2023/07/13 by Giacomo Benati, Carmine Guerriero · 1 voice
Earth and Planetary Sciences · #Archaeology and ancient environmental studies #Geology and Paleoclimatology Research #Tree-ring climate responses
paper · doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2023.108217
openalex publication_date 2023/07/13 · openalex created_date 2023/07/14 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/23
Despite its apparently obvious conclusion that adverse environmental conditions must produce economic and institutional crises, the “collapse archaeology” literature has been criticized for its lack of a formal theory, a credible measurement strategy and a proper understanding of the roles of environmental shocks. To tackle this issue, we propose to combine a time inconsistency theory of state formation and evolution—i.e., state-building, institutional proxies based on this model and highly granular simulated climate data. To clarify our proposal, we apply it to the study of state-building in Bronze Age Mesopotamia, and we show that moderate droughts shaped these economies directly via deteriorated production conditions as well as indirectly via institutional resilience.