Includes bibliographical references and index.

Preface / Liviu Giosan [and others] -- Bridging a disciplinary gap / William F. Ruddiman -- section 1. Americas. Arguments and evidence against a younger dryas impact event / M. Boslough [and others] -- Environment and agency in the ancient Maya collapse / James J. Aimers -- Rainfall variability and the rise and collapse of the Mississippian chiefdoms / Paul Aharon, David Aldridge, and John Hellstrom -- Building resilience in island communities / Jago Cooper -- Recent seasonal variations in arid landscape cover and aeolian sand mobility, Navajo Nation, southwestern United States / Amy E. Draut, Margaret Hiza Redsteer, and Lee Amoroso -- section 2. Asia. Utilization of distal tephra records for understanding climatic and environmental consequences of the youngest toba tuff / Emma Gatti and Clive Oppenheimer -- An abrupt shift in the Indian monsoon 4000 years ago / M. Berkelhammer [and others] -- Late Holocene drought patterns over West Asia / Michael Staubwasser -- Geomorphological constraints on the Ghaggar River regime during the mature Harappan period / Hideaki Meomuko [and others] -- A simulation of the Neolithic transition in the Indus Valley / Carsten Lemmen and Aurangzeb Khan -- Mid-to-late Holocene agricultural system transformations in the northern fertile crescent / Simone Riehl [and others] -- Late Holocene evolution of the Fuzhou Basin (Fujian, China) and the spread of rice farming / Barry V. Rolett -- Climate-induced changes in population dynamics of Siberian Scythians (700-250 B.C.) / Irina P. Panyushkina.

section 3. Africa. Geoarchaeological perspectives on Holocene climate change as a civilizing factor in the Egyptian Sahara / Kathleen Nicoll -- Heavy rainfalls in a desert(ed) city / Jonas Berking [and others] -- section 4. Europe. The influence of transgressive paleography on the development and decline of Cardium Pottery Culture (Mediterranean Neolithic) / A. Amorosi and A. Morelli -- A dynamic human socioecology of prehistoric and protohistoric Ulster / Tina Thurston and Gill Plunkett -- section 5. New approaches and discussion. Influences of active tectonism on human development / Eric R. Force and Bruce G. McFadgen -- Irragric anthrosols, artifacts of human adaptation to arid conditions / J. Baade -- Hunter-gatherers, agriculturalists, and climate / Daniel M. Cadzow -- AGU category index.

Print version record.

Published by the American Geophysical Union as part of the Geophysical Monograph Series. Climates, Landscapes, and Civilizations brings together a collection of studies on the history of complex interrelationships between humans and their environment by integrating Earth science with archeology and anthropology. At a time when climate change, overpopulation, and scarcity of resources are increasingly affecting our ways of life, the lessons of the past provide multiple reference frames that are valuable for informing our future decisions and action plans. Volume highlights i.