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Archeoclimatology

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Encyclopedia of World Climatology

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series ((EESS))

The term archeoclimatology was coined by Reid A. and Robert U. Bryson, about 1990, to designate a particular approach to the estimation of past climates on the time and spatial scales appropriate for the use of archeologists (Bryson and Bryson, 1994). Because cultures change on less than the millennial scale, and because people live in relatively restricted areas, whatever data or model is used must be nearly site-specific and of high timeresolution. Ideally the method should be rather economical, since archaeology tends to be funded at a low level.

This subspecialty of paleoclimatology is largely concerned with bringing together various sources of estimation of past climates, models and proxy estimates from field studies, to provide the most consistent estimates of the past climatic environment at particular places and times. The study of proxy records has been well advanced by various other Earth and biological sciences, so archeoclimatology thus far has been concerned with climatic...

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Bibliography

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Cross-references

  1. Climate Change and Ancient Civilizations

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  2. Cultural Climatology

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Bryson, R. (2005). Archeoclimatology. In: Oliver, J.E. (eds) Encyclopedia of World Climatology. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Dordrecht . https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-3266-8_13

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