The impact of Holocene climate setbacks on Neolithic societies in Eastern Europe: ways of scientific cooperation and exchange

Abstract

7 You are holding in your hands another issue of VITA ANTIQUA, conceived on the eve of the new year 2021. The past year 2020 became a turning point for large parts of society and the humanities and social sciences are no exception. The challenges posed by the COVID-19 pande­mic­remind­the­scientific­community­that­ human-environment relations are of great social relevance. Societal crises, currently triggered by the emergence of unknown viruses or in the future by climate change, are essentially the result of widening human activities since the last 12,000 years. The Holocene, the most recent epoch in the history of the Earth, is characterized by the intrusion of humans into natural ecological systems. The invention of agriculture and animal husbandry introduced new forms of land use and transformed entire biomes. With the transition to reproductive forms of economy, anthropogenic pressure on the environment is beco ming stronger.­ The­ clearing­ of­ forests­ for­ cultivation,­ firewood and building materials, the grazing of livestock­and­the­artificial­spread­of­new­plant­and­ animal species have led to profound chan ges and extensive openings of the landscape. The transformation from mobile hunter-gatherer societies to sedentary farmers in the Neolithic leads via the innovations of the metal ages directly to the globalized societies of the 21st century and their increasingly frenetic economy of growing consumption. Humans are more and more becoming victims of the successes of the Neolithic Revolution and overcoming environmental crises will require great efforts in the future. The current widespread sense of crisis, mainly but not only caused by the Corona pandemic,­ is­ causing­ the­ scientific­ community­ to­ turn its attention once again to the global processes of the relationship between humans and the environment. For historically oriented subjects, there is a need to explore the roots and history of destructive and unsustainable human consumption behaviour in relation to the environment. The question of how rationally motivated the conduct of human communities is has long been socially relevant. Therefore, research that examines the transformative phases in the evolution of human culture associated with past global climate changes has become particularly important in recent years. These include, for example, the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) 23– 19 ka­ BP,­ the­ Pleistocene/Holocene­ transition­ 12–9 ka­BP­and­the­cooling­event­at­8.2 ka­BP.­ We can assume that these had strong impacts on human communities and became the driving forces that triggered the corresponding changes in human society itself. However, it is clear that the response of social groups to climate change is not a simple and direct response to external challenges. Societies have their own behavioural models, traditions, energy and information networks anchored in complex worldview systems. Therefore, a particular society’s response to climatic events will be­specific­and­unique,­depending­on­many­factors – stereotypical behaviours, historical, cultural and ideological patterns. On the other hand, the direct consequences of past environmental disasters should not be discounted. In the case of drastic catastrophic changes such as floods, tsunamis, earthquakes and severe droughts, some areas may be completely depopulated Vita Antiqua No 12 2020 pp. 7-14 DOI: 10.37098/VA-2020-12-7-14 ISSN 2522-9419 (online) ISSN 2519-4542 (print)