Impact of Tectonic Activity on Ancient Civilizations

Recurrent Shakeups, Tenacity, Resilience, and Change

By (author) Eric R. Force

Publication date:

27 August 2015

Length of book:

212 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

Dimensions:

236x162mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9781498514279

Impact of Tectonic Activity on Ancient Civilizations: Recurrent Shakeups, Tenacity, Resilience, and Change observes a remarkable spatial correspondence of zones of active tectonism (i.e. plate boundaries in the earth’s crust) with the most complex cultures of antiquity (“great ancient civilizations”), and continues to explore the meaning of this relationship from a number of independent angles. Due to resulting site damage, this distribution is counter-intuitive. Nevertheless, systematic differences between “tectonic” and “quiescent” cultures show that tectonic activity corresponded in antiquity with more cultural dynamism. Data of several independent types support direct cultural influence of tectonism, including vignettes of the impact of tectonism in specific ancient cultures. An expectation of change seems to be a feature such tectonic cultures shared, and led to an acceleration of development. These dynamics continue though much obscured in the present day.

List of Figures, Images, and Tables
Preface
Chapter 1 Introduction
Part I: “The Great Ancient Civilizations”
Chapter 2 Tectonic Footprints in the Ancient Hellenic World
Chapter 3 A Volcanic Connection in Iron-Age Italy: The Etruscans and Romans
Chapter 4 Ancient Tectonism in SW Asia, Impact on Judeo-Christian Traditions, and General Considerations on Religious Influences
Chapter 5 Filling in the Picture: Remaining GAC’s and a Qualitative Overview
Part II: Analysis and Separate Lines of Inquiry
Chapter 6 Quantification of the Spatial Relation via Probability Analysis
Chapter 7 Transects: Comparing Complexities of Ancient Cultures at a Continental Scale
Chapter 8 A Tendency toward Stasis in Tectonically Quiescent Ancient Civilizations
Chapter 9 Tectonic Context of Pre-Columbian Civilizations of the Western Hemisphere—an Independent “Experiment”
Chapter 10 Revelations from Some GAC Subsets
Chapter 11 Tectonics and Trade Route Propagation in Antiquity
Part III: Variations with Time
Chapter 12 Tectonic Environments of Complex Cultures just before and after the Period of Classical Antiquity
Chapter 13 Cultural Roles of Tectonism in the Modern World
Part IV: Possible Forms of a Solution
Chapter 14 Direct Influences of Active Tectonics on Cultural Development in Antiquity: A Summary of Five Lines of Evidence
Chapter 15 Possible Indirect Links between Ancient Civilizations and Active Tectonism
Chapter 16 An Adjunct Direct Factor: Unusual Springs along Active Faults
Chapter 17 Tectonics and Ancient Civilizations: Summary and Surmises
Postscript: Some Implications from the Bare Facts
Appendices
References
About the Author

Force posits that they [quakes] may have rocked the cradles of past civilizations. . . .[The author] pursues [his thesis] tenaciously and with considerable skill. . . .Force’s speculation remains an intriguing possibility.