ACADEMIA Letters

Can archaeology inform the climate change debate?

Bernard Mulholland

COP26 in Glasgow has been an interesting event, but, is global warming the only imminent
environmental threat to humanity?
Archaeologists are creatures of habit, and as such they habitually record on archaeological
drawings the orientation of buildings in relation to magnetic north at the time of excavation.
During research towards The Early Byzantine Christian Church (Mulholland, 2014, p. 127-
155) the orientation of churches in the Levant in relation to magnetic north, as recorded on
archaeological drawings, was noted together with the Byzantine date, if any, provided by
inscriptions in mosaic pavements. This data provides some evidence that new-build churches
constructed within a few years of each other share the same orientation, and that through time
the alignment of new-build churches changed in concert. Why would new-build churches act
in concert this way? Nor is this observation restricted to the sixth century as recent research
has questioned the disparate alignment of Christian churches in the modern era (Hinton, 2007).
A number of Byzantine texts indicate that it fell to the local bishop to lay out the plan for
new church buildings, and the alignment would be determined by the ‘finger of God’. It is a
working assumption that this refers to a magnetic compass or lodestone, and, indeed, there is
a contemporary sixth century reference from Procopius of Caesarea to the captains of sailing
vessels relying on a magnetic compass to navigate at sea. The working hypothesis then is that
the orientation of new-build churches during the Early Byzantine period records the direction
of magnetic north at the time of construction. And so each of these church buildings arguably
serves as a palaeomagnetic record of the wandering magnetic north pole at the time they were
constructed, and they cumulatively provide an accurate record for the location of the magnetic
north pole over several centuries.
If this working hypothesis is correct then this record can augment and complement evi-
dence in Duff (1994, chapter 27) that the magnetic north pole has staggered around during the

Academia Letters, December 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Bernard Mulholland, bmulholland01@qub.ac.uk

Citation: Mulholland, B. (2021). Can archaeology inform the climate change debate? Academia Letters, Article
4385. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL4385.

1
last five hundred years of recorded history, and on occasions the Earth’s magnetic poles have
completely reversed, as happened 20,000 years ago (figure 27.7).
In the chapter ‘Chandler wobbles, tilts, and wanders’ (Mulholland, 2016) this working
hypothesis is expanded upon, and it is argued that the Earth’s magnetic poles are merely re-
acting to periodic reversals of the Sun’s magnetic poles, which recent research indicates have
been flip-flopping every ten years or so (Phillips, 2013). What effect does this flip-flopping
of the Sun’s magnetic poles have on the Earth, and the other planets orbiting it?
In simple terms, if the working hypothesis is correct, then the archaeological record re-
ferred to above suggests that the Earth’s magnetic north pole was located in the vicinity of
Japan during the sixth century, and well on its way to a full reversal, before moving back to-
wards the geographical North Pole again. The question then is what effect, if any, would result
from the Earth’s magnetic north pole shifting to the vicinity of Japan during the sixth cen-
tury? Could the Earth’s magnetic north pole migrate without causing any discernible physical
impact, or, would the Earth’s core and magnetic north pole migrate in sync with each other
such that they generate friction between the core and mantle leading to more dramatic physical
effects at the Earth’s surface? And, if so, what physical effects would result?
Of course this working hypothesis has to be tested before any conclusions can be reached,
but there is a coincidental global cooling event during A.D. 536 that warrants further research
– among others. Furthermore, both Holland (2016) and Newfield (2016) have argued that
this A.D. 536 event lasted for more than a century and, perhaps by coincidence, overlaps
with the Justinianic plague (A.D. 541-549) that decimated the human population during the
sixth century. What, if any, relationship there is between this global cooling event and the
Justinianic plague requires further research.
Whilst the working hypothesis described in this brief article concerns the sixth century, it
is important to note that it also applies universally to other time periods, and also, potentially,
points to future events as well. Moreover it provides an alternative explanation for these events
that challenge the cometary ‘dust veil’ hypothesis of Mike Baillie (2000), Góralski’s (2019)
climate mechanism, and for the alternative volcanic eruption and asteroid impactor theories
being championed by others.
The focus of COP26 in Glasgow is firmly focused on preventing global warming during
the twenty-first century, but there may be other potential threats to humanity that are currently
being ignored and which require further research.

Academia Letters, December 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Bernard Mulholland, bmulholland01@qub.ac.uk

Citation: Mulholland, B. (2021). Can archaeology inform the climate change debate? Academia Letters, Article
4385. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL4385.

2
References
Baillie, M. Exodus to Arthur: catastrophic encounters with comets. (B.T. Batsford Ltd, 2000).

Duff, D. Holmes’ principles of physical geography. (Chapman and Hall, 1994).

Góralski, B. The new look at the Earth’s climate mechanism and the Cosmo-geophysical
system of the Earth, (Library of the Historical Institute of the University of Warsaw, 2019).

Hinton, I. Churches face East, don’t they?, British Archaeology, May-June, 28-29 and 63
(2007).

Holland, T. (2016) ‘Islam’s empire born in the century without summer’, Sunday Times, 14
December, 7 (2016).

Mulholland, B. The Early Byzantine Christian Church. (Peter Lang, 2014).

Mulholland, B. ‘The man from MENSA’ – 1 of 600: Mensa research. (Independent Publish-
ing, 2016).

Newfield, T. The Global Cooling Event of the Sixth Century. Mystery No Longer? https://
www.historicalclimatology.com/features/something-cooled-the-world-in-the-sixth-century-
what-was-it (2016).

Phillips, T. The Sun’s magnetic field is about to flip. https://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/

the-suns-magnetic-field-is-about-to-flip/ (2013).

Academia Letters, December 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Bernard Mulholland, bmulholland01@qub.ac.uk

Citation: Mulholland, B. (2021). Can archaeology inform the climate change debate? Academia Letters, Article
4385. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL4385.