Resilience Theory (in archaeology)

In this book I endeavour to offer a concise account of Islamic archaeology as it has developed and is today in the region of
geographical Syria-Palestine. The region offers the archaeologist particular attractions in dealing with an Islamic past as a result of the tremendous advances made in relevant archaeological research in the last few decades. This work proposes new ways of understanding and interpreting the first Islamic centuries in Syria-Palestine, based on clear and verifiable information gleaned from a range of archaeological discoveries.

Egyptological research on late Old Kingdom and First Intermediate
Period in Egypt has so far focused more on the
various possible causes of the socio-political collapse of
the Old Kingdom rather than on the consequences and
how people in Egypt coped with them. The socio-political
collapse of the Old Kingdom, whatever really triggered it,
led to political fragmentation of the previously centralized
state. The land was divided between the successor
kingdom of Old Kingdom state which moved its capital to
Herakleopolis Magna (Dynasties 9-10) and Upper Egyptian
magnates who were at first only nominally loyal to it. The
conflicted Upper Egyptian magnates were defeated by the
polity centred in Thebes which then unified Upper Egypt
(Dynasty 11) and posed threat to the Herakleopolitan
kingdom in the north. Ultimately, the Theban kings won
the war and united the entire land again. Previous research
on the First Intermediate Period focused on texts, art and
cemeteries. The developments in settlement archaeology
in the last two decades now allow us to better understand
First Intermediate urban centres. This also allows us to pose
the questions: Why certain urban power centres did not
succeed in the competition? What are the prerequisites for
success in resilience? How do we measure success? What
makes a town vulnerable and which resilience strategies
were undertaken?

A growing body of climate data points towards a significant climate cooling in the northern hemisphere during the 6th century AD. Linked to multiple explosive volcanic eruptions between AD 536-547, the cooling event is the coldest that has been documented for the last 2000 years and seems to have persisted, to varying degrees, well into the latter half of the 6th century.

Several researchers have claimed that the 6th-century cooling must have resulted in extensive crop failure throughout Scandinavia, followed by famine, plagues, and social unrest. One hypothesis suggests that the population of the Scandinavian Peninsula may have been halved as a result. The combination of prolonged cooling and presumed crop failure is often compared to Norse myths about the Fimbulwinter, but critics argue that the Fimbulwinter hypothesis is rife with the uncritical use of climate data, a lack of source criticism and deterministic conclusions. In many ways, the ongoing discourse follows in line with previous discourses in archaeology, revolving around an artificial dichotomy between crisis and continuity.

In this thesis, I examine the climatic and archaeological premises for the Fimbulwinter hypothesis and discuss it against developing theoretical frameworks within the environmental humanities. By using vulnerability and resilience as analytical tools, the subsistence and settlement patterns of selected landscapes are analysed against the possibility of crop failure and famine, with emphasis on the Gudbrandsdalen valley and the Lake Mjøsa region in the inlands of eastern Norway.

I conclude that climate cooling had the potential to critically impact some areas, while others were seemingly less affected. These results suggest significant regional diversity in the consequences and adaptations in relation to the 6th-century cooling event. The hypothesis of a halving of the population is up for revision, but the crisis narrative still cannot be fully discounted.

Climatic forcing during the Younger Dryas (∼12.9–11.5 ky B.P.) event has become the theoretical basis to explain the origins of agricultural lifestyles in the Levant by suggesting a failure of foraging societies to adjust. This explanation however, does not fit the scarcity of data for predomestication cultivation in the Natufian Period. The resilience of Younger Dryas foragers is better illustrated by a concept of adaptive cycles within a theory of adaptive change (resilience theory). Such cycles consist of four phases: release/collapse (Ω); reorganization (α), when the system restructures itself after a catastrophic stimulus through innovation and social memory—a period of greater resilience and less vulnerability; exploitation (r); and conservation (K), representing an increasingly rigid system that loses flexibility to change. The Kebarans and Late Natufians had similar responses to cold and dry conditions vs. Early Natufians and the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A responses to warm and wet climates. Kebarans and Late Natufians (α-phase) shifted to a broader-based diet and increased their mobility. Early Natufian and Pre-Pottery Neolithic A populations (r- and K-phases) had a growing investment in more narrowly focused, high-yield plant resources, but they maintained the broad range of hunted animals because of increased sedentism. These human adaptive cycles interlocked with plant and animal cycles. Forest and grassland vegetation responded to late Pleistocene and early Holocene climatic fluctuations, but prey animal cycles reflected the impact of human hunting pressure. The combination of these three adaptive cycles results in a model of human adaptation, showing potential for great sustainability of Levantine foraging systems even under adverse climatic conditions.

نشست یک روزه جابه جایی، تحرک، مهاجرت: نگاهی ازدیدگاه باستان شناسی انسان شناختی
in virtual workshop: “Movement, Mobility, Migration;  A View from Anthropological Archaeology” hosted by the University of Mazandaran (Iran) and Goethe University of Frankfurt (Germany).

Archaeological studies have readily embraced the revitalisation of the longue durée concept as an effective yet flexible historical tool with which to mix and match, on a level platform, the many relevant fields of research in the natural and social sciences. In this new manifestation of longue durée, macrohistory has returned strengthened by the overt validity of the breadth, depth, reliability and often repeatability of diverse data sets, yet also its ability to incorporate microhistories including the contributions of sole actors. Within the flexible boundaries of longue durée, crossovers between theoretical tools can be built, in which a rigorous interrogation of the data can occur to reveal and define the otherwise overlooked characteristics and complex structures that customised past societies.  Consequently, an unprecedented opportunity now exists to engage with a wide range of theoretic approaches compatible with a longue durée approach, such as recent and relevant debates on empirical urban theory, the nature of human perception, social and political commentary in art and design, path dependency in regional economics, and resilience theory.

Blanke, L. and Walmsley, A. G. (2022) 'Resilient cities: Renewal after disaster in three late antique towns of the East Mediterranean', in Martínez Jiménez, J. and Ottewill-Soulsby, S. (eds.) Remembering and forgetting the ancient city: Vol. 2 Impact of the Ancient City. Oxford: Oxbow, pp. 69-107.

New approaches to collapsed complex societies The Maya. The Romans. The great dynasties of ancient China. It is generally believed that these once mighty empires eventually crumbled and disappeared. A recent trend in archaeology, however, focusing on what happened during and after the decline of once powerful societies has found social resilience and transformation instead of collapse. In Beyond Collapse, editor Ronald K. Faulseit gathers scholars with diverse theoretical perspectives to present innovative approaches to understanding the decline and reorganization of complex societies. Contributors consider collapse and reorganization not as unrelated phenomena but as integral components in the evolution of complex societies. Using archaeological data to interpret how ancient civilizations responded to various stresses, contributors discuss not only what leads societies to collapse but also why some societies are resilient and others are not, as well as how societies reorganize afte...

Northwestern India is now emerging as one of those places where the transition(s) from hunting gathering to farming occurred indigenously, so it is feasible to observe the processual change within the region as a whole. This transformation which represents a profound social change is generally attributed to traditional climate forcing model leading to a collapse of foraging economies. This paper discusses that the origin of agricultural lifestyle in northwestern India did not happen only because of the collapse of the foraging economies due to climatic factor but also because of the resilient cultural system they had.

A growing body of climate data points towards a significant climate cooling in the northern hemisphere during the 6th century AD. Linked to multiple explosive volcanic eruptions between AD 536-547, the cooling event is the coldest that has been documented for the last 2000 years and seems to have persisted, to varying degrees, well into the latter half of the 6th century. Several researchers have claimed that the 6th-century cooling must have resulted in extensive crop failure throughout Scandinavia, followed by famine, plagues, and social unrest. One hypothesis suggests that the population of the Scandinavian Peninsula may have been halved as a result. The combination of prolonged cooling and presumed crop failure is often compared to Norse myths about the Fimbulwinter, but critics argue that the Fimbulwinter hypothesis is rife with the uncritical use of climate data, a lack of source criticism and deterministic conclusions. In many ways, the ongoing discourse follows in line with ...

"Zusammenfassung:

Diese Arbeit verwendet das Konzept des „adaptiven Zyklus“ aus der sozio–ökologischen Resilience-Theorie um die Entwicklung archäologischer Kulturen zu beschreiben. Einleitend werden die vier Phasen (Wachstums-, Konservierungs-, Auflösungs-, und Reorganisationsphase) des „adaptiven Zyklus“ vorgestellt. Im zweiten Teil wird in einem Fallbeispiel die Entwicklung der Linearbandkeramik im Rheinland als „kultureller Zyklus“ dargestellt.


Abstract:

In this paper the concept of “adaptive cycles”, derived from the socio-ecological Resilience Theory, is employed to describe the
development of archaeological cultures. First the four phases (growth, conservation, release and re-organisation) of the “adaptive cycle” are introduced. In a case study the development of the Linearbandkeramik Culture in the Rhine-Basin is portrayed as a “cultural cycle”."

In the social sciences, there are different narratives of migration. In archaeology, however, this theme is conventionally tackled in many cases from within an old-fashioned traditional framework. Accordingly, some scholars consider it a mono-factorial approach that overlooks the complexity and diversity of other factors at play. Others ignore it, not wishing to be regarded as anachronistic scholars or as being trapped in culture-historical or diffusionist paradigms. In this short essay, I discuss migration in the context of social resilience by adopting approaches from human geography, such as translocality. I argue that this approach will be more promising in the context of migration in anthropological archaeology.
For the website chaeck:http://resilience2020.archaeological.science/index.php/resilience-in-the-diaspora-an-archaeological-approach/

This article addresses two major challenges for an integrated analysis of socio-environmental systems, namely the diversity of contributing disciplines and the wide spectrum of temporal and spatial scales. Archaeology, the geosciences and socio-cultural ...

Disaster research is concerned with the resilience of social, economic, and political systems in human societies, especially in urban contexts, at the face of environmental risks, such as earthquakes. The history of human activity in the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean region intimately involves encounters with disasters related to the tectonic environment. This project first examines methodologies and theories applicable to the study of disasters occurring in the ancient Mediterranean, which include approaches from archaeology, literary and historical textual studies, the natural sciences, and also resilience theory and the adaptive cycle from ecology. Resilience theory and the adaptive cycle can be applied across many scales in time and space, and when applied to completed cycles of past environmental stresses, such as earthquakes and climate change, it can provide insight into similar problems prevalent in contemporary society. Using these multidisciplinary approaches, this project secondly explores the case study of the Late Bronze Age (c. 1700-1200 BCE) Aegean island of Akrotiri with a primary focus on the complexities of earthquakes leading up to the c. 1630 BCE eruption of the Thera volcano. Analysis of the case study of Akrotiri reveals both the short-and long-term effects of earthquakes and associated disasters on society not only at the site level but also at the level of the entire eastern Mediterranean region. Seismic phenomena impacted cultural adaptation, complexity, and innovation at Akrotiri as observed through architectural and technological changes in response to earthquake events. Patterns of restoration and reconstruction activities highlight the capacity and resources of the inhabitants to engineer seismic resilient architectures and to develop building regulations. Similar earthquake responses seen in building patterns in other Mediterranean urban contexts both ancient and modern, such as Pompeii (79 AD) and Lisbon (1755), highlight convergent patterns of inhabitants in local seismic cultures to innovate building technology and develop building regulations not only through codified written policies but also through ideologies and knowledge passed between local members and generations. Overall, the case study of Akrotiri aids in the reconstruction of socioeconomic and political effects of earthquakes and associated disasters, while also revealing the advantages of applying multidisciplinary approaches to disaster research.

Along the southeastern Atlantic coast of Georgia, hunter-gatherer groups substantially altered the landscape for more than three millennia (ca. 4,200-1,000 B.P.) leaving behind a distinct material record in the form of shell rings, middens, and burial mounds. During this time, these groups experienced major changes in sea level and resource distribution. Specifically, we take a resilience theory approach to address these changes and discuss the utility of this theory for archaeology in general. We suggest that despite major destabilizing forces in the form of sea-level lowering and its concomitant effects on resource distribution, cultural systems rebounded to a structural pattern similar to the one expressed prior to environmental disruption. We propose, in part, the ability for people to return to similar patterns was the result of the high visibility of previous behaviors inscribed on the landscape in the form of shell middens and rings from the period preceding environmental dis...

New approaches to collapsed complex societies The Maya. The Romans. The great dynasties of ancient China. It is generally believed that these once mighty empires eventually crumbled and disappeared. A recent trend in archaeology, however, focusing on what happened during and after the decline of once powerful societies has found social resilience and transformation instead of collapse. In Beyond Collapse, editor Ronald K. Faulseit gathers scholars with diverse theoretical perspectives to present innovative approaches to understanding the decline and reorganization of complex societies. Contributors consider collapse and reorganization not as unrelated phenomena but as integral components in the evolution of complex societies. Using archaeological data to interpret how ancient civilizations responded to various stresses, contributors discuss not only what leads societies to collapse but also why some societies are resilient and others are not, as well as how societies reorganize afte...

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This research revisits the debate surrounding Late Woodland subsistence practices in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. The Late Woodland period in the Upper Great Lakes region (ca. A.D. 600 to 1600) is often characterized through models emphasizing the intensive use of a single, primary key resource, particularly maize, fall spawning fish, or wild rice. For example, current Late Woodland subsistence models for northern Michigan focus on the intensive harvest, creation of surplus, and consequent storage of fall spawning fish as the cornerstone of the settlement and subsistence strategy. New data suggests that the dominant settlement and subsistence model is incomplete, lacks explanatory value, and requires revision. This study tests the hypothesis that a suite of potential resources was both present and utilized, allowing for a more flexible set of strategies, i.e. one based upon multiple rather than a single primary resource. Archaeological evidence, ethnographic data, and pilot study results reveal that acorns, maize, and wild rice are likely resources to be incorporated into such a strategy; all can be harvested and stored in the late summer or fall as a buffer against a poor fish harvest. Each, however, also has spatial, environmental, and temporal constraints with implications bearing on archaeological site locations as well as the evidence from the sites themselves.

A spatial analysis of site locations and resource distributions, as well as the composition of site assemblages was conducted to determine what relationships, if any, can be found between resources and site locations. The results identified site location patterns relating to the exploitation of fish as well the potential use of wild rice and acorns, and also revealed changing patterns of site location over time including an emphasis on coastal settings in the early Late Woodland and an increase in interior setting sites in the late Late Woodland. In addition, the study examines strategies for subsistence risk buffering and decision making by Late Woodland peoples and provides new perspectives on resource scheduling, patterns of mobility, social organization, and social interaction.

The nature of the data sets employed in the research, as well as the temporal and spatial scales involved led to the adoption of Resilience Theory as an organizing framework for this study. The application of Resilience Theory is relatively new in archaeology and in this case provides a useful contribution to this line of scholarship in a context which has need of greater theoretical diversity. While an important outcome of the research is a synthesis of our current understanding of the regional Late Woodland, it also contributes a robust understanding of the interaction of hunter-gatherers/marginal horticulturalists with their environment.

"In der Neolithikumforschung wurde wiederholt die Beobachtung gemacht, dass sich Zeiten, in denen archäologische Kulturen intensiv miteinander kommunizieren, mit Zeiten abwechseln, in denen der Kulturkontakt schwächer ausfällt. Diese differierende Kommunikationsintensität schlägt sich archäologisch in der An- und Abwesenheit von „Importen“ und der Diversität archäologischer Inventare nieder.
In diesem Vortrag wird der Frage nachgegangen, inwiefern die zeitliche Dynamik von Kommunikation mit der demografischen Entwicklung in Zusammenhang steht. Ausgangspunkt ist hierbei die Hypothese, dass Phasen intensiven Kulturkontakts mit einer geringen Bevölkerungsdichte korrelieren. Als Fallbeispiele werden die kulturellen Entwicklungsgeschichten der Linearbandkeramik im Rheinland und der Pfyner Kultur am Bodensee herangezogen. Anhand der Siedlungsbefunde kann jeweils ein diachroner demographischer Trend rekonstruiert werden. Der relativen Bevölkerungsentwicklung werden anschließend Veränderungen in der materiellen Kultur gegenübergestellt, wie die diachron variierende Zahl kulturfremder „Importe“ und ferntransportierter Rohmaterialien.
Als heuristisches Hilfsmittel wird das Konzept des „adaptiven Zyklus“ aus der sozio-ökologischen Resilience-Theorie auf archäologisches Material übertragen. Archäologische Kulturen werden als Mensch-Umwelt-Systeme begriffen, die bestimmte Entwicklungsstadien durchlaufen. Sie wachsen, versuchen sich zu erhalten, kollabieren und formieren sich erneut. Zwischen diesen Entwicklungsphasen und der zeitlichen Dynamik von Kommunikation ist ein Zusammenhang zu erkennen.
Die Grundlage dieses Vortrags bildet eine Magisterarbeit mit dem Titel „Demographisch-kulturelle Zyklen im Neolithikum. Die Bandkeramik im Rheinland und die Pfyner Kultur am Bodensee“, die im Juli 2011 an der Universität Köln eingereicht wurde."