The eruption of the Laacher See volcano (~13,000 years BP) and possible fluoride poisoning amongst contemporaneous wildlife and human foragers-Outline of a hypothesis and the way to test it

Datos Bibliográficos

ID4621134
AutoresF Riede (0000-0002-4879-7157, Department of Archaeology and Heritage Studies Aarhus University Højbjerg Denmark, autor de correspondencia), Uwe Kierdorf (0000-0003-0531-2460, Department of Biology University of Hildesheim Hildesheim Germany)
Año2020
Volumen30
Número6
Páginas855-871
Fecha de publicación2020-11-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaInternational Journal of Osteoarchaeology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1047-482X • E-ISSN: 1099-1212
EditorialWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1002/oa.2916
OpenAlexW3080196716
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas2
Referencias citadas115

At about 13,000 calendar years before present (BP) the Laacher See volcano, located in present-day western Germany, erupted catastrophically. It has been argued that this eruption and its attendant ash fallout played a causal role in the demographic and cultural change documented archaeologically amongst contemporaneous human hunter-gatherer populations in northern Europe. The population displacement and subsequent changes in material culture are clearly visible in the archaeological record, especially in southern Scandinavia. A particular challenge to this scenario is the apparently paradoxical proposition that the effects of the Laacher See volcanic eruption became more pronounced with distance from the volcano itself. There are, however, several documented detrimental health effects of volcanic eruptions that, owing to the physical properties of the ash fallout, actually do become more severe with distance from the eruptive centre. Volcanic eruptions introduce large amounts of chemicals into the atmosphere and deposit these, via ash fallout, in the environment. Here, we explore the hypothesis that the deposition of tephra with a high fluoride content contributed to making the landscapes affected by Laacher See ash fallout unsuitable for wildlife and humans. We briefly describe the possible fate of the fluoride released by the Laacher See volcanic eruption and its potential effects on northern European ecosystems with particular attention to impact pathways from wildlife to humans and to humans directly. Finally, we outline possible avenues of empirically investigating fluoride toxicosis in wildlife, especially large mammalian herbivores, following this volcanic event

Archaeology · Biology · Geography · Volcano · Wildlife · Geology and Paleoclimatology Research · History · Isotope Analysis in Ecology · Radioactivity and Radon Measurements · Ecology · Paleontology