Social Responses to Climate Change and Extreme Weather in the Age of Charlemagne (740-820)

Autore: Jean-Pierre Devroey
In: Storicamente. 17 (2021)
doi:10.52056/9788833138732/02
Abstract

Over the past two decades, the growing availability of paleoclimatic data has opened new opportunities for cross-fertilisation and comparison between natural and social sciences. The parallel history of climate and the environment is often undertaken in a holistic manner, assuming simple and direct causalities between the climate and social change. Faced with climatic series, the historian must question the nature of the data and their specific conditions of gathering, validity, and environment, as well as the methods and objectives of modelling. Comparing paleoclimatic data and primary sources requires considering their specific limitations and finding a common scale of observation. A historical case study has just been conducted using climate series and sources from the age of Charlemagne (740-820 AD), a time interval of 80 years that is compatible with the heuristic requirements of both disciplines. The investigation confronts paleoclimatic data and interpretations with Frankish sources from 740 to 820, starting from the analysis of the famines of 779, 791-794 and recurrent subsistence phenomena at the beginning of the 9th century, studying in parallel cosmologies and representations, and the political, economic, and social responses brought by the political system.