Using peat to explore the impact of climate change
The abandonment of environmentally fragile Irish uplands like Slieveanorra – a remote site with a small raised bog – has previously been linked to socio-economic problems driven by climate change.
climate change
For peat’s sake: peatlands, climate change, and the future of archaeology
How can understanding the archaeology of peatlands help to ameliorate the current climate crisis? Rosie Everett and Gillian Taylor share the latest research.
Spiro: renewing the world
Vast quantities of artefacts were found in a mound in Oklahoma in the 1930s. Together they tell an intriguing story of ritual and cosmic renewal. As an exhibition reuniting some of these objects travels to Texas, Lucia Marchini speaks to Michelle Rich and Eric Singleton to find out more.
Climatic change and ancient civilisations
New studies are revealing the impact environmental changes have had on ancient societies around the world.
Ostrich eggshell beads shed light on ancient social networks across Africa
These beads are some of the world’s oldest fully manufactured ornaments
This week: Butrint
With sea levels predicted to rise by as much as +2.0m by 2100, a recent UN study found many of the Mediterranean's greatest archaeological sites to be at serious risk of damage or loss. This week on The Past, we look in detail at how one site – the magical Graeco-Roman city of Butrint in Albania – is planning to confront the challenges posed by our fast-changing environment.
Confronting Climate Change at Butrint
A new report spells out the risks that rising sea levels pose to some of the world’s greatest archaeological sites. Richard Hodges and David Prince consider the situation at Butrint.
Mediterranean in Peril Quiz
Can you identify these Mediterranean UNESCO World Heritage sites?
Norway: secrets of the ice
Over the last decade, 64 glaciers and ice patches in the Innlandet region have produced over 3,500 archaeological finds, from hunting tools and textiles to zoological material...
Ostrich eggshell beads reveal ancient social network across Africa
Researchers from the Max Planck Institute collected data from more than 1500 ostrich eggshell beads recovered from 31 sites
This week: Peru
A number of imaginative solutions to the global-warming crisis were on offer this month, as world leaders gathered in Glasgow to discuss ways of tackling climate change – but one subject that was not up for discussion was human sacrifice. As a fascinating new exhibition on the history and culture of Peru makes clear, however, the Inca and other pre-Columbian civilisations of the central Andean region had no such qualms.
This week: climate change
Archaeologists have been among those paying close attention this week as delegates have gathered in Glasgow for the 26th UN Climate Change Conference, also known as COP26. Few would now disagree that man-made global warming is having a devastating effect around the world.
CITiZAN’S Climate Emergency: protecting the future by understanding the past
Can studying past coastal change help us to ameliorate the climate crisis facing us today? A project focused on Mersea Island in Essex has illuminated invaluable information, report Oliver Hutchinson, Danielle Newman, and Lawrence Northall.
A Mighty Capital Under Threat: the environmental history of London, 1800-2000
The London we know today traces its roots directly back to the modest settlement developed on the banks of the Thames in the late 9th century, in the time of the Saxon king Alfred the Great. In spite of fires,…
A new world of communication
One of the most breathtaking experiences in my archaeological life was to mount the steps and look out over the assembled ranks of the terracotta army.
The Shortest History of War
From slings and arrows to cyberwarfare, conflict is innate to human nature despite the peace much of the modern world now enjoys. In the latest addition to the bestselling ‘shortest history’ series, historian Gwynne Dyer summarises the story of conflict…
Saving Cragside’s Victorian fireplace
‘If untreated, the fireplace could crumble quickly.’
Food fads and fashions
At a time of food scarcity, obesity became a desirable condition… the Venus figurines represented an ideal body type.
Arctic: culture and climate
Humans have been calling the Arctic home for tens of thousands of years. But over the millennia, changes in climate have repeatedly forced groups to adapt or make way for incomers bearing superior tools. Amber Lincoln and Jago Cooper told Matthew Symonds about the archaeology of the circumpolar world.
Mapping the coast edge: Flimston Bay, Pembrokeshire
Flimston is a baseline study site for the EU-funded Ireland–Wales CHERISH project (2017-2023), which is studying climate change and eroding coastal heritage in Ireland and Wales.
Pre-Hispanic flood-management in the Pampa de Mocan
For thousands of years, areas along the north coast of Peru have been subject to huge flooding as a result of El Niño, a periodic warming in the atmosphere of the Pacific Ocean, which causes torrential rainfall in the eastern…
Before the flood
The study found that 37 of the 49 World Heritage Sites are already at risk from floods, and 42 from erosion, although the level of risk varies from site to site, with Venice and Ravenna particularly at risk from flooding, and Samos and Tyre from erosion
Earthquake! How the earth shook up the past
When earthquakes strike, the consequences can be catastrophic. Yet what do we really know about their impact on past cultures? All is revealed in Andrew Robinson’s latest unputdownable book Earth-Shattering Events: Earthquakes, Nations and Civilization.
Peru: using past technologies to solve future problems
Climate change and water shortages threaten the survival of rural communities in the Peruvian Andes. Robert Early explains how ancient Inca know-how is relevant today.
Sea of troubles: Scotland’s eroding heritage
Erosion poses a constant threat to Scotland’s rich coastal heritage. Tom Dawson and Joanna Hambly reveal how knowledge is being saved from the waves.