date: Tue, 27 Jun 2000 13:57:05 +0100 (BST) from: Bryan Graham subject: Re: Temperature Reconstructions to: Keith Briffa Dear Keith, Thanks for the response. I am primarily interested in the Mediterrean economy (Italy/Greece/Spain) and to a lesser extent France/England. I suppose some sort of "mean" summer temperature would be most useful (from 1000 B.C. or so to present). We economists rarely have the luxury of using data that is actually true, so I am relatively content with a noisy proxy series...as long as it is, broadly speaking, informative about the period of interest. One feature of pre-industrial models of economic development is the theoretical prediction that the mode of economic organization can cycle back and forth between "subsistence" and "market" forms. Of course this raises the question of what is the propogation mechanism for inter-equilibria transition. I suspect climate may be PART of the story, as well as endogenous economic factors. At anyrate I would be most interest in any suggestions/data, that fall within the rough range mentioned above. I think there has been an underutilization of recent results in the science literature ("paleopollution","temperature reconstructions" etc.) by economic historians. To the extent that we study the ancient economy we rely are textual evidence and to a lesser extent archeological evidence...however, its seems to me, that the climate/pollution literature has much to offer. Hope all is well, thanks for your considered reponse, and I look forward to hearing from you. Bryan On Tue, 27 Jun 2000, Keith Briffa wrote: > Dear Bryan > there are a number of temperature proxy series in various parts of the > world that span your period of interest. Unfortunately, together they do > not really constitute a good basis for producing an amalgamated record of > 'Hemispheric mean' temperatures. This is because they each have > peculiarities and uncertainties in interpretation and dating , and poor > spatial coverage. If you could give me a little more detail of your > specific interest and geographical and seasonal foci, I might be able to > help more. > very best wishes > Keith > > At 11:21 AM 6/13/00 +0100, you wrote: > >Dear Dr. Briffa, > > > >Would you be able to provide me with the data you used to construct the > >figures and tables in your recent Science piece ("Seeing the wood from the > >trees", SCIENCE v. 284 n. 5416)? I prefer ascii or excel format. > > > >I am an economic historian with an interest in the links between climate > >and economic development; your temperature reconstructions are very > >interesting to me. > > > >Also are you aware of any northern hemisphere temperature reconstructions > >that would encompass the bulk of the Greco-Roman period, say from 1000 > >B.C. onward? Or is your proxy going back to 1 A.D. in the Science piece > >the longest reconstruction of summer temperatures currently available? > > > >I appreciate your assistance and look forward to hearing from you. All the > >best. > > > >Bryan S. Graham > >St. Antony's College > >Oxford OX2 6JF > >England > > -- > Dr. Keith Briffa, Climatic Research Unit, University of East Anglia, > Norwich, NR4 7TJ, United Kingdom > Phone: +44-1603-592090 Fax: +44-1603-507784 > >