ABSTRACT
Based on an examination of the writings of archaeologists, this chapter assesses the nature of human–climate interaction through the sweep of archaeological time. It scans times and places that been subject to climate change, generally induced by natural forces rather than anthropogenic ones as in recent times. The epoch of our 5 million–6 million years or so on the planet has led to humans being described as the “children of the ice,” in that most of human evolution occurred during a period of fluctuating glacial and interglacial periods, with the fourth glacial ending about 12,000 years ago, culminating in the Holocene, a period of overall climatic stability, at least until recent times. During the Holocene, human societies have made a transition from foraging to horticulture, pastoralism, agriculture, and eventually industrialism in the Industrial Revolution. Even the Holocene has been punctuated by periods of warming, such as manifested in the collapse of various civilizations, and the Medieval Optimum, which allowed for the settlement of Greenland, and the Little Ice Age, which particularly adversely impacted much of Europe.
