The thesis aims to comprehensively describe climate fluctuations on the territory of Roman state and areas, that affected it. Temporaly it is limited between the start of common era and Early Middle Ages (between AD 1 and AD 600). It introduces climate fluctuations and serves as an overview of paleoclimatic research for archaeologists, historians and other interested researchers. The thesis is divided in three parts. The first one is a description of the history of climate research in the discussed period and a theoretical and historical view on the relationship between humankind and its environment. The second part introduces basics of the most important paleoclimatic archives, the mechanisms of paleorecord formation and explains how climate fluctuations are shown in the proxy data. In the third part the factors that affect climate changes in Europe, and particularly Mediterranean, are described. Climate fluctuations in the studied time and place are presented and discussed. This is followed by an overview of relevant literature in specific regions and comparison with the established timeline.
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