Shakespeare

The Environment

* Environmental archaeology is one of the clearest demonstrations of multidisciplinarity to be found in archaeological science, and the results lead to wide range of issues. Example; an archaeologist  studying Stone Age hunters/gatherers requires detailed knowledge of plant and animal resource, an understanding of the change in climate conditions and information about human diet

* This example was recognized by pioneering prehistorans who discovered cave sites and animal remains as well as human bones and artefacts

* In1853, a drought occurred in Switzerland which revealed the remains from the Neolithic and Bronze Age

* In the early 20th century botanists classified a series of climate zones characterised by changes in plant species since the last Ice Age. These could be dated over 12000 year span

* This awareness led Grahame Clark to excavate a waterlogged site at Star Carr. This purpose was to recover a wide spectrum of botanical and zoological evidence in order to study the economy and society of its inhabitants  and to relate the site to the dated climatic phases known from Scandinavia

* The environment is a major focus for archaeological sciences and environmental archaeology that ranges from broad perspectives on global climate down to lice and bacteria that affected the day of life of individual people

* Archaeological excavations provide stratified and dated samples of bones, shells, plants and soils

* Archaeologists and scientists  studied the impact  of the environmental factors mapping ancient settlements and analyzing economic systems

Climate

* Climate is the result of interactions between a number of spheres –atmosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere, and biosphere

* The ways they produce current conditions makes it  easy to see why reconstructing past climate is a difficult business and even harder to explain change

* One fundamental external factor has affected the Earth on a...