Alaskan Volcanoes and Mediterranean History

This lecture will discuss current research on a previously unknown or not well understood short term driver of climate forcing/climate change in Mediterranean history, explosive volcanic eruptions. In particular, high north latitude volcanic eruptions would appear to be especially important, and by examining the sensitive annual flood of the Nile river, dependent on the East African Monsoon, we can show the direct connection between eruptions and short term societal impacts not only on eastern Mediterranean societies in antiquity but globally as well. The problems of the integration of climate and historical data and the interaction of cyclical and long term climatic change with short term climate shocks will also be discussed.

Joseph Manning, William K. & Marilyn Milton Simpson Professor of Classics & History, Yale University specializes in Hellenistic history with particular focus on the legal and economic history of Ptolemaic Egypt. His interests lie in governance, reforms of the state, legal institutions, the formation of markets, and the impact of new economic institutions (coinage, banking) on traditional socio-economic patterns in the ancient world. He is also deeply concerned with Papyrology, the interpretation of ancient sources, and bringing to bear the historical social sciences, particularly Economic Sociology and economic and legal theory, to ancient history.

PAW’s 2020-2021 Fellow

Please RSVP to blleavey@princeton.edu for Zoom Link