Transitions in the Mid-Holocene

Abstract

Between about 8000 and 3000 years ago, climate worldwide underwent substantial changes. At the same time, human cultures experienced a period of substantial progress toward more complex societies, as exemplified by the first temple mounds in South America, the Egyptian pyramids, and the rise and fall of civilizations in East Asia. Archeologists and paleoclimotologists alike are now investigating possible causal connections between these simultaneous developments and are finding a complex pattern of cultural responses to climatic change.