Posted on 11/15/2007 5:05:57 PM PST by blam
Eco-ruin 'felled early society'
The Argaric culture was an early urban society
One of Western Europe's earliest known urban societies may have sown the seeds of its own downfall, a study suggests. Mystery surrounded the fall of the Bronze Age Argaric people in south-east Spain - Europe's driest area.
Data suggests the early civilisation exhausted precious natural resources, helping bring about its own ruin.
The study provides early evidence for cultural collapse caused - at least in part - by humans meddling with the environment, say researchers.
It could also provide lessons for modern populations living in water-stressed regions.
The findings were based on pollen preserved in a peat deposit located in the mountains of eastern Andalucia, Spain.
The researchers drilled a sediment core from the Canada del Gitano basin high up in Andalucia's Sierra de Baza region.
Sediment cores were drilled from peat deposits
By studying the abundances of different pollen types - along with other indicators - preserved in sedimentary deposits, researchers can reconstruct what kind of vegetation covered the area in ancient times.
They can compile a pollen sequence, which shows how vegetation changed over thousands of years. This can give them clues to how human settlement and climate affected ecosystems.
Copper objects like this axe were common until the Argaric era
The Argaric culture emerged in south-eastern Spain 4,300 years ago. This civilisation, which inhabited small fortified towns, was one of the first in Western Europe to adopt bronze working.
But about 3,600 years ago, the culture mysteriously vanished from the archaeological record.
"Archaeologists are convinced that something happened in the ecological structure of the area just prior to the collapse of the Argaric culture," said Jose Carrion, from the University of Murcia, Spain.
"But we previously lacked a high-resolution record to support this."
Environmental change
Before the appearance of the Argaric civilisation, the slopes of Sierra de Baza were covered with a diverse forest dominated by deciduous oaks and other broad-leaved trees.
The area's tree cover was rapidly removed
But about 4,200 years ago - just after this civilisation emerges - significant amounts of charcoal appear in the pollen sequence. According to the study's authors, this is a sign Bronze Age people were setting fires to clear the forests for mining activities and grazing.
Not long afterwards, about 3,900 years ago, the diverse forest ecosystem disappears, to be replaced by monotonous and fire-prone Mediterranean scrub.
What astonished the researchers was the speed of this change. This ecological transformation is very abrupt, appearing to have taken place in little more than a decade.
About 300 years after this ecological transformation, the Argaric civilisation disappeared.
Climatic effect
Professor Carrion said the term "ecocide" was too strong to apply in this case. Climate must also have played a part, he explained.
There is evidence conditions were becoming progressively arid from about 5,500 years ago onwards. This is indicated by a broad reduction in forest cover, the appearance of plants adapted to dry conditions and a drop in lake levels.
But Jose Carrion added: "The climatic influence began millennia prior to the appearance of the Argaric culture.
"It's not critical to the change in the landscape we see about 3,900-3,800 years ago. What appears to be critical is the evidence of burning, which in our opinion is man-made."
Some isolated patches of pine forest still remain today
The degradation of soils and vegetation could have caused the collapse of agriculture and pastoralism, the foundation of the Argaric economy.
This would have led to massive depopulation of the area.
The findings were outlined at the recent Climate and Humans conference in Murcia, Spain, and appear in the journal Quaternary Science Reviews.
Where was the barf alert?
First, depletion and mismanagement of natural resources is nothing new — any number of ancient settlements rose and fell due to the depletion of natural resources, including any number of modern mining towns.
Second, even assuming that those ancient people totally botched it, there is nothing to lead us to conclude that they caused some sort of regional climate change.
Sloppy writing, sloppy research, leading to conclusions that are more commentary on modern conditions than historical fact. This author looked down the well of history and saw their own face.
Or that there was a major forest fire. And since the Argarics would have just come on the scene and then survived another THREE HUNDRED years after this deforestation I would say it was likely it was not the cause of their vanishing.
And does anyone think this would be getting any traction if it was not for the competition for AGW grant money?
Early SUVs?
No doubt various societies have at times used up or wasted the natural resources around them, but the algorites try to use this and similar stories to eco-guilt us into buying their carbon offsets and buying into their neo pagan earth worship. I'm all for less waste and pollution and conservation (like before it was politicized) and such, but algore and his eco friends are putting the cart before the horse, imho.
SUC’s? Sport Utility Chariots?
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed along this line of thinking.
Though normally, I would consider such books a shade above moon battery, he did make some interesting points. It was well written and well documented.
His outlook on the future was quite negative and that was a real turn off.
I would bet he has a picture of Al Gore in his house somewhere
I guess we are allowed to "look but don't touch" in the mind of the enviro-mentals. Everything is man's fault.
Copper objects? That's a fricken war-head dear.
significant amounts of charcoal appear in the pollen sequence. According to the study's authors, this is a sign Bronze Age people were setting fires to clear the forests for mining activities and grazing.
It looks like they lost the war, their women were raped, and their city was pillaged and burnt to the ground.
Moral of the story: invest in your military.
It's both hilarious and sad how archaeologists are unable to keep from projecting hippie values onto ancient people.
Oh, boy, my head is really aching now. "Manmade?" What led you to that opinion, Jose? Discarded BIC lighters? Scraps of charred cardboard with "Close cover before striking" printed on them? Uhhh, does the notion of lightning - you know, that bright scary stuff from the sky that actually starts many forest fires today (depending on population and locale, from 20% to 60% of all forest fires), and most fires 6,000 years ago - satisfy Occam's Razor? One might as easily state that the people took advantage of naturally-occurring conditions as to posit that the people caused those conditions...but not, I guess, if you're an EcoWhacko with an pre-set agenda....
Desertification and local micro climate change is well documented. This affected many “native” cultures in the early Americas as well. The American “dust bowl” period is also an example.
Responsible land management and water can easily avert these problems today. The primal Theocracies of ancient cultures could not sustain the stress and famine that these changes brought.
That is geoengineering. We've been confronting mother nature for a while now. By using new technologies, such as dams and pipes, our ancestors created more resources than before. This worked much better than conservation of natural stream water alone.
To apply that lesson today we should master local climate control. One example is using factory waste heat to create man-made clouds to both cool and heat large sections of land as needed. This would also create more fresh water to use and vegetation to absorb more CO2 and pollution.
Al Gore and the watermelons offer only conservation of resources. The real answer is new technology. I would like to see some research into using man-made clouds to manage the local climate.
"We've been living in this dust bowl for 300 years. I'm sick of it! How 'bout you?"
"Heck yeah!"
"Okay then, we're outta here!"
Bush’s fault!
Not long afterwards, about 3,900 years ago, the diverse forest ecosystem disappears, to be replaced by monotonous and fire-prone Mediterranean scrub.
Ardent leftists such as this author are so predictable, it's laughable.
Diverse = good.
Not diverse = monotonous = bad.
Nature = good.
Humankind = bad.
About the only thing that it is missing from this leftist's allegorical wet dream is blaming it all on the patriarchal underpinnings of the Argaric culture. Oh, and on the indisputable fact that they were all neocons, too...
|
|
|||
Gods |
Thanks Blam. |
||
|
· Mirabilis · Texas AM Anthropology News · Yahoo Anthro & Archaeo · · History or Science & Nature Podcasts · Excerpt, or Link only? · cgk's list of ping lists · |
|||
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.