As Mediterranean societies prepare for the impacts of climate change over the next few decades, a case study to inform their future resilience is associated with one of the defining events in world history: the emergence of Islam in the 7th century, the subsequent Arab (and later Berber) conquests of the southern and western Mediterranean, their associated population movements and the environmental adaptations that enabled these new societies to flourish. The introduction of new forms of agriculture that transformed the economies of the conquered regions has been previously framed as the “Green Revolution”. Moving beyond the limited focus of earlier research, with its restricted spatial and chronological scope, this project adopts an integrated ecological approach, encompassing plants, animals and soils, from production through to consumption, to compare the impact and legacy of environmental transformations associated with long-term societal change in the western Mediterranean (peninsular Iberia, the Balearic Islands and Morocco), beyond the initial Arab/Berber conquests.
Adopting a broader chronological span, from the century before the conquests through to the century after the dissolution of the last Islamic polity in Iberia, the transition from Islamic to Christian regimes in Iberia is compared with the persistence of Islamic polities in northwest Africa. This enables relationships between environmental transformations and sequences of political and demographic change to be effectively contextualised.Our findings are also situated within the broader context of medieval Europe and the broader Islamic world, which must be understood as an inter-linked socio-ecological system. In this way, it will finally be possible to contextualise the true impact and legacy of the “Green Revolution” in the western Mediterranean, and to inform debates on future resilience at a time of changing climate. This wholly novel understanding will be achieved with five key questions, the first three defining the project’s major chronological divisions:
1. ‘The Making of the far Islamic West’: How did environments in Iberia and Morocco change during the Arab/Berber conquests of the 7th-8th c. and the fracturing of the far Islamic West into states? How significant were the initial conquests as catalysts?
2. ‘The Age of Empires’: How did environments in these areas change during the period of Islamic state consolidation in the 9th-12th c?
3. ‘The Divided West’: How did environments change during political fragmentation into the Islamic and Christian western Mediterranean in the 13th-15th c? How significant were the Christian conquests in Iberia as drivers of adaptation and innovation? What was the long-term legacy of Islamic regimes in Morocco?
4. What role did successive population changes play in the transmission of plants, animals, environmental technologies and diet?
5. What role did climate play in relation to environmental change in each case study region at this time, and how did societies adapt to fluctuations in temperature, aridity, and water stress?
Our expected outcomes, after six years, are to have:
1) Redefined our understanding of the “Green Revolution” and the long-term relationship between cultural and environmental change in the western Mediterranean.
2) Gathered substantial new archaeological datasets for Iberia and Morocco, and secondary datasets of historical sources and data from medieval Europe and the broader Islamic world.
3) Assessed the role of migration in the dissemination of plants, animal stock and agrarian innovations, and how these occur in relation to changes in diet and land use though the integration of multiple scientific data.
4) Demonstrated there was probably no single, uniform process, but rather one that was lengthy, unequal, with multiple and diverse local variations in relation to different social and environmental contexts.
5) Demonstrated that changes in environmental exploitation were not simply the replication of techniques from one area in another, but included innovations connected with changing cultural contexts.
6) Connected these changes through a robust chronology with climatic fluctuations.
7) Developed an accessible case study for mapping future resilience.
8) Trained a group of early career researchers to develop interdisciplinary skills and interests often sit within closed disciplinary boundaries and provide them with opportunities to develop new lines of enquiry.
9) Demonstrated the EU’s leadership in fostering international collaboration leading to research synergies that draw on archaeology’s unique strengths – interdisciplinarity and long-term perspectives.
