: Transport vs. Irrigation -- Introduction -- Interdicts on Rivers -- Law and Climate in the "Flow Standard" -- Protected Uses of Public Rivers -- Case Study I: Tiber -- Case Study II: Ebro -- Case Study III: Maeander -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- 13 The Antonine Crisis: Climate Change as a Trigger for Epidemiological and Economic Turmoil -- Introduction -- Climate in the Second Century CE -- The Climate Data -- Climate Forcing in the Second Century -- The Antonine Plague -- The Ancient Sources -- Accounts from Western Asia -- Galen -- Diagnosis -- Smallpox and Climate -- Discussion -- Second-Century Decline: Plague or Climate? -- The Northern Empire -- Decline in Silver Mining -- Alburnus Maior (Roșia Montană, Romania) -- Mass Grave at London Road, Gloucester, U.K. -- Roman Egypt -- Discussion -- Bibliography -- 14 Climate Change and the Productive Landscape in the Mediterranean Region in the Roman Period -- Introduction -- Climate, Trends and Weather -- Climate, Agricultural Systems and Cropping Strategies -- Measuring the Impact of Climate Change -- Impact of Temperature on the Crop Cycle. , Weather and Risks in Roman Agriculture -- Roman Climate Change in a Long-Term Perspective -- Altitudinal Margins -- Tipping Points, Carrying Capacity and the Scope for Adaptation -- Conclusions -- Bibliography -- 15 Viticulture as a Climate Proxy for the Roman World? Global Warming as a Comparative Framework for Interpreting the Ancient Source Material in Italy and the West (ca. 200 BC-200 AD) -- Introduction -- Exploring Roman Viticulture and Climate -- Temperature and Vine Suitability -- Temperature and GHD -- The Textual Evidence -- The Pictorial Evidence -- Precipitation and Humidity -- An Unpredictable Future -- … and Past -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- 16 Risks for Farming Families in the Roman World -- Introduction -- The Model and Assumptions -- Plausibility of Assumptions -- Plausibility of Results -- Sensitivity to Climate Variability -- A 'Possible Solution' to Excessive Tenancy Risks? -- Conclusion -- Appendix: Central Scenario Assumptions -- Bibliography -- 17 Figures in an Imperial Landscape: Ecological and Societal Factors on Settlement Patterns and Agriculture in Roman Italy -- Eastern Cisalpine Gaul -- The Data: Modena and the Bassa Modenese -- The Data: Rovigo, Adria and Padova -- Urban Centres in Cisalpine Gaul -- Interpreting the Data -- Etruria -- Urban Centres in Etruria -- Discussion -- Conclusions -- Bibliography -- 18 Hydrological Changes in Late Antiquity: Spatio-Temporal Characteristics and Socio-Economic Impacts in the Eastern Mediterranean -- Introduction -- Climate Proxies -- Climate Models -- Outline of Chapter -- Proxy Records -- Paleoclimate Model Simulations -- Rainfall Deficit and Basil of Caesarea's Food Shortage -- Bibliography -- 19 Resilience and Adaptation at the End of Antiquity. An Evaluation of the Impact of Climate Change in Late Roman Western-Central Anatolia -- Introduction. , Agricultural Development and Climate in Late Roman Central Anatolia.