Mid-late Holocene climate, demography, and cultural dynamics in Iberia: A multi-proxy approach (original) (raw)
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Journal of World Prehistory, 2018
This paper presents the first comprehensive pan-Iberian overview of one of the major episodes of cultural change in later prehistoric Iberia, the Copper to Bronze Age transition (c. 2400–1900 BC), and assesses its relationship to the 4.2 ky BP climatic event. It synthesizes available cultural, demographic and palaeoenvironmental evidence by region between 3300 and 1500 BC. Important variation can be discerned through this comparison. The demographic signatures of some regions, such as the Meseta and the southwest, diminished in the Early Bronze Age, while other regions, such as the southeast, display clear growth in human activities; the Atlantic areas in northern Iberia barely experienced any changes. This paper opens the door to climatic fluctuations and interregional demic movements within the Peninsula as plausible contributing drivers of particular historical dynamics.
Environmental Changes and Cultural Transitions in SW Iberia during the Early-Mid Holocene
Applied Sciences, 2021
The SW coast of the Iberian Peninsula experiences a lack of palaeoenvironmental and archaeological data. With the aim to fill this gap, we contribute with a new palynological and geochemical dataset obtained from a sediment core drilled in the continental shelf of the Algarve coast. Archaeological data have been correlated with our multi-proxy dataset to understand how human groups adapted to environmental changes during the Early-Mid Holocene, with special focus on the Mesolithic to Neolithic transition. Vegetation trends indicate warm conditions at the onset of the Holocene followed by increased moisture and forest development ca. 10–7 ka BP, after which woodlands are progressively replaced by heaths. Peaks of aridity were identified at 8.2 and 7. 5 ka BP. Compositional, textural, redox state, and weathering of source area geochemical proxies indicates abrupt palaeoceanographic modifications and gradual terrestrial changes at 8.2 ka BP, while the 7.5 ka BP event mirrors a decrease in land moisture availability. Mesolithic sites are mainly composed of seasonal camps with direct access to the coast for the exploitation of local resources. This pattern extends into the Early Neolithic, when these sites coexist with seasonal and permanent occupations located in inland areas near rivers. Changes in settlement patterns and dietary habits may be influenced by changes in coastal environments caused by the sea-level rise and the impact of the 8.2 and 7.5 ka BP climate events.
Journal of Neolithic Archaeology, 2019
The end of the third millennium BCE represents (not only) on the Iberian Peninsula the time of transition to the Bronze Age. At the same time this is the time of a general climatic event, the so-called 4.2 ka BP event, which can be observed (in different manifestations) in different regions of the northern hemisphere. By synchronizing cultural and climatic developments and above all by assessing demographic developments and their spatial development, a much-discussed connection between the two phenomena can be made plausible and opens the perspective for further, more detailed research on the interdependence between cultural, demographic and climatological processes. For this purpose, the results of aoristics, 14 C sum calibration and the evaluation of the concentration of long-chain n-alkane homologues of terrestrial origin as precipitation predictor are combined , their correlation is presented and possible responses are interpreted from the mapping of the settlement system development. This article provides an initial overview of the current results.
2019
The end of the third millennium BCE represents (not only) on the Iberian Peninsula the time of transition to the Bronze Age. At the same time this is the time of a general climatic event, the so-called 4.2 ka BP event, which can be observed (in different manifestations) in different regions of the northern hemisphere. By synchronizing cultural and climatic developments and above all by assessing demographic developments and their spatial development, a much-discussed connection between the two phenomena can be made plausible and opens the perspective for further, more detailed research on the interdependence between cultural, demographic and climatological processes. For this purpose, the results of aoristics, 14C sum calibration and the evaluation of the concentration of long-chain n-alkane homologues of terrestrial origin as precipitation predictor are combined, their correlation is presented and possible responses are interpreted from the mapping of the settlement system developm...
2018
A multi-proxy palaeoenvironmental study (pollen, non-pollen palynomorphs, charcoal particles, mollusk mac-rofauna) of coastal marshland in Doñana National Park (southwestern Iberian Peninsula) was undertaken to trace environmental change, human activities related to woodland clearance, and past land-use during the mid-late Holocene (~5000–2800 cal BP). The results of this study are combined with archaeological data from the Copper and Bronze Ages and are subsequently compared with those of similar research carried out at the south-westernmost part of Europe with the aim of discerning regional differences or similarities. Our research has allowed us to recognize climate changes and four extreme wave events in the Guadalquivir paleoestuary, which might have contributed to both the cultural change that is observed in the archaeological record at the end of the Chalcolithic and the subsequent population decline during much of the Bronze Age.
Environmental Research Letters, 2021
In this investigation, we use a socio-environmental multi-proxy approach to empirically test hypotheses of recurrent resilience cycles and the role of climate forcing in shaping such cycles on the Iberian Peninsula during mid-Holocene times. Our approach combines time series reconstructions of societal and environmental variables from the southern Iberian Peninsula across a 3000 yr time interval (6000–3000 cal yr BP), covering major societal and climate reorganisation. Our approach is based on regional compilations of climate variables from diverse terrestrial archives and integrates new marine climate records from the Western Mediterranean. Archaeological variables include changes in material culture, settlement reconstructions and estimates of human activities. In particular, both detailed chronologies of human activities evolving from the Late Neolithic to the Bronze Age and mid- to Late Holocene climate change across the mid-Holocene are compared, aiming to assess potential huma...
Rapid climate change and variability of settlement patterns in Iberia during the Late Pleistocene
Quaternary …, 2012
Due to its diverse geographic and climatic conditions, the Iberian Peninsula is well suited for studies into the relationship between climate, environment and hunter-gatherer adaptation. With focus on the archaeological record, this paper examines to what extent diachronic variations in site density on the Iberian Peninsula are related to climate variability and cultural change. Studies are based on a comprehensive record of technocomplexes that date from the late Middle Palaeolithic, early Upper Palaeolithic, Gravettian and Solutrean. The record comprises altogether 152 archaeological cave sites and rock shelters. Analysis reveals strong regional differences between Northern and Southern Iberia, both in isochronic and in diachronic perspective. This is expressed by the strongly different patterns of human presence in these regions. In particular, within both regions major cultural changes coincide with the environmental impact of North Atlantic Heinrich Events (HE). From previous studies, it is known that the human population on the Iberian Peninsula (IP) must have suffered strongly under the extremely variable climate conditions during the Late Pleistocene. Based on extensive site-mapping, the hypothesis is that during HE a major disintegration of habitats must have occurred, with various but strongly isolated patchy refugia remaining. Further, during HE, Southern Iberia could not uphold its previous function in providing a reliable refuge for humans. Not only does climatic deterioration during the different HE repeatedly lead to a near-complete breakdown of settlement patterns, but following each HE there is a major reorganization in settlement patterns on the IP.
Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 2024
The transition between the Late Copper and the Early Bronze Age in Central and Western Europe saw large-scale social disruptions ca. 2200 cal BCE ('4,2 ka event'). Their source is much debated, and scholars have addressed the problem from various disciplinary perspectives. One account points to the westward migration of populations with Pontic-Caspian 'Steppe' ancestry, possibly favoured by the spread of infectious diseases, but the question remains open. In southeast Iberia, the shift from communal burial practices in the Copper Age to single and double tombs in the Bronze Age offers a reliable diagnostic feature for the transition. To investigate social and demographic changes in this region during the late 3rd millennium BCE, we resorted to new C14 dates from human bone samples originating from both kinds of funerary contexts. Our statistical analysis indicates that most probably the changes in funerary rituals in southeast Iberia were fast. It also implies that the local populations had dropped in numbers before 2200 cal BCE, so that the presence of 'Steppe ancestry' ca. 2200-2000 cal BCE could be the result of their admixture with neighbouring peoples. Finally, we suggest that more high-precision C 14 dates and archaeogenetic analyses from this transitional period are crucial for addressing the formation of Bronze Age societies.