Until now it is unknown how global warming will change landscapes. We neither know whether it will be warmer or colder, moister or drier, nor how this will affect the drainage patterns and hydrological regime of landscapes. This question is of paramount importance in the desert belts, which are most sensitive to change. Is it possible to mitigate the impacts of global warming?

Reconstructions of past climate and landscape changes are a key for the assessment of the impacts of the current climate change, assuming that what already happened might happen again. But this approach also has two main challenges: firstly it is difficult to distinguish between climatically and anthropogenically induced changes, and secondly to differentiate between local, regional, and universal control factors. Climate research faces the problem that different archives often lead to different reconstructions, and that it is extremely difficult to conclude for reason-and-effect relationships.

The solution could be a systematic comparison: of different archives, but also of different locations. Jordan is characterised by a great variety of climate zones, bedrocks, and landscape units, which make the country a promising area for the comparison of archives. Soils, paleosols, and sediments are well-suited to correlate different climate reconstructions and to connect climate with landscape change. As well, the impact of human land use is reflected by soils. Although this high number of variables makes it difficult to use soils and sediments as primary archive of climate change impacts, their strength lies in the combination with other records.

The presentation will present a comparative selection of different soils, paleosols, and sediments in northern Jordan and discuss their paleoenvironmental significance.

Medieval Mamluk Damascus was famous for its achievements in inlaid and engraved metalwork. It was not only admired locally, but also in Cairo, the Yemen, ánd the west. Western travellers were in awe of their quality and abundance. Curiously, a number of Mamluk metalwork vessels from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries mix eastern and western decoration. One such object is a basin in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, which can be related to a Sicilian owner. It combines a Latin inscription with Arabic texts and other Mamluk-style decoration. This paper (lecture) will address the stylistic features of both Mamluk and stylistically combined metalwork objects. Moreover, it will focus on the roles of individual (western) patrons in the 14th and 15th centuries and that of the open market.