Antiquity · 2005 · 36 citations · 32 references
HumanitiesArchaeologyGeologyAncient HistoryEnvironmental ArchaeologyPrehistoric ArchaeologyDroughtIce Core PaleoclimateIce Core RecordsLake Sediment RecordsPalaeoenvironmental ReconstructionPaleoclimate ReconstructionArchaeological SignificanceCollapseDrought OccurrenceEnvironmental Change ObservationPalaeoclimate ReconstructionTiwanaku Civilization
The temptation to equate environmental change with archaeologically observed events is always with us, and matching a climatic downturn with civilisation collapse is perhaps more attractive then ever. The archaeologically observed collapse of the Tiwanaku civilisation in the twelfth century AD has been specifically related to a prolonged drought which would have affected the people’s ability to produce food. However, a careful scrutiny of the data from ice cores and lake sediments persuades the author that no such drought can be inferred: the evidence for climatic change is of quite a different scale and order to the archaeological changes and cannot be used as an explanation of social events.
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