Climate, Pollution and Economic Growth in Human History: New results from the Historical Ice Core Project

Stunning recent results from our collaboration with the Climate Change Institute of the University of Maine, reveal new evidence about our human past sealed within the Colle Gnifetti ice core. A groundbreaking new, open-access article in Antiquity, sheds new light on the foundations of the European economy and the devastating volcanic eruption of 536AD.

 

The new findings were presented by the team at Harvard University:

Michael McCormick (Chair of SoHP and Goelet Professor of Medieval History) with Christopher Loveluck (Professor of Medieval Archaeology, University of Nottingham):
"From Roman Gold to Merovingian "Pale Gold," to Medieval Silver."

Paul A. Mayewski (Director of the Climate Change Institute, and Distinguished Professor, University of Maine):
"Extending the Climate Record into the Pre-Instrumental Era, Decades to Millennia."

Andrei V. Kurbatov (Associate Professor, Climate Change Institute, University of Maine):
"Tephra Evidence of the 536AD Volcanic Eruption."

Heather Clifford (MSc Candidate, Climate Change Institute, University of Maine):
"Insights from the Colle Gnifetti Ice Core."

Alexander More (Assistant Research Professor & Postdoctoral Research Associate CCI-Harvard):
"The Impact of Extreme Weather on WWI and Spanish Flu Pandemic Mortality 100 years ago."

Full reference article: C. P. Loveluck, M. McCormick, N. Spaulding, H. Clifford, M.J. Handley, L. Hartman, H. Hoffmann, E.V. Koroktikh, A.V. Kurbatov, A. F. More, S.B. Sneed, P. A. Mayewski, "Alpine ice-core evidence for the transformation of the European monetary system, AD 640–670," Antiquity 2018 https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2018.110

 

This project is generously supported by: