Elena Xoplaki, Jürg Luterbacher, Sebastian Wagner, Eduardo Zorita, Dominik Fleitmann, Johannes Preiser-Kapeller, Abigail M Sargent, Sam White, Andrea Toreti, John F Haldon, Lee Mordechai, Deniz Bozkurt, Sena Akçer-Ön, Adam Izdebski
This article analyses high-quality hydroclimate proxy records and spatial reconstructions from the Central and Eastern Mediterranean and compares them with two Earth System Model simulations (CCSM4, MPI-ESM-P) for the Crusader period in the Levant (1095-1290 CE), the Mamluk regime in Transjordan (1260-1516 CE) and the Ottoman crisis and Celâlî Rebellion (1580-1610 CE). During the three time intervals, environmental and climatic stress tested the resilience of complex societies. We find that the multidecadal precipitation and drought variations in the Central and Eastern Mediterranean cannot be explained by external forcings (solar variations, tropical volcanism); rather they were driven by internal climate dynamics...
2018: Human Ecology: An Interdisciplinary Journal