Dominik Fleitmann
Biographic Data
| ID | 165759 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Dominik Fleitmann |
| GIVEN NAMES | Dominik |
| FAMILY NAME | Fleitmann |
| SIGNATURE | FLEITMANN D |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Bern |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-5977-8835 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 26 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 58 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 26 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2001 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
A Sixth-Century CE Drought in Arabia New Palaeoclimate Data and Some Historical Implications
Establishing plausible causal associations between the impact of climate and/or environment and past human societies presents many challenges, as the case of the decline of the S. Arabian kingdom of Himyar in the sixth century CE indicates. Evidence from a new high-resolution stalagmite record for the last 2,600 years shows that a period of drought in the early sixth century, hardly mentioned in the sources, was of unusual duration and severity. …
The Emergence of Interdisciplinary Environmental History: Collaborative Approaches to the Late Holocene
With the efflorescence of palaeoscientific approaches to the past, historians have been confronted with a wealth of new evidence on both human and natural phenomena, from human disease and migration to landscape change and climate. These new data require a rewriting of our narratives of the past, questioning what constitutes an authoritative historical source and who is entitled to recount history to contemporary societies. Humanities-based histo…
Palaeoclimatology of Byzantine Lands (AD 300–1500)
This chapter begins with an overview of the climate system and then provides spatial maps of seasonal temperature, precipitation, and drought for the central and eastern Mediterranean covering the past 70 years. We then present the basic concepts of palaeoclimatology, i.e. how to derive quantitative climate information from documentary and natural proxies for the pre-instrumental period. We discuss the availability, distribution, potential, and l…
The Climatic Resilience of the Sasanian Empire
The Sasanian Empire (224-651 CE) has been given relatively little attention in research on climate-society interactions when compared to the neighboring Byzantine Empire, despite evidence of changing conditions and an agricultural economy that is theoretically vulnerable to droughts due to low annual precipitation. We review the available historical, archaeological, paleo-environmental, and paleo-climatic evidence to assess whether climatic condi…
L'émergence d'une histoire environnementale interdisciplinaire: Une approche conjointe de l’Holocène tardif
Avec l'efflorescence des approches paléoscientifiques du passé, les historiens ont été confrontés à une multitude de nouveaux indices sur des phénomènes tant humains que naturels, des maladies aux migrations en passant par les transformations du paysage et le climat. Ces données inédites exigent une réécriture des récits portant sur les périodes lointaines, remettant en cause à la fois les fondements de l'autorité des sources historiques traditio…
Beyond arrows on a map: The dynamics of Homo sapiens dispersal and occupation of Arabia during Marine Isotope Stage 5
Black carbon traces of human activities in stalagmites from Turkey
New Insights on the Role of Environmental Dynamics Shaping Southern Mesopotamia: From the Pre-Ubaid to the Early Islamic Period
Recent fieldwork and archival sedimentary materials from southern Iraq have revealed new insights into the environment that shaped southern Mesopotamia from the pre-Ubaid (early Holocene) until the early Islamic period. These data have been combined with northern Iraqi speleothem, or stalagmite, data that have revealed relevant palaeoclimate information. The new results are investigated in light of textual sources and satellite remote sensing wor…
European warm-season temperature and hydroclimate since 850 CE
The long-term relationship between temperature and hydroclimate has remained uncertain due to the short length of instrumental measurements and inconsistent results from climate model simulations. This lack of understanding is particularly critical with regard to projected drought and flood risks. Here we assess warm-season co-variability patterns between temperature and hydroclimate over Europe back to 850 CE using instrumental measurements, tre…
Modelling Climate and Societal Resilience in the Eastern Mediterranean in the Last Millennium
This article analyses high-quality hydroclimate proxy records and spatial reconstructions from the Central and Eastern Mediterranean and compares them with two Earth System Model simulations (CCSM4, MPI-ESM-P) for the Crusader period in the Levant (1095-1290 CE), the Mamluk regime in Transjordan (1260-1516 CE) and the Ottoman crisis and Celâlî Rebellion (1580-1610 CE). During the three time intervals, environmental and climatic stress tested the …
Mid- to late-Holocene archaeology, environment and climate in the northeast Kurdistan region of Iraq
This work presents new data from phytolith and speleothem analyses that cover the middle to late Holocene from northeastern Iraq in the Kurdistan region. Coupling these data with previous work, we demonstrate how the region’s environment and climate developed during a time when agriculture became not only established but settlements started to transform into larger urban areas. Results demonstrate a wetter phase during the middle Holocene relativ…
Evidence of resilience to past climate change in Southwest Asia: Early farming communities and the 9.2 and 8.2 ka events
The Climate and Environment of Byzantine Anatolia: Integrating Science, History, and Archaeology
The integration of high-resolution archaeological, textual, and environmental data with longer-term, low-resolution data affords greater precision in identifying some of the causal relationships underlying societal change. Regional and microregional case studies about the Byzantine world-in particular, Anatolia, which for several centuries was the heart of that world-reveal many of the difficulties that researchers face when attempting to assess …
Dating the Thera (Santorini) eruption: Archaeological and Scientific Evidence Supporting a High Chronology
The date of the Late Bronze Age Minoan eruption of the Thera volcano has provoked much debate among archaeologists, not least in a recent issue of Antiquity ('Bronze Age catastrophe and modern controversy: dating the Santorini eruption', March 2014). Here, the authors respond to those recent contributions, citing evidence that closes the gap between the conclusions offered by previous typological, stratigraphic and radiometric dating techniques. …
Vegetation and environmental changes in Northern Anatolia between 134 and 119 ka recorded in Black Sea Sediments
This multiproxy study on SE Black Sea sediments provides the first detailed reconstruction of vegetation and environmental history of Northern Anatolia between 134 and 119 ka. Here, the glacial–interglacial transition is characterized by several short-lived alternating cold and warm events preceding a meltwater pulse (~ 130.4–131.7 ka). The latter is reconstructed as a cold arid period correlated to Heinrich event 11. The initial warming is evide…
Interglacial Pluvial Periods in Southern Arabia
Timing and climatic expression of Dansgaard-Oeschger events in stalagmites from Sofular Cave, Turkey
Droughts recorded in a 2600-year long stalagmite from Northern Oman, Arabia
Solar Influences on Climate
Understanding the influence of solar variability on the Earth's climate requires knowledge of solar variability, solar-terrestrial interactions, and the mechanisms determining the response of the Earth's climate system. We provide a summary of our current understanding in each of these three areas. Observations and mechanisms for the Sun's variability are described, including solar irradiance variations on both decadal and centennial time scales …
Indian Summer Monsoon variations could have affected the early-Holocene woodland expansion in the Near East
Postglacial expansion of deciduous oak woodlands of the Zagros—Anti-Taurus Mountains, a major biome of the Near East, was delayed until the middle Holocene at ~6300 cal. yr BP. The current hypotheses explain this delay as a consequence of a regional aridity during the early Holocene, slow migration rates of forest trees, and/or a long history of land use and agro-pastoralism in this region. In the present paper, support is given to a hypothesis t…
Provenance of Marbles From Naxos Based on Microstructural and Geochemical Characterization
A detailed quantitative microstructural study coupled with cathodoluminescence and geochemical analyses on marbles from Naxos demonstrates that the analysis of microstructures is the most sensitive method to define the origin of marbles within, and between, different regions. Microstructure examination can only be used as an accurate provenance tool if a correction for the second‐phase content is considered. If second phases are not considered, a…
Timing and climatic impact of Greenland interstadials recorded in stalagmites from northern Turkey
A 50 kyr‐long exceptionally well‐dated and highly resolved stalagmite oxygen ( δ 18 O) and carbon ( δ 13 C) isotope record from Sofular Cave in northwestern Turkey helps to further improve the dating of Greenland Interstadials (GI) 1, and 3–12. Timing of most GI in the Sofular record is consistent within ±10 to 300 years with the “iconic” Hulu Cave record. Larger divergences (>500 years) between Sofular and Hulu are only observed for GI 4 and 7. …
Holocene ITCZ and Indian monsoon dynamics recorded in stalagmites from Oman and Yemen (Socotra)
Changing moisture sources over the last 330,000 years in Northern Oman from fluid-inclusion evidence in speleothems
Speleothems from Hoti Cave in northern Oman provide a record of continental pluvial periods over the last 330,000 yr. Periods of rapid speleothem deposition occurred from 6000 to 10,500, 78,000 to 82,000, 120,000 to 135,000, 180,000 to 200,000, and 300,000 to 330,000 yr ago, with little or no growth during the intervening periods. During each of these five pluvial periods, δ D values of water extracted from speleothem fluid inclusions (δ D FI ) a…
Holocene Forcing of the Indian Monsoon Recorded in a Stalagmite from Southern Oman
A high-resolution oxygen-isotope record from a thorium-uranium–dated stalagmite from southern Oman reflects variations in the amount of monsoon precipitation for the periods from 10.3 to 2.7 and 1.4to 0.4thousand years before the present (ky B.P.). Between 10.3 and 8 ky B.P., decadal to centennial variations in monsoon precipitation are in phase with temperature fluctuations recorded in Greenland ice cores, indicating that early Holocene monsoon …
The Climate and Environment of Byzantine Anatolia: Integrating Science, History, and Archaeology
The integration of high-resolution archaeological, textual, and environmental data with longer-term, low-resolution data affords greater precision in identifying some of the causal relationships underlying societal change. Regional and microregional case studies about the Byzantine world-in particular, Anatolia, which for several centuries was the heart of that world-reveal many of the difficulties that researchers face when attempting to assess …
Dating the Thera (Santorini) eruption: Archaeological and Scientific Evidence Supporting a High Chronology
The date of the Late Bronze Age Minoan eruption of the Thera volcano has provoked much debate among archaeologists, not least in a recent issue of Antiquity ('Bronze Age catastrophe and modern controversy: dating the Santorini eruption', March 2014). Here, the authors respond to those recent contributions, citing evidence that closes the gap between the conclusions offered by previous typological, stratigraphic and radiometric dating techniques. …
Beyond arrows on a map: The dynamics of Homo sapiens dispersal and occupation of Arabia during Marine Isotope Stage 5
Indian Summer Monsoon variations could have affected the early-Holocene woodland expansion in the Near East
Postglacial expansion of deciduous oak woodlands of the Zagros—Anti-Taurus Mountains, a major biome of the Near East, was delayed until the middle Holocene at ~6300 cal. yr BP. The current hypotheses explain this delay as a consequence of a regional aridity during the early Holocene, slow migration rates of forest trees, and/or a long history of land use and agro-pastoralism in this region. In the present paper, support is given to a hypothesis t…
Provenance of Marbles From Naxos Based on Microstructural and Geochemical Characterization
A detailed quantitative microstructural study coupled with cathodoluminescence and geochemical analyses on marbles from Naxos demonstrates that the analysis of microstructures is the most sensitive method to define the origin of marbles within, and between, different regions. Microstructure examination can only be used as an accurate provenance tool if a correction for the second‐phase content is considered. If second phases are not considered, a…
Mid- to late-Holocene archaeology, environment and climate in the northeast Kurdistan region of Iraq
This work presents new data from phytolith and speleothem analyses that cover the middle to late Holocene from northeastern Iraq in the Kurdistan region. Coupling these data with previous work, we demonstrate how the region’s environment and climate developed during a time when agriculture became not only established but settlements started to transform into larger urban areas. Results demonstrate a wetter phase during the middle Holocene relativ…
Black carbon traces of human activities in stalagmites from Turkey
L'émergence d'une histoire environnementale interdisciplinaire: Une approche conjointe de l’Holocène tardif
Avec l'efflorescence des approches paléoscientifiques du passé, les historiens ont été confrontés à une multitude de nouveaux indices sur des phénomènes tant humains que naturels, des maladies aux migrations en passant par les transformations du paysage et le climat. Ces données inédites exigent une réécriture des récits portant sur les périodes lointaines, remettant en cause à la fois les fondements de l'autorité des sources historiques traditio…
The Climatic Resilience of the Sasanian Empire
The Sasanian Empire (224-651 CE) has been given relatively little attention in research on climate-society interactions when compared to the neighboring Byzantine Empire, despite evidence of changing conditions and an agricultural economy that is theoretically vulnerable to droughts due to low annual precipitation. We review the available historical, archaeological, paleo-environmental, and paleo-climatic evidence to assess whether climatic condi…
Strong coherence between solar variability and the monsoon in Oman between 9 and 6 kyr ago
Changing moisture sources over the last 330,000 years in Northern Oman from fluid-inclusion evidence in speleothems
Speleothems from Hoti Cave in northern Oman provide a record of continental pluvial periods over the last 330,000 yr. Periods of rapid speleothem deposition occurred from 6000 to 10,500, 78,000 to 82,000, 120,000 to 135,000, 180,000 to 200,000, and 300,000 to 330,000 yr ago, with little or no growth during the intervening periods. During each of these five pluvial periods, δ D values of water extracted from speleothem fluid inclusions (δ D FI ) a…
Holocene Forcing of the Indian Monsoon Recorded in a Stalagmite from Southern Oman
A high-resolution oxygen-isotope record from a thorium-uranium–dated stalagmite from southern Oman reflects variations in the amount of monsoon precipitation for the periods from 10.3 to 2.7 and 1.4to 0.4thousand years before the present (ky B.P.). Between 10.3 and 8 ky B.P., decadal to centennial variations in monsoon precipitation are in phase with temperature fluctuations recorded in Greenland ice cores, indicating that early Holocene monsoon …
Holocene ITCZ and Indian monsoon dynamics recorded in stalagmites from Oman and Yemen (Socotra)
Timing and climatic impact of Greenland interstadials recorded in stalagmites from northern Turkey
A 50 kyr‐long exceptionally well‐dated and highly resolved stalagmite oxygen ( δ 18 O) and carbon ( δ 13 C) isotope record from Sofular Cave in northwestern Turkey helps to further improve the dating of Greenland Interstadials (GI) 1, and 3–12. Timing of most GI in the Sofular record is consistent within ±10 to 300 years with the “iconic” Hulu Cave record. Larger divergences (>500 years) between Sofular and Hulu are only observed for GI 4 and 7. …
Solar Influences on Climate
Understanding the influence of solar variability on the Earth's climate requires knowledge of solar variability, solar-terrestrial interactions, and the mechanisms determining the response of the Earth's climate system. We provide a summary of our current understanding in each of these three areas. Observations and mechanisms for the Sun's variability are described, including solar irradiance variations on both decadal and centennial time scales …
Indian Summer Monsoon variations could have affected the early-Holocene woodland expansion in the Near East
Postglacial expansion of deciduous oak woodlands of the Zagros—Anti-Taurus Mountains, a major biome of the Near East, was delayed until the middle Holocene at ~6300 cal. yr BP. The current hypotheses explain this delay as a consequence of a regional aridity during the early Holocene, slow migration rates of forest trees, and/or a long history of land use and agro-pastoralism in this region. In the present paper, support is given to a hypothesis t…
Provenance of Marbles From Naxos Based on Microstructural and Geochemical Characterization
A detailed quantitative microstructural study coupled with cathodoluminescence and geochemical analyses on marbles from Naxos demonstrates that the analysis of microstructures is the most sensitive method to define the origin of marbles within, and between, different regions. Microstructure examination can only be used as an accurate provenance tool if a correction for the second‐phase content is considered. If second phases are not considered, a…
Interglacial Pluvial Periods in Southern Arabia
Timing and climatic expression of Dansgaard-Oeschger events in stalagmites from Sofular Cave, Turkey
Droughts recorded in a 2600-year long stalagmite from Northern Oman, Arabia
Vegetation and environmental changes in Northern Anatolia between 134 and 119 ka recorded in Black Sea Sediments
This multiproxy study on SE Black Sea sediments provides the first detailed reconstruction of vegetation and environmental history of Northern Anatolia between 134 and 119 ka. Here, the glacial–interglacial transition is characterized by several short-lived alternating cold and warm events preceding a meltwater pulse (~ 130.4–131.7 ka). The latter is reconstructed as a cold arid period correlated to Heinrich event 11. The initial warming is evide…
The Climate and Environment of Byzantine Anatolia: Integrating Science, History, and Archaeology
The integration of high-resolution archaeological, textual, and environmental data with longer-term, low-resolution data affords greater precision in identifying some of the causal relationships underlying societal change. Regional and microregional case studies about the Byzantine world-in particular, Anatolia, which for several centuries was the heart of that world-reveal many of the difficulties that researchers face when attempting to assess …
Dating the Thera (Santorini) eruption: Archaeological and Scientific Evidence Supporting a High Chronology
The date of the Late Bronze Age Minoan eruption of the Thera volcano has provoked much debate among archaeologists, not least in a recent issue of Antiquity ('Bronze Age catastrophe and modern controversy: dating the Santorini eruption', March 2014). Here, the authors respond to those recent contributions, citing evidence that closes the gap between the conclusions offered by previous typological, stratigraphic and radiometric dating techniques. …
Evidence of resilience to past climate change in Southwest Asia: Early farming communities and the 9.2 and 8.2 ka events
Modelling Climate and Societal Resilience in the Eastern Mediterranean in the Last Millennium
This article analyses high-quality hydroclimate proxy records and spatial reconstructions from the Central and Eastern Mediterranean and compares them with two Earth System Model simulations (CCSM4, MPI-ESM-P) for the Crusader period in the Levant (1095-1290 CE), the Mamluk regime in Transjordan (1260-1516 CE) and the Ottoman crisis and Celâlî Rebellion (1580-1610 CE). During the three time intervals, environmental and climatic stress tested the …
Mid- to late-Holocene archaeology, environment and climate in the northeast Kurdistan region of Iraq
This work presents new data from phytolith and speleothem analyses that cover the middle to late Holocene from northeastern Iraq in the Kurdistan region. Coupling these data with previous work, we demonstrate how the region’s environment and climate developed during a time when agriculture became not only established but settlements started to transform into larger urban areas. Results demonstrate a wetter phase during the middle Holocene relativ…
New Insights on the Role of Environmental Dynamics Shaping Southern Mesopotamia: From the Pre-Ubaid to the Early Islamic Period
Recent fieldwork and archival sedimentary materials from southern Iraq have revealed new insights into the environment that shaped southern Mesopotamia from the pre-Ubaid (early Holocene) until the early Islamic period. These data have been combined with northern Iraqi speleothem, or stalagmite, data that have revealed relevant palaeoclimate information. The new results are investigated in light of textual sources and satellite remote sensing wor…
European warm-season temperature and hydroclimate since 850 CE
The long-term relationship between temperature and hydroclimate has remained uncertain due to the short length of instrumental measurements and inconsistent results from climate model simulations. This lack of understanding is particularly critical with regard to projected drought and flood risks. Here we assess warm-season co-variability patterns between temperature and hydroclimate over Europe back to 850 CE using instrumental measurements, tre…
Black carbon traces of human activities in stalagmites from Turkey
Beyond arrows on a map: The dynamics of Homo sapiens dispersal and occupation of Arabia during Marine Isotope Stage 5
L'émergence d'une histoire environnementale interdisciplinaire: Une approche conjointe de l’Holocène tardif
Avec l'efflorescence des approches paléoscientifiques du passé, les historiens ont été confrontés à une multitude de nouveaux indices sur des phénomènes tant humains que naturels, des maladies aux migrations en passant par les transformations du paysage et le climat. Ces données inédites exigent une réécriture des récits portant sur les périodes lointaines, remettant en cause à la fois les fondements de l'autorité des sources historiques traditio…
A Sixth-Century CE Drought in Arabia New Palaeoclimate Data and Some Historical Implications
Establishing plausible causal associations between the impact of climate and/or environment and past human societies presents many challenges, as the case of the decline of the S. Arabian kingdom of Himyar in the sixth century CE indicates. Evidence from a new high-resolution stalagmite record for the last 2,600 years shows that a period of drought in the early sixth century, hardly mentioned in the sources, was of unusual duration and severity. …
The Emergence of Interdisciplinary Environmental History: Collaborative Approaches to the Late Holocene
With the efflorescence of palaeoscientific approaches to the past, historians have been confronted with a wealth of new evidence on both human and natural phenomena, from human disease and migration to landscape change and climate. These new data require a rewriting of our narratives of the past, questioning what constitutes an authoritative historical source and who is entitled to recount history to contemporary societies. Humanities-based histo…
Palaeoclimatology of Byzantine Lands (AD 300–1500)
This chapter begins with an overview of the climate system and then provides spatial maps of seasonal temperature, precipitation, and drought for the central and eastern Mediterranean covering the past 70 years. We then present the basic concepts of palaeoclimatology, i.e. how to derive quantitative climate information from documentary and natural proxies for the pre-instrumental period. We discuss the availability, distribution, potential, and l…
Geography (21 works) · Geology and Paleoclimatology Research (15 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (14 works) · Archaeology (13 works) · Climatology (13 works) · Holocene (13 works) · Geology (11 works) · Climate change (10 works) · Geology (10 works) · Physical geography (9 works)