Returning to Climate, Crops, and Crisis: Rosie Bishop back at CAS

How did prehistoric farmers cope when the climate changed? Rosie Bishop’s project Climate, Crops, and Crisis? set out to answer that question, exploring how ancient communities adapted their farming strategies - and how these adaptations can still be recognised today. She has now returned to the Centre for Advanced Study for a short-term fellowship, focusing on the rich datasets generated by the project and building on the insights that emerged from her first CAS year.

The 2024/2025 project asked deceptively simple questions: how resilient were prehistoric farmers, and how can adaptation be detected in the archaeological record? Bringing together archaeology, palaeoclimate research, and climate modelling, the project spanned regions across Europe from 4000 to 0 BC. Its main outputs included both a practical framework for identifying agricultural risk management and a nuanced understanding of how farming practices varied across time and place. “One of the main outcomes of the project was a framework for identifying agricultural risk management in the archaeological record,” Bishop notes, a tool she is now applying and refining during her fellowship.

Digging Deeper into Data

“It’s great to be back in CAS again!” she says. The short-term fellowship allows her to dig deeper into archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological material and to continue working closely with colleagues Amy Bogaard, Ingrid Mainland, and Sean Denham. “During this fellowship, I am focusing mainly on data analysis and interpretation of the cereal crop and arable weed data from the project,” she explains. These tiny plant remains, often invisible to the untrained eye, can reveal how crops were processed and cultivated. Bishop is analysing shifts in crop processing and husbandry practices over time, comparing findings from Norway and Scotland, and exploring how changes in arable farming were linked to pastoral strategies. “I am also examining changes in arable practices in relation to changes in pastoral farming,” she adds, highlighting the integrated approach of the project.

She is particularly excited about testing and expanding the framework developed during the CAS year. “I am looking for archaeological case-studies to apply the agricultural risk management framework that we created during the year at CAS. We hope that it can be applied to other geographical areas and time-periods in the future,” she says. By applying it to different regions and periods, the framework can reveal patterns of resilience that were previously invisible.

Collaboration and New Directions

The short-term fellowship has also opened new avenues for research. “Interdisciplinary collaborations are leading to synergies between the different primary datasets for past farming practices. This is helping to develop the discipline and is providing opportunities for new research directions,” Bishop observes. By combining plant and animal remains with climate reconstructions and modelling, the team is beginning to see how prehistoric farmers adapted in sophisticated and region-specific ways - sometimes changing crops, other times adjusting livestock management, or combining strategies to mitigate risk.

The CAS environment itself plays a crucial role in enabling this kind of work. “The beautiful surroundings, well-equipped environment, supportive and friendly staff and wider academic community at CAS provide a stimulating and supportive environment in which to conduct my research,” Bishop says. She points to the rare opportunity to spend extended periods focused entirely on one project. “The opportunity to spend an extended and dedicated period of time on a single project and the outstanding opportunity to work so closely together with international scholars is uniquely valuable,” she adds.
 

Looking Ahead

Reflecting on her broader research journey, Bishop credits CAS with helping her scale up her own work. “My time at CAS has provided a key part in the progression of my research career. As PI on the 'Climate, Crops and Crisis' project, I have been able to scale-up my own research by applying novel methods to datasets in my specialism and to develop new frameworks to interpret the data. I have also had the invaluable opportunity to learn from more experienced colleagues, gain experience of leading a research project and to work with an interdisciplinary team of international scholars on broad questions of wider societal relevance.”

Looking ahead, Bishop emphasises the relevance of this research beyond archaeology. By revealing how prehistoric communities navigated climate instability through adaptive farming strategies, her work contributes to broader conversations about sustainability, risk management, and human resilience. “Understanding how people in the past managed environmental change can give us perspective on challenges today,” she says. Her return to CAS is not just a continuation of her project, but a consolidation of a research approach that links deep history, interdisciplinary collaboration, and real-world relevance - strengthening the Centre’s profile as a hub for innovative scholarship.