-48

-46

-44

-42

-40

-38

-36

-34

-32

-30

-28

024681012141618

Air Temperature (°C) from Alley, R. B., 2004

PresentWarmPeriod

14,500 yrs BP, theworld begins to warmafter the glaciation.

“Last Glacial Maximum” or LGM: Peaked from 26,500yrs BP to 19,000 yrs BP. It was about 100,000 yrs.long. Characterized by a much lower sea level (120 mbelow current levels), cold temperatures (3.5°C to5.8°C cooler than today) and a very dry and dustyclimate.

8200 yrs BPTemp drops 3.3°C in20 yrs in Greenland,cool temps last 150yrs. This marks theend of the Pre-PotteryNeolithic “B” period.

Sahara is a savanna or prairieSahara is a desert

Younger Dryas,

12,800 11,500

Sahara is a savanna or prairie Sahara is a desert

Late Uruk period,cuneiform script begins. Roman Warm

Period, this marksthe beginning ofmodern civilizationand written worldhistory

10002000300040005000600070008000900010,00011,00012,00013,00014,00015,00016,00017,00018,000

Neolithic Chalcolithic Bronze Age Iron Age

-10

-8

-6

-4

-2

0

2

4

020004000600080001000012000140001600018000

Deg.

C

Years BP

Vostok, Antarctica Air Temperature, relative to present, Petit, et al, 1999, Nature

Holocene Thermal Optimum

Agriculture begins in theLevant region of SW Asia(Syria and Israel) by theNatufians. Possibly theearliest “sedentary”culture.

Climate and Human Civilization over the last 18,000 years

Years BP0

Paleolithic

Earliest dates for GobekliTepe in Anatolia (SouthernTurkey), this settlement isoften considered thebeginning of the Neolithicperiod.

Beginning of the NeolithicB culture. Houses arerectangular, with plasterfloors. Moredomesticated animals.

7400 BP, Tartariatablets, simplewriting

19,000

Temperature: www.scotese.com/climate.htmCO2: R. A. Berner, 2001, Am J of Science, vol 301, p 182-204

Immediate right: This is the monthlyglobal temperature anomaly data fromDr. Roy Spencer and Dr. John Christy,Global Hydrology and Climate Center, U ofAlabama. We only have true globalatmospheric data since 1979.

Prior to that, surface readings are used toestimate global temperatures. Theseestimates (as anomalies) are shown, since1850, in the far right graph. There is farless warming in the southern hemisphere.

Black Sea fills

Gobekli Tepe, oldestcity/monument known

Gobekli Tepe,abandoned anddeliberately buried

Gobekli Tepedeliberately buried

Catalhoyuk a city of 8,000exists near present dayCumra Konya, Turkey.They were agriculturaland domesticated animals

-200

-150

-100

-50

0

50

100

1874 1894 1914 1934 1954 1974 1994 2014

mm

sea

leve

l cha

nge

Year

Mean Sea Level, mm, 1874 to 2014

Recent sea level data from CSIRO (Australia) and Church and White

Andy May 11/9/2015

PresentWarmPeriod

MinoanWarmPeriod

RomanWarmPeriod

MedievalWarmPeriod

http://www.lakepowell.net/sciencecenter/paleoclimate.htm

http://www.schauungen.de/forum/index.php?id=15102Robert Rohde

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6bekli_Tepe

Pyramid of Djoserconstructed by Imhotepin Egypt

Homo floresiensisgoes extinct,Morwood, Soejono,2004

Black Sea fills andconnects toMediterraneanaccording to Ryanet al, 2003

Uruk period begins, thebeginning of large scalecities

Ubaid period begins, largescale irrigation of cropsbegins and cotton isdomesticated in India

5.9 kiloyear event, Saharabecomes a desert. Causesa huge migration fromcentral Africa to the Nilevalley. This event endedthe Ubaid empire.

ActualTemp°C

ΔpresentTemp

Earliest Harappa (India)cities

In China (Jiahu culture) theearliest farming (millet andrice) settlements in China,Jiahu culture, also earliestChinese writing and theearliest wine.

Earliest Mayan citiesin Central America

Severe drought and warstrikes Middle East, endsBronze age civilization.

Pottery beingmade inChina, Wu,Science, 2012

Earliest Indianagriculture, IndusValley

Jericho, Israelioccupied Palestine,founded. The worldsoldest continuouslyoccupied city.

Akkadian empirecollapses

Bond Events, Bond, G.; et al. (1997). "A Pervasive Millennial-Scale Cycle in North Atlantic Holocene and Glacial Climates". Science 278 (5341): 1257–1266.1234567

Rice cultivation inChina??

Late GlacialInterstadial

Years BP x 1000

8

Year without asummer (1816)

Great famine of 1315

Maya Golden Age, itcollapses suddenly in1100 BP

Graph of reconstructed temperature (blue), CO2 (green), and dust (red)from the Vostok ice core for the past 420,000 years, notice the 100,000year cycle of temperatures

http://www.drroyspencer.com/wp-content/uploads/UAH_LT_1979_thru_October_2015_v6.png

Stonehenge built

Little IceAge

Earliest knownphonetic alphabet

4.2 KyrEvent

GreekDark Age European

Dark Age