Modelling land use dynamics and responses to climate variability in late antique Basel, Switzerland

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• Margaux Depaermentier (University of Basel, Switzerland) and Michael Kempf (University of Kiel, Germany)
• Monday 24 April 2023, 16:00-17:30
• McDonald Institute Seminar Room, Department of Archaeology, Downing Site.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Simon Carrignon.

Multicomponent environmental models are increasingly used in archaeological research to understand human patterns as a result of past climate and environmental conditions over the long term. However, particular challenges include the number of model variables, the comprehensiveness of the underlying explanatory parameters and the integration of socio-cultural decision-making into the model. With a novel approach to generate annual land cover variability using a wide range of climatic, geological, hydrological topographic and dendrochronological data, we estimate land use and settlement capacity and vulnerability to understand the socio-cultural transformation processes in late antique and early medieval Basel.

Drawing on a high-resolution local case study, our results demonstrate the potential of tree-ring derived proxy data to predict local environmental feedbacks. The model provides a means of tracing both land use and socio-cultural response to climate variability and subsequent adaptation to changes in environmental sensitivity. This approach enables to understand local human-environment interactions and the determination of site-specific isotope baselines from which past subsistence strategies as well as mobility patterns can be derived.

This talk is part of the Computational and Digital Archaeology Lab (CDAL) series.

This talk is included in these lists:

• Computational and Digital Archaeology Lab (CDAL)
• McDonald Institute Seminar Room, Department of Archaeology, Downing Site

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