Climate change regularly made the news in 2019. In the face of numerous protests around the globe, and increasingly frequent natural disasters, we appear to be entering a (perhaps overdue) stage of heightened awareness with regard to the fragility of the Earth and our impact upon it. Current concerns over the fate of our planet, and species, look set to stay, but for deep-time prehistorians, who have long contended with records of environmental change on a scale relatively unparalleled in historic times, business continues as usual. In the opening to Resilience and reorganisation of social systems during the Weichselian Lateglacial in North-west Europe, Sonja Grimm makes reference to the importance of the Club of Rome (a non-profit, non-governmental organisation) in highlighting socio-ecological stability as an issue for public concern, and one that archaeological studies such as this can contribute to and bolster. Meanwhile, Peter Moe Astrup, in his introduction to Sea-level change in Mesolithic southern Scandinavia, notes that Mesolithic people from this area would have been exposed to the consequences of global sea-level rise on a far greater scale than those predicted for our own future generations. What these volumes share is an emphasis on the importance of adaptive flexibility and the human experience in shaping our response to climate change.
Astrup tackles the question of what we might be missing in our understanding of prehistory due to coastal zones being submerged by rising sea levels. Since the 1990s, when works such as Man & sea in the Mesolithic (Fischer Reference Fischer1995) and Doggerland: a speculative survey (Coles Reference Coles1998) highlighted the potential severity of this challenge, this has been a perennial ‘what if’ hanging over many who work on the Mesolithic of Europe, and indeed other areas of global prehistory. Astrup astutely takes up the challenge, using the profusion of Early Holocene data available from the Danish (and neighbouring) coastal records in what will surely be a must-have work for any serious Mesolithic library. Certainly, the book has a pleasing look and feel to it, with high-quality illustrations to accompany the accessible text, rendering it easy to read in full or simply refer to.
Astrup focuses on Denmark between 8000 and 4000 BC, using the volume to consider whether there really was a shift from freshwater inland habitat preferences in the Maglemose period towards sedentary coastal resource exploitation in the Kongemose and Ertebølle periods, or whether this interpretation is the result of a bias in the visible archaeological data. Sea-level change in Mesolithic southern Scandinavia adroitly manages to address two issues: how sea-level rise has affected our ability to understand the Mesolithic, and how Mesolithic peoples themselves may have responded to this phenomenon. What follows is an incisive piece of work, generating new coastline displacement models for the region that integrate considerations of isostacy, sediment accumulation, radiocarbon dates from submerged forests and other data in conjunction with 1325 radiocarbon-dated sea-level index points. A concise summary of archaeological evidence for marine-resource exploitation in the Mesolithic is presented, including discussion of the impact of isotopic analyses. Perhaps most excitingly, Chapter 6 details the results of diver-based survey in the Bay of Aarhus, including the use of an ROV (remotely operated underwater vehicle) built by the author himself.
Astrup pulls the multiple strands of his work together using GIS techniques (generating eight new coastline models); and the volume culminates with two chapters that consider hypothetical inundation scenarios and how Mesolithic populations may have perceived, experienced and responded to these changes, before noting the study's limitations and potential future applications and developments. While there is no definitive conclusion, which—as the author makes clear—is not the aim of this work, there are grounds to evaluate and critique traditionally held narratives of environmental determinism or intensification. Although Astrup is correct in his assertion that there is still much to be done in underwater archaeology, and particularly on the earlier Mesolithic, this engaging work is a tremendous step in the right direction.
Grimm's Resilience and reorganisation of social systems during the Weichselian Lateglacial in North-west Europe is also largely concerned with the prehistoric adaptive response (or lack thereof) evident in the archaeological record. In this case, however, the focus is the final millennia of the Pleistocene, and the abrupt climate shifts of the late Upper Palaeolithic (16.2–11.7 ka). Grimm's work assesses the nature of the transition from the Late Magdalenian to the Federmesser Groups in a transect of North-west Europe spanning Brittany, the Paris Basin, Luxembourg and southern Belgium, and the Central Rhineland in Germany. The depth and range of exploration that follows is, quite simply, astounding. Grimm's central question refers to another age-old proposition in archaeology—was the cultural change a ‘revolution’ or a gradual process? And what does it mean for our understanding of the ability of prehistoric people to endure and adapt within the constraints of a changing environment?
After a brief introduction, the author sets about conducting a masterful synthesis of climatic (temperature, moisture, wind-activity) and environmental (soil development, vegetation, fauna) proxies, chronological indicators and archaeological data from 26 sites within the Paris Basin, Somme and Central Rhineland, all laid out within the ‘Materials’ section. In the following section, ‘Methods’, these proxies are tied together chronologically and spatially before being cross-examined under ‘Results’. The volume concludes with a summary that pulls these threads together into a critical assessment of why social and cultural changes apparent in the archaeological record do not always correspond neatly to critical environmental stimuli.
At over 600 pages long, Resilience and reorganisation is a formidable piece of work. Fortunately, the volume has a clear and easily navigable structure, and there is a summary chapter at the end that provides a good overview of the preceding detail. It would have been nice to have seen a few more, or larger and more colourful, images featured within its pages, but the clarity of the work never suffers for want of illustration. Indeed, one of the biggest appeals of the book is the veritable wealth of data (and references) that may be mined from its pages. Beyond its value to the specialist engaged in late Upper Palaeolithic studies, it contains a plethora of informative maps, charts, tables and other figures, pertaining to a wide swathe of Late Pleistocene prehistory that would be of significant interest to other researchers.
The only real issues with both Sea-level changes in Mesolithic southern Scandinavia and Resilience and reorganisation are trivial. Perhaps as a result of both monographs stemming from converted PhD dissertations, they lack indices or lists of illustrations in their respective front and end matter. These would be especially welcome in a work of Resilience and reorganisation's size, given the breadth of information contained within. Both volumes boast excellent production values befitting the calibre of the work, with attractive hardcovers, and clear and legible text and illustrations printed on quality paper. Astrup's volume will surely become a staple of reading lists for Mesolithic students and those working on submerged prehistory, while Grimm's book represents a comprehensive overview and lasting statement on the late Upper Palaeolithic in this area of North-west Europe.
It may well be a truism to say that as our methods have improved so too has the quality and resolution of our data, but it is one that nevertheless belies the more nuanced readings of how past populations adapted to, and survived, climate change in the past, as presented in the works reviewed here. These two monographs represent the latest mode of enquiry into how our ancestors dealt with the changing world around them, and both present studies of immense quality and depth. They grapple with issues of scale (temporal and spatial) in reconstructing probable patterns of climate and environmental change in the past; and in different ways, they also present the very best of a long tradition of cultural ecology in prehistoric archaeology, but with refreshingly contemporary views on the contribution of the lived human experience to our understanding of how adaptive changes manifest. These volumes, which are bound to be of importance to fellow specialists, are also exemplary case studies for those working in related fields of interest, and provide food for thought for those among us keeping a watchful eye on the ever developing climate-threat debate.
