The DOI matches its Crossref record; 89 of the 89 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Climatic, vegetation and cultural change in the eastern Mediterranean during the mid-Holocene environmental transition
Abstract
The eastern Mediterranean region witnessed changes in human culture of the highest importance between ~9000 and ~2500 cal. BP (7000—500 BC) and over the same time period was affected by very significant shifts in climate. Stable isotope data from lake and deep-sea sediment cores and from cave speleothems show an overall trend from a wetter to a drier climate during the mid Holocene. Superimposed on this trend were multicentennial oscillations in climate, with notable arid phases occurring around 5300—5000 BP, 4500—3900 BP, and 3100—2800 BP (all ages are expressed in calibrated/ calendar years). These phases coincide with major archaeological transitions across the eastern Mediterranean region (Chalcolithic to early Bronze Age, EBA to MBA, and LBA to Iron Age) implying that environmental stress or opportunity may have acted as a pacemaker for cultural change and re-organisation. We use 14 C and δ 13 C analysis of archaeobotanical samples from two protohistoric sites in Syria to illustrate the linkage between water availability, climate and cultural change during the third and second millennia BC. Specific societal responses to environmental change were not predictable in advance, but resulted instead from contingent processes involving antecedent conditions, human choice and adaptive strategies. Pollen analysis highlights how changes in climate were coupled to increasing human impacts to transform the region’s landscapes. Initial human-induced land-cover transformation commonly took place during Bronze Age times, sometimes coinciding with phases of drier climate, although the pattern and precise timing varied between sites. Changes in climate between the early and late Holocene thus helped to transform eastern Mediterranean landscape ecologies and human cultures, but in complex, non-deterministic ways.
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Citations
Cites
Persistent Solar Influence on North Atlantic Climate During the Holocene
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Cited by
Walker, M. J. C., Berkelhammer, M., Björck, S., Cwynar, L. C., Fisher, D. A., Long, A. J., Lowe, J. J., Newnham, R. M., Rasmussen, S. O., & Weiss, H. (2012) · Journal of Quaternary Science · doi:10.1002/jqs.2565 · Cited by 919
Global biomass burning: a synthesis and review of Holocene paleofire records and their controls
Marlon, J. R., Bartlein, P. J., Daniau, A.-L., Harrison, S. P., Maezumi, S. Y., Power, M. J., Tinner, W., & Vanniére, B. (2013) · Quaternary Science Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2012.11.029 · Cited by 438
Climate and the Late Bronze Collapse: New Evidence from the Southern Levant
LANGGUT, D., FINKELSTEIN, I., & LITT, T. (2013) · Tel Aviv · doi:10.1179/033443513x13753505864205 · Cited by 241
Nile Delta vegetation response to Holocene climate variability
Bernhardt, C. E., Horton, B. P., & Stanley, J.-D. (2012) · Geology · doi:10.1130/g33012.1 · Cited by 171
Younes, M. A., & Bakry, A. (2022) · African Archaeological Review · doi:10.1007/s10437-022-09487-5 · Cited by 19
Metadata
- Authors
- Roberts, N., Eastwood, W. J., Kuzucuoğlu, C., Fiorentino, G., & Caracuta, V.
- Venue
- The Holocene
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2011-01-25
- Volume
- 21
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 147-162
- ISSN
- 0959-6836 (ISSN-L)
- 1477-0911
- OpenAlex
- W2004584508
- Cited by
- 408
- References
- 89
- FWCI
- 24.35
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
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- Roberts, N., Eastwood, W. J., Kuzucuoğlu, C., Fiorentino, G., & Caracuta, V. (2011). Climatic, vegetation and cultural change in the eastern Mediterranean during the mid-Holocene environmental transition. The Holocene. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959683610386819
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Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
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