Glaciers, sediments, and pollen can be used to reconstruct the climate of the past. Beyond "nature's archive," other sources, such as diaries, travel notes, parish or monastery registers, and other written documents—known as the "society's archive"—contain reports and observations about local climates in bygone centuries.
Ice age, 500 years old? What am I missing?
Between 1300 CE and 1850 CE, there was a period of abnormally cool temperatures in some regions around the globe. This period was called the Little Ice Age