Rapid Climate Change, Integrated Human–Environment–Historical Records and Societal Resilience in Georgia

Christopher P. Loveluck, Levan G. Tielidze (), Mikheil Elashvili, Andrei V. Kurbatov, Lela Gadrani, Nathaniel Erb-Satullo, Hans von Suchodoletz, Anca Dan, Hannes Laermanns, Helmut Brückner, Udo Schlotzhauer, Nino Sulava and Rusudan Chagelishvili
Additional contact information
Christopher P. Loveluck: Department of Classics and Archaeology, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK
Levan G. Tielidze: Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future, School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment, Monash University, Clayton, VIC 3800, Australia
Mikheil Elashvili: School of Natural Sciences and Medicine, Ilia State University, 0162 Tbilisi, Georgia
Andrei V. Kurbatov: Climate Change Institute, University of Maine, Orono, ME 04469, USA
Lela Gadrani: Climate Change Institute, University of Maine, Orono, ME 04469, USA
Nathaniel Erb-Satullo: Cranfield Forensic Institute, Cranfield University, Bedford MK43 0AL, UK
Hans von Suchodoletz: Institute of Geography, University of Leipzig, 04109 Leipzig, Germany
Anca Dan: CNRS, École Normale Supérieure, 75005 Paris, France
Hannes Laermanns: Institute of Geography, University of Cologne, 50923 Köln, Germany
Helmut Brückner: Institute of Geography, University of Cologne, 50923 Köln, Germany
Udo Schlotzhauer: German Archaeological Institute (DAI), 14195 Berlin, Germany
Nino Sulava: National Museum of Georgia, 0105 Tbilisi, Georgia
Rusudan Chagelishvili: National Museum of Georgia, 0105 Tbilisi, Georgia

Sustainability, 2024, vol. 16, issue 16, 1-24

Abstract: In the midlatitudes of the planet, we are facing the imminent disappearance of one of our best high-resolution (pre)historic climate and anthropogenic pollution archives, namely the loss of glacial ice, through accelerated global warming. To capture these records and interpret these vanishing archives, it is imperative that we extract ice-cores from midlatitude regions where glaciers still survive and analyse them within frameworks of inter-disciplinary research. In this paper, we focus on Georgia, part of the Greater Caucasus. Results of ice-core analyses from the region have never, to date, been integrated with its other abundant palaeo-environmental, archaeological and historical sources. We review the results of international projects on palaeo-environmental/geoarchaeological sediment archives, the archaeology of metal economies and preliminary ice-core data in Georgia. Collectively, we show that the different strands need to be integrated to fully explore relationships between climate/landscape change and human societal transformations. We then introduce an inclusive interdisciplinary framework for ongoing research on these themes, with an ultimate future goal of using data from the past to inform societal resilience strategies in the present.

Keywords: climate-change; ice-cores; palaeo-environment; geoarchaeology; landscapes; (pre)historic-pollution; metal-economies; Caucasus; resilience; SDG-13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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