Winter Rain, Summer Rain
Adaptation, Climate Change, Resilience and the Indus Civilisation

 

TwoRains is an international and interdisciplinary ERC funded project investigating the interplay and dynamics of winter and summer rainfall systems, investigate the nature of human adaptation to the ecological conditions created by those systems. It is using the Indus Civilisation to ask the question “Does climate change really cause collapse?”

Rainfall systems are complex and inherently variable, yet they are important for understanding the past and planning for the future due to their potential for direct impact on food security and the sustainability of human settlement in particular areas. Humans can adapt their behaviour to a wide range of climatic and environmental conditions, so it is essential that we understand the degree to which human choices in the past, present and future are resilient and sustainable in the face of variable weather conditions, and when confronted with abrupt events of climate change.

TwoRains will investigate the resilience and sustainability of South Asia’s first complex society, and the most enigmatic of the early Old World civilisations, the Indus Civilisation (c.3000-1500 BC with an urban phase spanning c.2500-1900 BC). The Indus was unique amongst early civilisations in that it developed across a range of distinctive environmental and ecological zones, where westerly winter rains overlapped with the Indian Summer Monsoon (ISM).

For a brief explanation of the project from Cameron Petrie, please watch the following video: