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Historical Evidence of Pre-modern Climate, 100BC-1500AD

DARMC Scholarly Data Series 2015-2: 
McCormick, M. et. al., "Draft 1: Western European Climate from Written Sources, 1000-1425 AD." 

 

DARMC Scholarly Data Series 2012-2: 
M McCormick et al. 2012 - "Historical Precipitation in Central Europe, AD 1013 - 1504"
Climate variations influenced the agricultural productivity, health risk, and conflict level of preindustrial societies. Discrimination between environmental and anthropogenic impacts on past civilizations, however, remains difficult because of the paucity of high-resolution paleoclimatic evidence. We present tree ring–based reconstructions of central European summer precipitation and temperature variability over the past 2500 years. Recent warming is unprecedented, but modern hydroclimatic variations may have at times been exceeded in magnitude and duration. Wet and warm summers occurred during periods of Roman and medieval prosperity. Increased climate variability from ~250 to 600 C.E. coincided with the demise of the western Roman Empire and the turmoil of the Migration Period. Such historical data may provide a basis for counteracting the recent political and fiscal reluctance to mitigate projected climate change. The present geodatabase presents the details of the historical records which were used to test the accuracy of the AMJ precipitation record reconstructed from the dendrodata. See Büntgen et al. 2011, 579 and Figure 3A; and Supporting Online Material, 5.

DARMC Scholarly Data Series 2012-1: 
McCormick, M. Harper, K. More, A.F. Gibson, K. 2012 - "Historical Evidence of Roman and Post-Roman Climate, 100 BC to 800 AD."
Updated 8/6/2014 - Formatting Changes Abstract: Growing scientific evidence from modern climate science is loaded with implications for the environmental history of the Roman Empire and its successor societies. The written and archaeological evidence, although richer than commonly realized, is unevenly distributed over time and space. A first synthesis of what the written records and multiple natural archives (multi-proxy data) indicate about climate change and variability across western Eurasia from c. 100 B.C. to 800 A.D. confirms that the Roman Empire rose during a period of stable and favorable climatic conditions, which deteriorated during the Empire's third-century crisis. A second, briefer period of favorable conditions coincided with the Empire's recovery in the fourth century; regional differences in climate conditions parallel the diverging fates of the eastern and western Empires in subsequent centuries. Climate conditions beyond the Empire's boundaries also played an important role by affecting food production in the Nile valley, and by encouraging two major migrations and invasions of pastoral peoples from Central Asia. This geodatabase of climate events documented in and around the Roman Empire and its successor societies in ancient and early medieval written sources was created by the DARMC contributors on the basis of the secondary and primary sources cited in the geodatabase. It is not surely not exhaustive, but we hope that as such, it will already be useful to other researchers. We welcome additional evidence and corrections.

Health

DARMC Scholarly Data Series 2017-2:  

J. Kyle Harper, Michael McCormick, Alexander F. More, Sonja Eliason, "Summary Geodatabase of Epidemics, 312-749AD."
This summary database provides basic geographic and archaeological information on 219 records of epidemics between 312 and 749 AD, obtained from various primary and secondary sources (column V). Please cite the original source when using this data.

Summary Geodatabase of Shipwrecks

MAPS Scholarly Data Series 2021-1:
Michael McCormick, Julia Strauss, Alexander F. More, Andrew I. Wilson, et al. Summary Geodatabase of Shipwrecks,1500BCE to 1500CE, Status 2020. Mapping Past Societies, Initiative for the Science of the Human Past, Harvard University, Cambridge MA 02138.

This layer includes data from the following publications:
1) J. Strauss, A. I. Wilson, M. Flohr (2017). OxREP Shipwrecks Database. Version 2.1. 
Accessed March 2017. Data assembled by Dr. Julia Strauss, “Shipwrecks Database,” coordinated by Andrew Wilson, in The Oxford Roman Economy Project, based on Dr. Strauss’ Ph.D. dissertation “Roman Cargoes: Underwater Evidence from the East”(London 2007) and further updated by Andrew Wilson. MAPS gratefully acknowledges the gracious collaboration of our Oxford Roman Economy Project colleagues. The Oxford materials have been synthesized with the Harvard materials to the extent feasible; any errors arising from that process are the responsibility of the MAPS team. Where the two projects yielded divergent information, e.g., in summary descriptions of cargoes, that divergent information has been noted accordingly.

2) A. F. More, E. G. Turnator, S. Pardo Sánchez, J. Kirsten Ataoguz, K. L. Gibson, L. Grigoli, B. Maione-Downing,  R. Reich, E. Turnator, J. Wang, P. Ivanova, and M. McCormick. 2017 - Summary Geodatabase of Shipwrecks: Status 2013 
Data assembled by Alexander F. More, Michael McCormick et al. This summary database provides basic geographic and archaeological information on 1238 shipwrecks documented by A.J. Parker 1992 and subsequent publications. The geodatabase includes, where available, concise information about main cargoes, ship or wreck distribution sizes, ship gear, and essential bibliography. The user should refer to the original publications for full details. This file represents the state of the geodatabase in July 2013. Our team continues to work toward future updates of the geodatabase of shipwrecks.

ABSTRACT
This summary database provides basic geographic and archaeological information on 1368 shipwrecks documented in A.J. Parker 1992 as well as several other subsequent research publications. The geodatabase includes, where available, concise information about main cargoes, ship or wreck distribution sizes, ship gear, and essential bibliography.  This version of the geodatabase of shipwrecks merges prior DARMC and OxREP geodatabases into one, and lists the same shipwreck on one row with both Harvard and Oxford data on either side of a Parker number (highlighted in yellow) when available. The user should refer to the original publications for full details. This file represents the state of the geodatabase in July 2021. Our team continues to work toward future updates of the geodatabase of shipwrecks.  Additional wrecks, information and corrections will be received gratefully at darmc@harvard.edu. 

DARMC Scholarly Data Series 2017-1: 
M McCormick, A. F. More, E. G. Turnator et al. 2017 - Summary Geodatabase of Shipwrecks: Status 2013
Abstract: This summary database provides basic geographic and archaeological information on 1238 shipwrecks documented by A.J. Parker 1992 and subsequent publications. The geodatabase includes, where available, concise information about main cargoes, ship or wreck distribution sizes, ship gear, and essential bibliography. The user should refer to the original publications for full details. This file represents the state of the geodatabase in July 2013. Our team continues to work toward future updates of the geodatabase of shipwrecks. Additional information, corrections, and data about new wrecks will be received gratefully at darmc@harvard.edu.

DARMC Scholarly Data Series 2013-1: 
M McCormick, A. F. More, K. L. Gibson, E. G. Turnator et al. 2013 - Summary Geodatabase of Shipwrecks: Status 2008 [- Alternate Link-]
Abstract: This summary database provides basic geographic and archaeological information on 1064 shipwrecks documented by A.J. Parker 1992 and subsequent publications. The geodatabase includes, where available, concise information about main cargoes, ship or wreck distribution sizes, ship gear, and essential bibliography. The user should refer to the original publications for full details. This file represents the state of the geodatabase in April 2008, when M. McCormick 2012 "Movements and markets in the first millennium: information, containers and shipwrecks" was sent to press; a small number of wrecks were added down to 2010. Our team continues to work toward future updates of the geodatabase of shipwrecks. Additional information, corrections, and data about new wrecks will be received gratefully at darmc@harvard.edu.

Roman Economic Data

DARMC Scholarly Data Series 2016-5:  
K. Harper 2016. Database of Prices, Wages, and Rents for Roman Egypt from the First through Seventh Centuries AD
The worksheets herein present data on wheat prices, land prices, wages and rents (in that order) from Roman Egypt from the first through the seventh centuries AD, accompanying the article by Dr. Harper, “People, Plagues, and Prices in the Roman World: The Evidence from Egypt,” Journal of Economic History 76 (2016), 803-39.

Roman and Medieval Coins and Precious Metals

DARMC Scholarly Data Series 2016-4: 
U. Werz, 2016. Geodatabase of Early Imperial Countermarked Coins in the Rhine Area
This geodatabase presents data first published in U. Werz 2009, Gegenstempel auf frühkaiserzeitlichen Aesprägungen im Rheingebiet - Grundlagen, Systematik, Typologie. The dataset contains detailed information regarding countermark chronology, the host coins, and longitude and latitude of finds. 

DARMC Scholarly Data Series 2015-1: 
R. Hobbs, L. Grigoli, B. Maione-Downing, R. Salazar-Rey, E. Turnator, 2015. Late Roman precious metal deposits AD 200-700 
This database presents data first published in Richard Hobbs 2006, Late Roman precious metal deposits, c. AD 200-700: changes over time and space (Archaeopress). The Database contains a comprehensive inventory and analysis of the changing patterns of precious metal deposits (coins and artifacts) across western Eurasia. This database presents data primarily from Hobbs 2006, as compiled by Dr. Hobbs in the database he generously communicated to DARMC, with some additions by DARMC contributors. 

DARMC Scholarly Data Series 2013-6: 
S. Coupland 2013. Geodatabase of Carolingian Coin Hoards: AD 751-987 (Version 1.1) 
This geodatabase is a digital edition of the data provided in Simon Coupland's 2011 "A Checklist of Carolingian Coin Hoards 751-987," which gives a comprehensive summary description of hoards containing more than three coins issued by the Carolingian dynasty and found in Europe up to the date of publication. DARMC contributors have expanded Dr. Coupland's work by adding geographic coordinates to hoard findspots and coding numeric fields to facilitate the spatial and quantitative analysis of this data. This dataset is not exhaustive of the information from Coupland 2011 and careful attention should be paid to the additional notes in the original study.

UPDATE: Version 1.1 of this study contains updated and corrected geocodes for selected sites. We are grateful for the assistance of Simon Coupland and Johan Ahlfeldt in making these improvements. As this corrected dataset supercedes all previous releases, study version 1.0 will no longer be available for download.

Geodatabase of Rural Anglo-Saxon Settlements

DARMC Scholarly Data Series 2014-1: 
M Keil and H Hamerow 2014 - Geodatabase of Rural Anglo-Saxon Settlements 
Abstract: This database presents archaeological evidence of Anglo-Saxon rural settlements in England in a format suitable for spatial analysis and visualization. It includes details about the presence of archaeological features, site occupation dates, and selected bibliographic information for 84 sites. The database was created entirely from the data presented in Hamerow 2012, which should be consulted for further information and full bibliographic references. Corrections and additions will be gratefully received by email at darmc@harvard.edu. We are grateful to Prof. Hamerow for her advice and support; all errors or shortcomings are of course our responsibility.

Roman Road Network (version 2008)

DARMC Scholarly Data Series 2013-5: 
M McCormick et al. 2013 - Roman Road Network (version 2008) [Shapefile] 
Abstract:This file provides a portable, digital version of the Roman roads identified in the Barrington Atlas, which users can visualize in combination with their own historical data.

France: Diocese and Archdiocese Boundaries ca. 1000

DARMC Scholarly Data Series 2013-4: 
L Grigoli and B Maione-Downing 2013 - France: Diocese and Archdiocese Boundaries ca. 1000 
Abstract: This shapefile represents our best current approximation of the boundaries and provincial (or archidiocesan) organization of the bishoprics of the territory of modern France as they existed ca. 1000. The contributors have drawn on the diocesan and archdiocesan (provincial) boundaries as reported in Parisse and Leuridan 1994. 

Geodatabase of Ancient Ports and Harbors (version 1.1)

DARMC Scholarly Data Series 2013-2: 
A de Graauw 2014 - Geodatabase of Ancient Ports and Harbors (version 1.1) 
Abstract: This database presents work done by Arthur de Graauw to collect, identify and locate ancient harbours and ports. It is based on a study of existing documentation and does not aim to find unknown ports. The result is a list of around 2900 ancient ports based on the writings of 66 ancient authors and a few modern authors, incl. the Barrington Atlas. A harbour is a place where ships can seek shelter. In the concept of "shelter" must be included anchorages, landing places on beaches and ports with structures like, access channels, breakwaters, jetties, landing stages, quays, warehouses for storage of commodities and equipment, shipsheds and slipways for ships. Shelters of interest for this catalogue include all places which may have been used by seafarers sailing over long distances. This means that shelters for e.g. local fishermen who may have landed their boats on the beach in front of their homes, are of lesser interest. Only maritime harbours are listed, but some river ports that could be reached by deep sea ships are also included.

UPDATE: Version 1.1 of this study brings this geodatabase into line with the places listed in "Ancient Ports and Harbors: The Catalog" 4th ed.

Downloadable Geodatabases

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Creative Commons License


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. In the context of the DARMC project, this means that you are free to take and build upon our work in your own scholarship, as long as you acknowledge DARMC and the original content creators as the source of the data. You are free to remix and rehost this data, and to release derived products

DARMC is committed to making spatial-historical data freely available to the academic community; under no circumstances may you charge money for access to this data.