Explores how societies adapt to environmental changes across diverse regions and time scales, blending archaeological insights with contemporary perspectives. It unveils forces of conservatism and innovation, unraveling the dynamics of human response to unpredictable conditions and major historical transitions.

Bringing an archaeological eye to an examination of human response to unpredictable environmental conditions, this volume develops a picture of how societies perceive environmental risk, how they alter their behavior in the face of changing conditions, and under what challenges the most rapid and far-reaching changes in adaptation have taken place.