The mid-Holocene climatic transition in the Mediterranean
Causes and consequences
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12266602 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Neil Roberts (0000-0001-5538-8653, corresponding author), David Brayshaw (0000-0002-3927-4362, University of Reading), Catherine Kuzucuoglu (0000-0002-0235-0704, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne), Rafael Micó Pérez (0000-0002-2957-3182, Universitat Autonòma de Barcelona), R Pérez (0000-0002-1811-3615, Universitat Autonòma de Barcelona), Laura Sadori (0000-0002-2774-6705, Sapienza University of Rome) |
| Year | 2011 |
| Volume | 21 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 3-13 |
| Publication date | 2011-01-25 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Holocene (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0959-6836 • E-ISSN: 1477-0911 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0959683610388058 |
| OpenAlex | W1983194163 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 113 |
| References cited | 46 |
In the Mediterranean there is often no clear time gap separating an early-Holocene period of nature-dominated environmental change from a human-dominated late-Holocene one. This mid-Holocene ‘mélange’ has been the subject of debates that have often been polarised between support for climatic causation and those favouring anthropogenic explanations for changes in vegetation, river flooding, wildfire regimes, etc. One way to shed light on the causes of mid-Holocene landscape changes is to focus on natural archives, such as lake and cave isotopes, the records of which can be unambiguously attributed to climatic forcing. These primary climate proxies can then be compared and contrasted with secondary or response variables, such as pollen and microcharcoal data, which can be the product of either climate changes or human activity or both, ideally using a multiproxy approach. In addition, synthesised primary palaeoclimate data can be compared with regional-scale climate modelling simulations. Both model output and proxy data suggest an east—west division in Mediterranean climate history. They indicate that the eastern Mediterranean experienced an increase in winter-season precipitation during the early Holocene, followed by an oscillatory decline after ~6 ka BP. In western parts of the Mediterranean, early-Holocene changes in precipitation were smaller in magnitude and less coherent spatially, and maximum increases occurred during the mid Holocene, around 6—3 ka BP, before declining to present-day values. Coincident with and partly stimulated by these climatic changes, complex societies developed across the Mediterranean, particularly in eastern parts of the basin during the Bronze Age. In consequence, by the mid-first millennium BC, human-induced land cover conversion, a drier and more variable climate, and changed fire regimes combined to establish typical sclerophyllous vegetation and landscapes in the circum-Mediterranean region
Archaeology · Climate change · Climate model · Climatology · Geography · Holocene · Holocene climatic optimum · Mediterranean Basin · Mediterranean climate · Physical geography · Precipitation · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Environmental Science · Geology and Paleoclimatology Research · Tree-ring climate responses · Geology · Oceanography
Metadata Analysis of Hydroclimate Dynamics over the Last Two Thousand Years in Sardinia and in the Italian Peninsula-Sicily
Timing, cause and consequences of mid-Holocene climate transition in the Arabian Sea
Mid- to Late Holocene geomorphodynamics in a long-term settled mountain catchment in the Pergamon micro-region, western Turkey
Middle Holocene rapid environmental changes and human adaptation in Greece
New speleothem data from Molinos and Ejulve caves reveal Holocene hydrological variability in northeast Iberia
Holocene vegetation and climate change recorded in alpine bog sediments from the Borreguiles de la Virgen, Sierra Nevada, southern Spain
Vegetation, fire, climate and human disturbance history in the southwestern Mediterranean area during the late Holocene
Further Evidence for a “Late Assyrian Dry Phase” in the Near East During the Mid-to-Late Seventh Century b.c.?
Revisiting the Agropastoral Landscape of Çatalhöyük East Through Agent-Based Modeling (9100–8100 BP)
Drought stress variability in ancient Near Eastern agricultural systems evidenced by δ 13 C in barley grain
Realising consilience
North–south palaeohydrological contrasts in the central Mediterranean during the Holocene
Tufan Mitosu Üzerine Arkeolojik Bir Yaklaşım
The field system of Gricignano d'Aversa (Southern Italy) and the agrarian impact in the Piana Campana, ca. 3900 cal BP
Regional Vegetation Histories
Modeling Resilience and Sustainability in Ancient Agricultural Systems
Reconstruction of Late Quaternary climate and seismicity using fluvial landforms in Pindar River valley, Central Himalaya, Uttarakhand, India
Climate changes and human–environment interactions in the Apulia region of southeastern Italy during the Neolithic period
Environmental imprints of landscape evolution and human activities during the Holocene in a small catchment of the Calanques Massif (Cassis, southern France)
How did trans-Eurasian exchanges affect spatial-temporal variation in agricultural patterns during the late prehistoric period in the Yellow River valley (China)
Mid- to late-Holocene archaeology, environment and climate in the northeast Kurdistan region of Iraq
A multidisciplinary study of an exceptional prehistoric waste dump in the mountainous inland of Calabria (Italy)
The 5.5–4.5 kyr climatic transition as recorded by the sedimentation pattern of coastal deposits of the Apulia region, southern Italy
Land-use changes and environmental dynamics in the upper Rhone valley since Neolithic times inferred from sediments in Lac Moras
Humans take control of fire-driven diversity changes in Mediterranean Iberia’s vegetation during the mid–late Holocene
Holocene land cover and population dynamics in Southern France
Human-derived landscape changes on the northern Etruria coast (western Italy) between Roman times and the late Middle Ages
Scales of impact
Holocene geomorphodynamics of a rural catchment in the Pergamon micro-region (eastern Mediterranean)
Holocene hydro-climatic variability in the Mediterranean
Farming data
Vegetation and fire history of coastal north-eastern Sardinia (Italy) under changing Holocene climates and land use
A marine/terrestrial integration for mid-late Holocene vegetation history and the development of the cultural landscape in the Po valley as a result of human impact and climate change
Vegetation dynamics during the early to mid-Holocene transition in NW Malta, human impact versus climatic forcing
Stable carbon isotope analysis as a crop management indicator at Arslantepe (Malatya, Turkey) during the Late Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age
Early–Middle Holocene vegetation history, climate change and human activities at Lago Riane (Ligurian Apennines, NW Italy)
Long-Term Demographic Trends in Prehistoric Italy
Pedological investigation of an early Bronze Age site in southern Italy
Special issue of Geoarchaeology
Mid‐ to late Holocene environmental changes and human‐environment interactions in the surroundings of La Silla del Papa, SW Spain
Modeling the paleoclimate (ca. 6000–3200 cal BP) in eastern Anatolia
The natural and cultural landscape of Naples (southern Italy) during the Graeco-Roman and Late Antique periods
Woodland modification in Bronze and Iron Age central Anatolia
Commercially relevant species in the Mediterranean Sea
Age determination of Petra's engineered landscape – optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) and radiocarbon ages of runoff terrace systems in the Eastern Highlands of Jordan
Of lakes and fields
Holocene environmental change in Eastern Spain reconstructed through the multiproxy study of a pedo-sedimentary sequence from Les Alcusses (Valencia, Spain)
Black carbon traces of human activities in stalagmites from Turkey
Landscape, resources and people during the Mesolithic and Neolithic times in NE Iberia
Humans and Water in Desert “Refugium” Areas
Domestic and ritual use of plants and fuels in the neolithic cave of Alepotrypa, southern Peloponnese, Greece
Strong solar influence on multi-decadal periodic productivity changes in the central-western Bay of Bengal
The role of foraminifera as indicators of the Late Pleistocene–Holocene palaeoclimatic fluctuations on the deltaic environment
Mid-Holocene palaeoenvironmental record from the Atlantic Band of Cádiz (SW Spain) based on pollen and charcoal data
Late Glacial and Holocene vegetation patterns of Attica
Multidisciplinary study of Holocene archaeological soils in an upland Mediterranean site
Anthropogenic and climatic impact on Holocene sediment dynamics in SE Spain
Holocene mountain forest changes in central Mediterranean
Systems change
Late Quaternary fluvial dynamics of the Jarama River in central Spain
Long-term socio-environmental dynamics and adaptive cycles in Cappadocia, Turkey during the Holocene
An 8300-yr record of environmental and cultural changes in the Sant’Eufemia Plain (Calabria, Italy)
Rapid agricultural transformation in the prehistoric Hexi corridor, China
Modern and ancient pedogenesis as revealed by Holocene fire - Northern Apennines, Italy
Environment, crops and harvesting strategies during the II millennium BC
Climatic and human impact on the environment
Climatic interpretation of carbon isotope content of mid-Holocene archaeological charcoals from eastern Anatolia
Integrated stratigraphy for the Late Quaternary in the eastern Tyrrhenian Sea
Holocene climatic conditions in the eastern Adriatic recorded in stalagmites from Strašna peć Cave (Croatia)
Examining dendrological features of oak as possible signals of systematic woodland management in the central Anatolian bronze and iron ages
Explaining changing patterns of wood presence across the Bronze and Iron Age at Kaman-Kalehöyük, central Anatolia
Aeolian control on the deposition of high altitude lacustrine basins in the Middle East
Olea, Juglans and Castanea
Palynology of Lake Arin (Eastern Anatolia, Turkey) deposits and its relation with water level change of Lake Van
Holocene molluscan succession and paleoenvironmental reconstruction of the upper Moulouya basin
Stable isotope composition of middle to late Holocene land snail shells from the Marroquíes archeological site (Jaén, southern Spain)
The transition from natural to anthropogenic-dominated environmental change in Italy and the surrounding regions since the Neolithic
Palaeo-environmental archive of groundwater–surface water interaction zone, the Kebara wetlands, Carmel coast, Israel
Agricultural impact and political economy
Northwest Libya from the early to late Holocene
Anthropogenic influences and climate changes in Lake Hazar (eastern Turkey) during the Late Holocene
Intersection of exogenous, endogenous and anthropogenic factors in the Holocene landscape
Flood and sandstorm events recorded in holocene sebkha deposits in Southeastern Tunisia
Fuel and acorns
Desert agricultural systems at EBA Jawa (Jordan)
Empty Shelves
The role of ceramic analyses in shaping our understanding of the cultural landscapes of protohistoric Sicily and the Aeolian islands
Archaeobotanical and dung spherulite evidence for Ubaid and Late Chalcolithic fuel, farming, and feasting at Surezha, Iraqi Kurdistan
Reconstructing past landscapes of the eastern plain of Corsica (NW Mediterranean) during the last 6000 years based on molluscan, sedimentological and palynological analyses
Ancient runoff agriculture at Early Bronze Age Jawa (Jordan)
The “Mediterranean Forest”
Patterning and Its Causation in the Pre-Neolithic Colonization of the Mediterranean Islands (Late Pleistocene to Early Holocene)
The Neolithisation of Liguria (NW Italy)
From the Neolithic to the Bronze Age in Central Italy
Reconstruction of paleoclimate and ecosystem changes in Western Iran using cave sediments from the Mid-Holocene Epoch (Northgrippian Age)
Comparison of simulated and proxy-based climate reconstructions for Mid-Holocene Europe reveals high uncertainty
Multidisciplinary studies in environmental archaeology with particular reference to China
Shaping Mediterranean landscapes
Climate, palaeohydrology and land use change in the Central Iberian Range over the last 1.6 kyr
Tyrrhenian central Italy
Quantifying climatic change through the last glacial–interglacial transition based on lake isotope palaeohydrology from central Turkey
An abrupt drowning of the Black Sea shelf
The spatial and temporal complexity of the Holocene thermal maximum
Quaternary International
Coherent High- and Low-Latitude Climate Variability During the Holocene Warm Period
Southward Migration of the Intertropical Convergence Zone Through the Holocene
Holocene climatic changes in the Western Mediterranean, from south-east France to south-east Spain
Late Quaternary Paleoclimate in the Eastern Mediterranean Region from Stable Isotope Analysis of Speleothems at Soreq Cave, Israel
Holocene climate variability
Stable isotope records of Late Quaternary climate and hydrology from Mediterranean lakes
Mid- to Late Holocene climate change
Mediterranean Moisture Source for an Early-Holocene Humid Period in the Northern Red Sea
Late Pleistocene and Holocene alluvial archives in the Southwestern Mediterranean
Pliocene to Pleistocene palynoflora and vegetation in Italy
Pollen and macrofossil analyses of Pliocene lacustrine sediments (Salto river valley, Central Italy)
The Holocene climatic evolution of Mediterranean Italy
The Postglacial record of environmental history from Lago di Pergusa, Sicily
Climatic, vegetation and cultural change in the eastern Mediterranean during the mid-Holocene environmental transition
Tephrostratigraphy, chronology and climatic events of the Mediterranean basin during the Holocene
Changes in Mediterranean climate during the Holocene
Mid-Holocene climate variations revealed by high-resolution speleothem records from Soreq Cave, Israel and their correlation with cultural changes
Mid-Holocene vegetation history of the central Mediterranean
| Unique citing works | 113 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 8.07 |
| Citation span | 2012 - 2027 (16) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | Yes |
| Citation types | Neutral: 104 |