Surviving climate change in 6th century Finland
Norse myths tell of a time called “fimbulwinter” – when the world will be struck by three consecutive winters, with constant snows and no summer. This might actually have happened in the mid-sixth century, and a newly published article is showing how people in Finland survived the disaster.
Climate and the Crises of the Early Fourteenth Century in Northeastern Europe
This article demonstrates how tree-ring material can be applied to historical research using the climate-driven crises of the fourteenth century as a case study.
Medieval History, Explosive Volcanism, and the Geoengineering Debate
By studying historical explosive volcanism, medieval history provides a laboratory for understanding the climatic and societal impacts of geoengineering in the form of reports of extreme weather and societal stresses such as subsistence crises and even conflict arising from scarcity induced resource competition
The Medieval Climate Anomoly in the Iberian Peninsula reconstructed from marine and lake records
Selected multi-proxy and accurately dated marine and terrestrial records covering the past 2000 years in the Iberian Peninsula facilitated a comprehensive regional paleoclimate reconstruction for the Medieval Climate Anomaly (900-1300 AD).
The Medieval Quiet Period
The Medieval Quiet Period By Raymond S Bradley, Heinz Wanner and Henry F. Diaz The Holocene, Vol 26, Issue 6 (2016) Abstract: For several centuries…
Winter, snow and cold in the life of the Westviking
The main purpose of this paper is to examine how the Westviking were influenced by winter, snow and cold in their day-to-day life as they were making progress in the West.
Connecting Roman and Medieval Climate and Historical Change: Five Challenges for the 21st Century
Michael McCormick discusses use of latest tools of climate science, human genetics and computer science to better understand the history of Medieval Europe and Rome,
Daily Weather Observations in Sixteenth-Century Europe
Thirty-two weather diaries written in astronomical calendars in central Europe in the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries are presented and discussed.
Climatic Change and the North Atlantic Seaways During the Norse Expansion
In order to appreciate how the Norse expansion might have been influenced by climatic fluctuations it is necessary to consider in outline the mechanisms which control weather and climate in the North Atlantic area at the present day, and which also obtained in the past.
Wax or wane? Insect perspectives on human environmental interactions
The sites discussed in this paper include a range of sites investigated on national road schemes and other development projects across Ireland, covering a long time-span from the Neolithic period through to the medieval period.
Norse cultural reaction to climate change during the little ice age and their societal collapse in Greenland
This study aims to understand the adaptations of the Norse Greenlanders to climate change in their new home.
How warm weather led to the rise of Genghis Khan
In the thirteenth-century a Mongol warrior named Genghis Khan took control of the nomadic tribes on the Great Stepee and launched a series of invasions that would see a vast empire being established from China to Eastern Europe. Now a team of researchers have shown that their success can be partly attributed to climate change.
Floods and weather in 1342 and 1343 in the Carpathian Basin
Concerning weather, weather-related extremes and catastrophic consequences, 1342 was an extraordinary year in most parts of Central Europe, even in such an extraordinary decade as the 1340s. Accounting with the seven flood events (including one Danube flood) mainly of great magnitude, at present 1342 is the most important known flood year of medieval Hungary.
Into the frontier: medieval land reclamation and the creation of new societies. Comparing Holland and the Po Valley, 800-1500
In the paper it is shown that medieval land reclamation led to the emergence of two very divergent societies, characterised by a number of different configurations; (a) power and property structure, (b) modes of exploitation, (c) economic portfolios, and (d) commodity markets.
The Medieval Metal Industry Was the Cradle of Modern Large-Scale Atmospheric Lead Pollution in Northern Europe
This study indicates that the contemporary atmospheric pollution climate in northern Europe was established in Medieval time, rather than in the Industrial period. Atmospheric lead pollution deposition did not, when seen in a historical perspective, increase as much as usually assumed with the Industrial Revolution (1800 A.D.).
Feasting with Early Medieval Chiefs: Locating Political Action through Environmental Archaeology
This excellent paper was the first given in the session on Early Medieval Europe. It looked at various archaeological excavations in Iceland and Denmark and the political role feasting played in pre-Christian Viking societies.
Climate in Medieval Ireland: AD 500-1600
The aim of the dissertation is to reconstruct climate in Medieval Ireland using documentary and dendrochronological proxy data from Ireland and Northern Europe.
The Light was retreating before Darkness: Tales of the Witch hunt and climate change
Little by little, out of the old conviction —pagan and Christian— of evil interference in atmospheric phenomena evolved the belief that some people may use malign sorcery to set off whirlwinds hail, frosts, floods and other destructive weather events.
Dark ages and dark areas: global deforestation in the deep past
The ‘darkness’ that envelopes the ages and areas of the forest of the past consists broadly of two elements. First, there are the problems intrinsic to forests as living ecosystems or entities. Many of these are still more or less uncertain and murky. Second, there are the difficulties of knowing what human activity took place.
The Impact of Climate Change on Late Medieval English Culture
This thesis challenges the extremes of both environmental determinism and the modernist perspective that humanity exists in social and/or cultural isolation from the natural environment.
Climate Change in the Recent Past: Selected Climate Events from Historical Records
Another important sign of a mild climate during the MWP is the fact that England was a major wineproducing country. Between 1100 and 1300, vineyards spread across southern and central England and as far north as Hereford.
Tree-Ring data shows that Northern Europe has been cooling over the last 2000 years
Was the climate during Roman and Medieval times warmer than today?
The Danube Floods and Their Human Response and Perception (14th to 17th C)
This study will examine in particular the reactions of the people living close to the Danube River and its catchment area in “Austria” between the 14th and 17th centuries.