IMC 2021: Sessions

Session 1011: Caucasian Climates, I: Pastoralism and Population in the Medieval Caucasus

Wednesday 7 July 2021, 09.00-10.30

Sponsor:	Medieval Caucasus Network
Organisers:	James Baillie, Independent Scholar, Birmingham John Latham-Sprinkle, Department of History, School of Oriental & African Studies, University of London
Moderator/Chair:	Jonathan Shepard, Khalili Research Centre, University of Oxford
Paper 1011-a	Early Medieval Agriculture and Pastoralism in the Central Caucasus: Climate, Landscape, and Society (Language: English) Dmitry Korobov, Institute of Archaeology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow Index terms: Archaeology - General, Demography, Economics - Rural, Geography and Settlement Studies
Paper 1011-b	Intensification and Its Discontents in the Medieval Caucasus (Language: English) Nicholas Evans, Clare College, University of Cambridge Nicholas Evans, Department of History, King's College London Index terms: Archaeology - General, Demography, Economics - Rural, Geography and Settlement Studies
Paper 1011-c	Power on the Mooo-ve: Cows, Urbanism, and Power in the Medieval Caucasus (Language: English) John Latham-Sprinkle, Department of History, School of Oriental & African Studies, University of London Index terms: Archaeology - Sites, Demography, Economics - Rural, Geography and Settlement Studies
Paper 1011-d	The Nizhny Arkhyz Settlement: Singularity through Environment (Language: English) Andrey Vinogradov, School of History, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow Index terms: Archaeology - Sites, Byzantine Studies, Ecclesiastical History, Geography and Settlement Studies
Abstract	One of the great unsolved questions in North Caucasian history is the reason for major changes in settlement patterns in the first millennium CE, especially a general shift from settlements being concentrated in river valleys to them being concentrated in mountain foothills. Researchers have recently proposed that these may be explained by human responses to climatic changes, in particular those related to transhumance and pastoralism, rather than the older model which attributed this shift to ethnic movements. This session will introduce the results of recent GIS and palynological work which may help to resolve these questions, as well as new approaches to the problem drawn from actor-network theory and anti-catastrophism.