Resilience and breakpoints – exploring linkages between societal,agricultural and climatic changes in Iron Age Denmark.

Resilience and Breakpoints will describe the linkages between societal developments, agricultural practices and climatic fluctuations during the Danish Iron Age which is characterised by several radical changes such at the introduction of naked barley, rye as well as the mouldboard plow. The climate changes several times, and both cold and warm periods is known. Consequently, the project will establish an overview of changes in the archaeological character and a GIS-based assessment of the cultural-topographical landscape being utilized. The agricultural strategies will be analysed via a comprehensive dataset of charred plant remains covering Denmark, including description of levels of manure and precipitation. New and robust high-resolution reconstruction of changes in summer cloud coverage and hydrological conditions based on isotope analysis of individual oak tree rings will be generated. The project aims to map human and natural systems and understand the interaction between them in the theoretical framework of resilience thinking.