Megadrought and Collapse is the first book to treat in one volume the current paleoclimatic and archaeological evidence of megadrought events coincident with major historical examples of societal collapse. Previous works have offered multi-causal explanations for climate change, from overpopulation, overexploitation of resources, and warfare to poor leadership and failure to adapt to environmental changes. In earlier synthetic studies of major instances of collapse, the archaeological record has often not been considered.Included in this volume are nine case studies that span the globe and stretch over fourteen thousand years, from the paleolithic hunter-gatherer collapse of the 12th millennium BC to the 15th century AD fall of the Khmer capital at Angkor. Together, the studies constitute a primary sourcebook in which principal investigators in archaeology and paleoclimatology present their original research. Each case study juxtaposes the latest paleoclimatic evidence of a megadrought (so-called for its severity and its decades to centuries-long duration) with available archaeological records of synchronous societal collapse. The megadrought data are derived from all five archival paleoclimate proxy sources: lake, marine, and glacial cores, speleothems (cave stalagmites), and tree rings. The archaeological records in each case are the most recently retrieved. The editor derives two arguments from the discussions in the volume: (1) Societal collapse would not have occurred without megadrought. Attendant social disruptions may have been present in some instances. Nonetheless, megadrought rendered agriculture-based societies unsustainable in different regions, periods, and levels of social complexity, from simple foraging to vast empires. (2) A set of adaptive responses can be observed across the nine cases: adaptive collapse in the face of insurmountable megadrought, region-wide and settlement abandonment, and habitat tracking to sustainable agricultural environments. The evidence points to a paradigm shift: the insertion of another major force, natural climate variability-megadrought-into the global historical record.
Industry Reviews
"Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals." -- Choice
"Environmental vulnerability in the face of climate change is often discussed in the context of future climate; as such, the perspective on past societal disruption presented in this volume is extremely valuable. The contributing authors are all first-rate experts in their fields. This thorough collection will be of broad interest to archaeologists, paleoclimatologists, anthropologists, social scientists, and many more." --Raymond S. Bradley, University of
Massachusetts, Amherst
"Richly documented and wide-ranging, this compelling interdisciplinary history of megadrought and societal collapse stresses the subject of long-term human and environmental interaction, a topic constantly on our minds today due to global warming. With his selected mix of global case studies, Weiss provides us with an important and timely rejoinder against those who question or dismiss the potential impact of major climate change on humans and other organisms."
--Tom D. Dillehay, Vanderbilt University
"There has been much speculation that drought has been a key driver leading to the collapse of ancient societies but corroboration of theory has often been less than robust. In this masterful and much-needed book, edited by Harvey Weiss, we at least have the opportunity to see all the evidence brought together and crystallized in one place. At a time when global warming is once again raising the prospect of widespread and catastrophic drought, no one who reads
this book should have any doubt of the immense power of drought to devastate and destroy." --Bill McGuire, University College London
