Washington State University archaeologists are working on climate change problems using the knowledge domain of their subjects:
Washington State University archaeologists are at the helm of new research using sophisticated computer technology to learn how past societies responded to climate change.Their work, which links ancient climate and archaeological data, could help modern communities identify new crops and other adaptive strategies when threatened by drought, extreme weather and other environmental challenges. …
[Emeritus professor of anthropology Tim] Kohler is a pioneer in the field of model-based archaeology. He developed sophisticated computer simulations, called agent-based models, of the interactions between ancestral peoples in the American Southwest and their environment. …
Agent-based modeling is also used to explore the impact humans can have on their environment during periods of climate change.
One study mentioned in the WSU review demonstrates how drought, hunting and habitat competition among growing populations in Egypt led to the extinction of many large-bodied mammals around 3,000 B.C. In addition, d’Alpoim Guedes and Bocinsky, an adjunct faculty member in anthropology, are investigating how settlement patterns in Tibet are affecting erosion. …
Species distribution or crop-niche modeling is another sophisticated technology that archeologists use to predict where plants and other organisms grew well in the past and where they might be useful today.
Bocinsky and d’Alpoim Guedes are using the modeling technique to identify little-used or in some cases completely forgotten crops that could be useful in areas where warmer weather, drought and disease impact food supply.
One of the crops they identified is a strain of drought-tolerant corn the Hopi Indians of Arizona adapted over the centuries to prosper in poor soil.
“Our models showed Hopi corn could grow well in the Ethiopian highlands where one of their staple foods, the Ethiopian banana, has been afflicted by emerging pests, disease and blasts of intense heat,” Bocinsky said. “Cultivating Hopi corn and other traditional, drought-resistant crops could become crucial for human survival in other places impacted by climate change.”
Fascinating, but I have to wonder if their suggestion to switch to Hopi Corn in Ethiopia is really going to work out. Unless their simulations are extremely detailed and predictive of how local insects and small mammals might adapt to the new food crops brought into their habitat, I suspect these are no more than “well, it fits the broad parameters, why don’t you give it a whirl?”
A few failures like that and the locals will give you the stiff arm, I’d predict.
