Bayesian analyses question the role of climate in Chulmun demography.

ABSTRACT: We investigate the relationship between climatic and demographic events in Korea during the Chulmun period (10,000-3,500 cal. BP) by analyzing paleoenvironmental proxies and ¹⁴C dates. We focus on testing whether a cooling climate, and its potential negative impact on millet productivity around the mid 5th-millennium cal. BP, triggered the population decline suggested by the archaeological record. We employ a Bayesian approach that estimates the temporal relationship between climatic events and change-points in the rate of growth in human population as inferred from radiocarbon time frequency data. Our results do not support the climate-induced population decline hypothesis for three reasons. First, our Bayesian analyses suggest that the cooling event occurred after the start of

SUBMITTER: Kim H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8664936 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature