Holocene settlement shifts and palaeoenvironments on the Central Iranian Plateau

Investigating linked systems

Bibliographic Data

ID12268083
AuthorsArmin Schmidt (0000-0002-4241-5381, University of Bradford, corresponding author), Mark Quigley (0000-0003-4342-1369, University of Canterbury), Morteza Fattahi (0000-0003-2719-5859, University of Tehran, Iran, University of Sheffield, UK, University of Oxford, UK), Azizi Ghasem (0000-0002-9797-4834, University of Tehran), Ghasem Azizi (University of Tehran, Iran), Mehran Maghsoudi (0000-0002-4973-8327, University of Tehran, Iran), Hassan Fazeli (University of Tehran, Iran)
Year2011
Volume21
Issue4
Pages583-595
Publication date2011-01-27
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Holocene (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0959-6836 • E-ISSN: 1477-0911
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0959683610385961
OpenAlexW2088633565
LanguageEN
Citations received15
References cited60

For thousands of years, humans have inhabited locations that are highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, earthquakes, and floods. In order to investigate the extent to which Holocene environmental changes may have impacted on cultural evolution, we present new geologic, geomorphic, and chronologic data from the Qazvin Plain in northwest Iran that provides a backdrop of natural environmental changes for the simultaneous cultural dynamics observed on the Central Iranian Plateau. Well-resolved archaeological data from the neighbouring settlements of Zagheh (7170—6300 yr BP), Ghabristan (6215—4950 yr BP) and Sagzabad (4050—2350 yr BP) indicate that Holocene occupation of the Hajiarab alluvial fan was interrupted by a 900 year settlement hiatus. Multiproxy climate data from nearby lakes in northwest Iran suggest a transition from arid early-Holocene conditions to more humid middle-Holocene conditions from c. 7550 to 6750 yr BP, coinciding with the settlement of Zagheh, and a peak in aridity at c. 4550 yr BP during the settlement hiatus. Palaeoseismic investigations indicate that large active fault systems in close proximity to the tell sites incurred a series of large (M W ~7.1) earthquakes with return periods of ~500—1000 years during human occupation of the tells. Mapping and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) chronology of the alluvial sequences reveals changes in depositional style from coarse-grained unconfined sheet flow deposits to proximal channel flow and distally prograding alluvial deposits sometime after c. 8830 yr BP, possibly reflecting an increase in moisture following the early-Holocene arid phase. The coincidence of major climate changes, earthquake activity, and varying sedimentation styles with changing patterns of human occupation on the Hajiarab fan indicate links between environmental and anthropogenic systems. However, temporal coincidence does not necessitate a fundamental causative dependency

Alluvial fan · Alluvium · Archaeology · Arid · Delta · Geography · Holocene · Human settlement · Physical geography · Plateau (mathematics · Structural basin · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · earthquake and tectonic studies · Geology and Paleoclimatology Research · Geology · Paleontology

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