HomeClimate Change and Human-Environment Interaction in the Caucasus

HomeClimate Change and Human-Environment Interaction in the Caucasus

Climate Change and Human-Environment Interaction in the Caucasus

Changement climatique et interaction homme-environnement dans le Caucase

Geo-bio-archeological and literary perspectives

Perspectives géo-bio-archéologiques et littéraires

*  *  *

Published on Monday, November 13, 2023

Abstract

English Français

Joining forces between scientists of different disciplines and countries in order to register the various data about the human interaction with the environment in moments of crisis throughout history, should help us to prepare solutions for this near future. For a proper estimation of the whole chain of (probably catastrophic) events which could affect a country like Georgia, land of the Golden Fleece, we need to consider the whole circuit of the peak water, from the melting glaciers to the high mountain lakes, the river basins, their deltas and the sea. The climatic, geomorphologic, ecologic modellings must be related with ideas from arts and humanities as well as social sciences, in the longue durée, in order to anticipate the societal changes of the next generation. Based on our previous research on the geohistory and geobio-archaeology of the Black Sea, the Colchis lowlands, on rivers – including the mythical Phasis – and lakes, this meeting is intended as a kick-off for future international and interdisciplinary collaborations.

Announcement

English Français

Presentation

Climatology, Geoarchaeology and Humanities

We live in a constantly changing environment, affected by a variety of factors, such as global warming, natural catastrophes and anthropogenic stress on the environment (IPCC 2022, Loveluck et al. 2018, 2020, Stewart & Stringer 2012, Müller et al. 2011, González-Sampériz et al. 2009, Rohling et al. 2009, 2019, Mayewski et al. 2004, Ruddiman et al. 2003, Vitousek et al. 1997). The effects on the human communities have always been noticed and sometimes noted down in texts and maps, although the antiquity of their languages and their various cultural contexts make them difficult to understand (Dan 2023). During the past decades, however, the environmental catastrophes got into the daily news. In order to understand their causes, chronology and future developments, scholars from various disciplines, ranging from geo- to social sciences, arts and humanities started to work together and to publish reconstructions of paleoenvironnements as well as scenarios to come.

The Caucasus and its catastrophic changes

Due to the political, military and economic problems of the countries occupying the modern Caucasus, this region did not receive the attention it deserves, when considering its strategic importance for both the European and Asiatic countries. Yet, the Caucasus, with its old volcanoes (among which the highest peak in Europe, Elbrus, 5,642 m) and with their Eurasiatic watershed is not only one of the richest lands in natural resources (metals, minerals, wood) but also a huge natural observatory of the health of our ecosystems. Caucasus’ glaciers (above 2300 m) are particularly sensitive to the actual warming: they lose up to 0.7-1% of their whole mass every year (Toropov et al. 2019, Tielidze et al. 2020, 2022). Their melting and that of the permafrost is relevant for the whole degradation of the environment, causing immediate as well as distant catastrophes: in the last decades, mudflows and ice-rock avalanches destroyed settlements and essential infrastructures, and changed the river debits (Evans et al. 2009, Tielidze et al. 2019), contributing to the rise of the levels of the Black and Caspian seas. Their total melting (estimated around 2050) will have fundamental consequences since the high Caucasus with its glaciers has been the water tower for the adjacent plains and valleys (Gregory and Oerlemans 1998, Leroy et al. 2022b, Tielidze et al. 2022): desertification of the mountainous and steppe regions will increase, glacial lakes may burst, the drainage basins will change their shape and extent, in turn heavily affecting biodiversity. The reduced ecosystems services will have catastrophic consequences on the human economy and quality of life. With these natural changes, all human societies will be affected and some traditional habitats will be abandoned (Von Suchodoletz et al. 2022, Leroy et al. 2022a). Natural archives (like glaciers) that we use now in order to reconstruct the history of climate and environment (Mayewsky et al. 2004, Lovelock et al. 2018, 2020) will be soon lost and the whole heritage we can transmit to the future generations will be diminished.  

Aims

Joining forces between scientists of different disciplines and countries in order to register the various data about the human interaction with the environment in moments of crisis throughout history, should help us to prepare solutions for this near future. For a proper estimation of the whole chain of (probably catastrophic) events which could affect a country like Georgia, land of the Golden Fleece, we need to consider the whole circuit of the peak water, from the melting glaciers to the high mountain lakes, the river basins, their deltas and the sea (Holzhauser 2016, Laermanns 2017a-b, 2019, Von Suchodoletz 2015). The climatic, geomorphologic, ecologic modellings must be related with ideas from arts and humanities as well as social sciences, in the longue durée, in order to anticipate the societal changes of the next generation (Goldberg & MacPhail 2006, Rapp & Hill 2006). Based on our previous research on the geohistory and geobio-archaeology of the Black Sea (Fouache et al. 2012), the Colchis lowlands (Gamkrelidze 1992, Laermanns 2017a, 2019), on rivers (Von Suchodoletz et al. 2015) – including the mythical Phasis (Lordkipanidze 2000, Dan 2016) – and lakes (Messager et al. 2013, 2021), this meeting is intended as a kick-off for future international and interdisciplinary collaborations.

Program

Friday, 1.12.2023

12.30 Reception of the participants

2 PM Introduction

Panel 1. Ice

2.15 PM Paul Andrew Mayewski, Climate Change Institute, University of Maine, Orono, ME, USA The Ice Chronicles - A Step in the Quest to Understand Climate Change and Human Interactions

3 PM  Andrei V. Kurbatov1, Pascal Bohleber2, Lela Gadrani1, Geoffrey Hargreaves*3, Michael Handley4, Douglas S. Introne4, Curtis Labombard3, Elena V. Korotkikh5, Christopher Loveluck5, Paul A. Mayewski4 Adapting New Technologies for State-of-the-Art Ice Core Science

  1. Climate Change Institute and School of Earth & Climate Sciences, University of Maine, Orono, ME, USA
  2. Environmental Sciences, Informatics and Statistics, Ca‘ Foscari University of Venice, Italy
  3. National Science Foundation Ice Core Facility, U.S. Geological Survey, Denver, Colorado, USA
  4. Climate Change Institute, University of Maine, Orono, ME, USA
  5. Archaeology, University Park, School of Humanities, University of Nottingham, UK

*Retired in 2022

3.45 PM M. Elashvili1, L. Gardani2, Levan Tielidze1 Glacial Extends and Fluctuations in Greater Caucasus from LGM

  1. Cultural Heritage and Environment Research Center, Ilia State University, Tbilisi, Georgia
  2. Climate Change Institute, University of Maine, Orono, ME, USA

Coffee break

Panel 2. People and Places

4.30 PM Marianne Cohen1 & Josep Vila-Subirós2 Resilient Landscapes in a Context of Climate and Socioenvironmental Change in the Caucasus. Key concepts and general considerations

  1. Geography and Spatial Planning, Lab. Médiations, Sorbonne University, Paris, France
  2. Geography, Socioenvironmental Research Group, University of Girona, Catalonia, Spain

5 PM Bérengère Perello Archéorient, CNRS (UMR 5133), Lyon, France Human-Environment Interaction in Early Bronze Age Armenia. Aims and Perspectives of the HOMELAND Project

5.30 PM N. Sulava1, R. Chagelishvili1, N. Rezesidze1, B. Gilmour2, E. Kvavadze, T. Beridze3 The Archaeometallurgy of Copper in the Mountain Regions of Colchis (Georgia, Lechkhumi)

  1. Georgian National Museum - Archaeology, Tbilisi, Georgia
  2. School of Archaeology, University of Oxford, Great Britain
  3. Al. Janelidze Institute of Geology, Tbilisi, Georgia

Theater. 6-6.30 PM

Aeschylus’ Prometheus Bound: performance in Ancient Greek by Philippe Brunet

Classics, University of Rouen Normandy, France

Saturday, 2.12.2023

Panel 3. Trees & Flowers

9.30 AM Ingo Heinrich1, Gerhard Helle2, Svend Hansen1, Sabine Reinhold1, Daniel Balanzategui1, Alexander Müller1 Tree Rings from the Caucasus Region and Their Potential for Multi-Parameter Environmental Reconstructions

  1. German Archaeological Institute (DAI), Berlin, Germany
  2. Helmholtz Centre Potsdam, German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ), Germany

10 AM Alexia Decaix, GeoArchEon & National Museum of Natural History, France (UMR 7209 AASPE) Reconstructing Human-Environment Interactions in the Southern Caucasus: an archaeobotanical macroremains perspective

10.30 AM Kristina Sahakyan1, Sebastien Joannin2, Torsten Haberzettl3, Marie-Luise Adolph3, Lilit Sahakyan1 5,000 Years of Vegetation Dynamics: Pollen Analysis of Gravity Sediment Cores in Small Sevan Lake, Armenia 1. Institute of Geological Sciences, National Academy of Sciences of Armenia

  1. CNRS, Institute of Evolutionary Science of Montpellier, France
  2. Geography and Geology, University of Greifswald, Germany

Coffee break

Panel 4. Lake & River

11.30 AM Hannes Laermanns1, Daniel Gademan1, Nino Ustiashvili2, Levan Navrozashvili2, Tiiu Koff3, Mikheil Elashvili2, Helmut Brückner1 The Lake Paravani Archive - a contribution to the Late Quaternary landscape evolution of the Lesser Caucasus (Georgia)

  1. Institute of Geography, University of Cologne, Germany
  2. Cultural Heritage and Environment Research Center, Ilia State University, Tbilisi, Georgia
  3. Tallinn University, Institute of Ecology, Tallinn, Estonia

12 AM Hans von Suchodoletz, Geoinformatics and Remote Sensing Group, Leipzig University, Germany Prehistoric Societies and Water Supply in the Southeastern Caucasus: a geomorphological and geoarchaeological approach

Lunch break

Panel 5. Ice & Dust

2 PM Lela Gadrani Climate Change Institute, University of Maine, Orono, ME, USAKazbegi Glacier Paleo Ice Core Project - Update

2.30 PM Lyudmila Shumilovskikh, Palynology and Climate Dynamics, University of Göttingen, Germany Palynological Studies from Kazbegi Region: Results and perspectives

3 PM Vlada Batalova Palynology and Climate Dynamics, University of Göttingen, Germany First palynological Studies of Ice Cores from Elbrus: A new word in atmospheric monitoring in the Caucasus region

Coffee break

Panel 6. River & Sea

4 PM Alfred Vespremeanu-Stroe1, Hannes Laermanns2, Levan Navrozashvili3, Mikheil Elashvili3, Laurențiu Țuțuianu1, Mihaela Dobre1, Diana Hanganu1, Luminița Preoteasa1, Helmuth Bruckner2  New Data from the Rioni Suggest an Early (Neolithic) Delta Formation and Human Presence

  1. Geography, University of Bucharest, Romania
  2. Institute of Geography, University of Cologne, Germany
  3. Cultural Heritage and Environment Research Center, Ilia State University, Tbilisi, Georgia

4.30 PM Florin Zăinescu, Alfred Vespremeanu-Stroe, Geography, University of Bucharest, Romania Understanding the Effects of Rising Sea Levels on the Big River Deltas of the Black Sea - findings from the Danube river 

5 PM Anca Dan1, Udo Schlotzhauer2 Environmental Changes in the Caucasian deltas of the Black Sea, according to Classical Texts & Archaeology

  1. AOROC – Classics, École Normale Supérieure – CNRS, Paris
  2. Eurasia, German Archaeological Institute (DAI), Berlin

Posters

Akaki Nadaraia Cultural Heritage and Environment Research Center, Ilia State University, Tbilisi, Georgia Glacial Geomorphology and Landscape Changes in Enguri Valey (South Caucasus) during the Holocene

Guram Imnadze1, Akaki Nadaraia2 Activated Periglacial Hazards in an Alpine Environment: An example of recent glacial debris flows in Shovi and Devdoraki Valleys (Georgian Caucasus)

  1. Institute of Geography, Tbilisi State University, Georgia
  2. Cultural Heritage and Environment Research Center, Ilia State University, Georgia

Nino Ustiashvili, Mari Murtskhvaladze Ilia State University, Tbilisi, Georgia NGS Insights into Microbiome Composition in Ice Cores: Shifts in microbial communities as early indicators of environmental changes

Levan Navrozashvili, Mikheil Elashvili, Levan Losaberidze, Mate Akhalaia, Giorgi Kirkitadze, Ilia State University, Tbilisi, Georgia Paleoenvironmental Reconstruction and Spatio-Temporal Analyses of the Late Bronze Age Culture in the Shiraki Valley (South Caucasus)

Mikheil Lobjanidze, Tea Munchava, Cultural Heritage and Environment Research Center, Ilia State University, Georgia Landscape and Geomorphologic Changes in the Historic Tana Valley (Georgia), Influenced by Climatic and Anthropic Factors

Daniela Pascal, Alfred Vespremeanu-Stroe, Régis Braucher, Răzvan Popescu, Mihaela Enăchescu, Alexandru Berbecariu, ASTER Team, Geography, University of Bucharest, Romania Glacial Geochronology and Extent in Făgăraș Massif (Southern Carpathians) - Parallels for the vanished glaciers of Lesser Caucasus 

Places

  • salle des Actes, 1er étage - ENS, 45 rue d'Ulm
    Paris, France (75005)

Event attendance modalities

Hybrid event (on site and online)


Date(s)

  • Friday, December 01, 2023
  • Saturday, December 02, 2023

Keywords

  • Caucase, écologie, ecohistoire

Contact(s)

  • Anca Dan
    courriel : anca-cristina [dot] dan [at] ens [dot] psl [dot] eu

Reference Urls

Information source

  • Anca Dan
    courriel : anca-cristina [dot] dan [at] ens [dot] psl [dot] eu

License

CC0-1.0 This announcement is licensed under the terms of Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal.

To cite this announcement

« Climate Change and Human-Environment Interaction in the Caucasus », Conference, symposium, Calenda, Published on Monday, November 13, 2023, https://doi.org/10.58079/1c6c

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