The Impact of Rapid Climate Change on Prehistoric Societies during the Holocene in the Eastern Mediterranean

Bernhard Weninger; Lee Clare; Eelco Rohling; Ofer Bar-Yosef; Utz Böhner; Mihael Budja; Manfred Bundschuh; Angelica Feurdean; Hans Georg Gebe; Olaf Jöris; Jörg Linstädter; Paul Mayewski; Tobias Mühlenbruch; Agathe Reingruber; Gary Rollefson; Daniel Schyle; Laurens Thissen; Henrieta Todorova; Christoph Zielhofer

doi:10.4312/dp.36.2

Authors

Bernhard Weninger Universität zu Köln, Institut für Ur- und Frühgeschichte, Radiocarbon Laboratory, Köln
Lee Clare Universität zu Köln, Institut für Ur- und Frühgeschichte, Radiocarbon Laboratory, Köln
Eelco Rohling School of Ocean and Earth Science, National Oceanography Centre, Southampton
Ofer Bar-Yosef Department of Anthropology, Harvard University, Peabody Museum, Cambridge, US
Utz Böhner Niedersächsisches Landesamt für Denkmalpflege, Hannover
Mihael Budja University of Ljubljana, Department of Archaeology, Ljubljana
Manfred Bundschuh Universität zu Köln, Institut für Ur- und Frühgeschichte, Radiocarbon Laboratory, Köln
Angelica Feurdean University of Oxford, School of Geography and the Environment, Oxford
Hans Georg Gebe Freie Universität Berlin, Institut für Vorderasiatische Altertumskunde, Berlin
Olaf Jöris Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum Mainz, Forschungsbereich Altsteinzeit, Neuwied
Jörg Linstädter Universität zu Köln, Institut für Ur- und Frühgeschichte, Radiocarbon Laboratory, Köln
Paul Mayewski Climate Change Institute, University of Maine, Orono
Tobias Mühlenbruch Universität Marburg, Institut für Vor- und Frühgeschichte, Marburg
Agathe Reingruber Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, Eurasien-Abteilung, Berlin
Gary Rollefson Whitman College, Anthropology, Walla Walla
Daniel Schyle Universität zu Köln, Institut für Ur- und Frühgeschichte, Radiocarbon Laboratory, Köln
Laurens Thissen Thissen Archaeological Ceramics Bureau, Amsterdam
Henrieta Todorova Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Archaeological Institute and Museum, Sofia
Christoph Zielhofer Dresden University of Technology, Department of Geography, Dresden

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4312/dp.36.2

Keywords:

Rapid Climate Change, Holocene, GISP2, Dead Sea Level, Levantine Moist Period, Neolithic, Chalcolithic, Bronze Age, domestication

Abstract

In this paper we explore the impact of Rapid Climate Change (RCC) on prehistoric communities in the Eastern Mediterranean during the Early and Middle Holocene. Our focus is on the social implications of the four major climate cold anomalies that have recently been identified as key time-windows for global RCC (Mayewski et al. 2004). These cooling anomalies are well-dated, with Greenland ice-core resolution, due to synchronicity between warm/cold foraminifera ratios in Mediterranean core LC21 as a proxy for surface water temperature, and Greenland GISP2 non sea-salt (nss) [K+] ions as a proxy for the intensification of the Siberian High and for polar air outbreaks in the northeast Mediterranean (Rohling et al. 2002). Building on these synchronisms, the GISP2 agemodel supplies the following precise time-intervals for archaeological RCC research: (i) 8.6–8.0 ka, (ii) 6.0–5.2 ka, (iii) 4.2–4.0 ka and (iv) 3.1–2.9 ka calBP. For each of these RCC time intervals, based on detailed 14C-based chronological studies, we investigate contemporaneous cultural developments. From our studies it follows that RCC-related climatic deterioration is a major factor underlying social change, although always at work within a wide spectrum of social, cultural, economic and religious factors.