Best of 2024 … so far: Solar storms, ice cores and nuns’ teeth: the new science of history
Scientists are revolutionizing historical research by using advanced molecular techniques to extract information from physical remains like ice cores, teeth, and ancient DNA. These methods are revealing previously unknowable details about the past, from tracking individual movements across continents to understanding major catastrophes like the 536 AD climate disaster and Justinianic plague.
Summary
This Guardian Long Read explores how cutting-edge scientific techniques are transforming the field of history by enabling researchers to extract unprecedented information from physical remains of the past. The piece begins with examples like mass spectrometry confirming Herodotus' accounts of Scythians making quivers from human skin, demonstrating how science can validate ancient texts. The author describes a fundamental shift from traditional text-based historical methods to material-based approaches using DNA sequencing, isotope analysis, and paleoproteomics. These techniques allow historians to track individual movements across vast distances and time periods, such as following a single girl from Germany to Denmark in the Bronze Age or identifying walrus skulls from Canada found in medieval Kiev. The article extensively covers the scientific investigation of the 536 AD catastrophe, when volcanic eruptions caused global cooling followed by the Justinianic plague. By combining evidence from ice cores, tree rings, and ancient DNA, scientists have reconstructed this period as potentially one of history's greatest disasters, though debate continues about its actual impact on civilizations. The new methods are particularly valuable for studying marginalized groups absent from written records, such as the medieval German nun whose teeth contained lapis lazuli particles, suggesting women's hidden roles in manuscript illumination. However, the piece also addresses tensions between scientific and humanistic approaches to history, with some scholars cautioning against overemphasizing environmental factors while others embrace what Harvard's Michael McCormick calls a scientific revolution comparable to Galileo's telescope.
Key Insights
- Mass spectrometry analysis of Scythian leather goods confirmed that Herodotus was correct about warriors making quivers from human skin, validating his previously doubted historical accounts
- Scientists can now track the movement of individuals across continents and centuries using stable isotope analysis of bones and teeth, revealing stories like a Bronze Age girl who moved from Germany to Denmark
- Ice core analysis reveals that 536 AD marked the coldest decade in 2000 years, caused by massive volcanic eruptions that preceded the devastating Justinianic plague
- Paleogeneticists have identified bubonic plague DNA in 6th century remains across Europe, showing the Justinianic plague was far more geographically widespread than written sources indicated
- A medieval German nun's teeth contained lapis lazuli particles, suggesting women played a much larger role in creating illuminated manuscripts than the mere 1% attribution rate in signed works would suggest
- The collapse of the Western Roman Empire can be tracked through lead pollution levels in ice cores, which show silver mining crashed in the 3rd century and didn't recover for 400 years
- Harvard medievalist Michael McCormick argues that history today is in the same revolutionary position as astronomy was when Galileo first used his telescope
- Critics like Merle Eisenberg argue that despite identifying the plague pathogen and climate disasters, there's insufficient evidence that these factors actually caused major political collapses, comparing it to 'a murder mystery with no body'
Topics
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