WRITTEN DOCUMENTS

            This study is dependent on the Greek and Latin writers for all of our written information on the Germanic tribes and environmental characteristics of the time (Pavese, 1992) .  The historian, by definition, studies and interprets written sources, where there are good sources the history can be detailed and quite accurate.  In turn, where the sources are poor the history cannot be much better (Reece, 1999) . 

The use of historical documentation is quintessential in understanding human behavior in the past, especially the distant past.  However, with the distant past, climate history must be central in historical reconstruction (Wigley et al., 1981) .  Changes in climate, including specific weather phenomenon, has and continues to affect human behavior and is often left out of historical compilations.  It is necessary for the historian to “retrodict” a rational reconstruction of history and compare it to actuality (Parry, 1981) .  It is through our understanding of the present that the past is better understood. 

It is also necessary to rebuild climate and economics in a time-space coincidence through the historical record (Parry, 1978) .  However, it is not possible to look at cultural history and climate change as a one-to-one relation.  The relationship between history and climate is a complex interplay among the various parts (Salvesen, 1992) .