The Impact of Empire: Carrying capacity of Eastern Mediterranean landscape

The lack of water is a serious threat to all societies at all times, especially in regions such as the Mediterranean. However, a simple, linear relationship between less rainfall and the decline of societies falls short of the mark. While archaeologists often approach the topic of water scarcity and its impact on socio-economic systems in terms of economic or political mechanisms, Ingmar Unkel focusses on the natural water availability to plants and the resulting effects. The resilience of societies to (hydrological) natural hazards depends on the land use potential of the region. Which locations are suitable for which type of land use? What is the quality of the soil? How much agricultural land is available at all? Ultimately, it is then a social question of how land use potential was dealt with in the past in various areas of governance. And can this still be seen in geoarchaeological archives?

(Photo credits: Ingmar Unkel)