le 27 mars prochain (amphi ISTE), Valery Terwilliger, Adjunct Researcher, Department of Geography and Atmospheric Science, University of Kansas; Visiting Researcher, Edge Institute, University of California, Riverside; Chercheure Invitée, l’Université d’Orléans nous propose un séminaire intitulé : "What can Combining Palaeoenvironmental and Archaeological Records Say About the Resilience of the Horn of Africa’s Ancient Civilisations ?".
résumé/abstract :
Understanding the effects of environmental changes on ancient civilisations can contribute information for managing present and future environmental changes. A recent research emphasis is to assess the resilience of ancient polities to environmental changes. As it was the center for Holocene culture development for the Horn of Africa and because of its vulnerability to large environmental changes over all time scales, the Tigrai Plateau of northern Ethiopia is an excellent system for examining responses of polities to environmental change. To test hypotheses about resilience, we build and combine records of key aspects palaeoenvironments such as rainfall and land cover changes from fire with archaeological records of socio-political-economic complexity of polities. Palaeoenvironmental records are predominantly from analyses of soils including δ2H of n-alkanoic and humic acids for rainfall and charcoal, rock-eval, micro-imaging and δ13C of organic matter for key aspects of land cover. Complexity of polities are quantified using a combination of ground surveys, geospatial technologies, and ceramic analyses throughout the Eastern Tigrai Archaeological Project. Results thus far raise a philosophical issue about the desirability of resilience as a response to environmental changes.