Tripartite climate reversal in Central Europe 5600-5300 years ago

The history of variations in water level of Lake Constance, as reconstructed from sediment and pollen analysis of a sediment sequence from the archaeological site of Arbon-Bleiche 3, shows an abrupt rise in lake level dendrochronologically dated to 5375 yr ago (5320 yr relative to AD 1950). This event, paralleled by the destruction of the Neolithic village by fire, provoked the abandonment of this prehistoric lake-shore location established in the former shallow bay of Arbon-Bleiche, and was the last of a series of three episodes of successively higher lake level, the first occurring at 5600-5500 cal yr B.P. The dendrochronologically dated rise event was synchronous with an abrupt increase in atmospheric ¹⁴C. This supports the hypothesis of an abrupt climate change forced by varying solar activity. Moreover, the three successive episodes of higher lake level between 5600 and 5300 cal yr B.P. at Arbon-Bleiche 3 coincided with climatic cooling and/or changes in moisture conditions in various regions of both hemispheres. This period corresponds to the mid-Holocene climate transition (onset of the Neoglaciation) and suggests inter-hemispheric linkages for the climate variations recorded at Arbon-Bleiche 3. This mid-Holocene climate reversal may have resulted from complex interactions between changes in orbital forcing, ocean circulation and solar activity. Finally, despite different seasonal hydrological regimes, the similarities between lake-level records from Lake Constance and from Jurassian lakes over the mid-Holocene period point to time scale as a crucial factor in considering the possible impact of climate change on environments.     

Holocene climate and cultural evolution in late prehistoric-early historic West Asia

The precipitation climatology and the underlying climate mechanisms of the eastern Mediterranean, West Asia, and the Indian subcontinent are reviewed, with emphasis on upper and middle tropospheric flow in the subtropics and its steering of precipitation. Holocene climate change of the region is summarized from proxy records. The Indian monsoon weakened during the Holocene over its northernmost region, the Ganges and Indus catchments and the western Arabian Sea. Southern regions, the Indian Peninsula, do not show a reduction, but an increase of summer monsoon rain across the Holocene. The long-term trend towards drier conditions in the eastern Mediterranean can be linked to a regionally complex monsoon evolution. Abrupt climate change events, such as the widespread droughts around 8200, 5200 and 4200 cal yr BP, are suggested to be the result of altered subtropical upper-level flow over the eastern Mediterranean and Asia.The abrupt climate change events of the Holocene radically altered precipitation, fundamental for cereal agriculture, across the expanse of late prehistoric-early historic cultures known from the archaeological record in these regions. Social adaptations to reduced agro-production, in both dry-farming and irrigation agriculture regions, are visible in the archaeological record during each abrupt climate change event in West Asia. Chronological refinement, in both the paleoclimate and archaeological records, and transfer functions for both precipitation and agro-production are needed to understand precisely the evident causal linkages.     

鲁东南新石器遗址时空格局与自然环境的关系

针对史前文化遗址的时空间分布进行研究以进一步分析环境变化对人类聚居地带来的影响,对发现和保护历史文化遗址具有重要的意义。该文运用GIS空间分析方法对鲁东南地区史前遗址的时空分布特征进行分析,并结合区域地形地貌等条件分析遗址与自然环境条件的关系。结果表明:遗址点主要分布在高程50~200m、坡度0~6°、坡向朝南且距离河流200~2100m的范围内;且遗址点的分布呈现一定的聚集性,不同时期人类活动聚集中心存在迁移现象。由此得出古代人类倾向于选择海拔高度低,坡度小,向阳且靠近水源的地方聚居,且不同时期农业经济类型和社会的发展程度一定程度的影响了人类活动中心的位置分布。探究了鲁东南地区3个时期遗址时空分布和自然环境之间的关系,分析了不同时期人类活动中心的聚散特征。     

兰州盆地新石器时期遗址分布与地形的关系研究

研究遗址和地形等环境要素的关系有助于理解人地关系的作用机制。基于GIS空间分析和二元逻辑斯蒂模型分析了兰州盆地新石器时期马家窑和齐家文化遗址空间分布的特征、变化规律及影响因素,定量研究了地形等环境要素与遗址分布的关系。结果表明：新石器时期的马家窑文化、半山文化、马厂文化和齐家文化遗址均沿黄河分布,主要集中于河流阶地上坡度较小的区域。距河流的水平最近距离为318.6~17 721.7 m。新石器遗址特别是马厂遗址的空间集聚性明显。从马家窑类型、半山类型,发展到马厂类型,单一型遗址的占比逐渐由53.3%增多至92.6%。马厂类型的分布中心距离黄河最近。地形等环境要素显著影响遗址的空间分布,遗址出现概率主要受坡度、坡向和距黄河最近距离的影响,模型的解释程度可达65.0%。引入历史时期和现代聚落进行比较,历史时期聚落分布受到高程和坡度的影响,而现代聚落的分布主要受到高程、坡度和距河流距离的影响。聚落分布和影响因素的演变可能受到社会生产力发展的影响。     

Probable Neolithic footprints preserved in inter-tidal peat at Kenfig, South Wales (UK)

Holocene footprints have been reported from several locations around the UK coast preserved within inter-tidal sediments. These sediments are normally fine-grained silts, sands and clays. Here we report potential human footprints preserved in the lower of two inter-tidal peat units exposed on the foreshore at Kenfig in South Wales. The lower peat layer pre-dates 3810 ± 40 BP and its maximum age is constrained by two dates, one of 4930 ± 50 BP and another of 5110 ± 50 BP. The prints may have formed at any point within this time interval. Both peat units formed in a salt marsh, or fen environment, as indicated by the analysis of both diatoms and pollen and have been tentatively assigned to the middle Wentlooge Formation within the Holocene lithostratigraphy established for the Severn Estuary Holocene sequence. The footprints were digitised using an optical laser scanner and are compared to other Holocene human footprints exposed on the Sefton Coast in North West England. In comparison the Kenfig prints have poor anatomical form which may be the result of both the substrate and post-depositional modification. The paper demonstrates the value of using optical laser scanning in the data capture and analysis of transitory archaeological and geological trace evidence.     

A 7000-year record of environmental change,including early farming impact,based on lake-sediment geochemistry and pollen data from County Sligo,western Ireland

Detailed, chronologically tightly constrained, lake-sediment-based geochemical and pollen records have enabled local changes in soil erosion, woodland cover and composition, and prehistoric farming impact to be reconstructed in considerable detail. The profile opens shortly after 7800 BC when tall canopy trees were well-established and presumably in equilibrium with their environment. A distinct perturbation that involved an increase in pine and birch, a decrease in oak and a minor opening-up of the woodland is regarded as the local expression of the 8.2 ka climate anomaly. Lack of response in the geochemical erosional indicators is interpreted as evidence for drier conditions. A short-lived, over-compensation in climate recovery followed the 8.2 ka event. Neolithic farming impact is clearly expressed in both the pollen and geochemical data. Both datasets indicate that Neolithic impact was concentrated in the early Neolithic (3715–3440 BC). In the interval 3000–2700 BC there appears to have been a break in farming activity. The pollen data suggest substantially increased farming impact (both arable and pastoral) in the Bronze Age, with maximum farming and woodland clearances taking place in the late Bronze Age (1155–935 BC). These developments are poorly expressed in the geochemical record, possibly due to within-lake changes.     

ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE AND ITS IMPACTS ON HUMAN SETTLF, MENT IN THE CHANGJIANG RIVER DELTA IN NEOLITHIC AGE

Dating data, altitude of Neolithic sites, climatic changes from sedimentary records and previous research results were collected and analyzed to detect possible connections between climatic changes and human activities in the Changjiang River Delta in the Neolithic Age. The results indicated that hydrological changes greatly impacted the human activities in the study region. Low-lying geomorphology made the floods and sea level changes become the important factors affecting human activities, especially the altitude change of human settlements. People usually moved to higher places during the periods characterized by high sea level and frequent floods to escape the negative influences from water body expansion, which resulted in cultural hiatus in certain profiles. However, some higher-altitude settlements were not the results of climatic changes but the results of social factors, such as religious ceremony and social status. Therefore, further research will be necessary for the degree and types of impacts of climatic changes on human activities in the study area at that time.     

Evidence for climatic variability and its impact on human development during the Neolithic from Loughmeenaghan,County Sligo,Ireland

High‐resolution pollen and geochemical analyses conducted on a sediment profile from a small lake in County Sligo, Ireland, revealed that human development during the Neolithic was influenced by pronounced climatic oscillations. The primeval woodland around the lake experienced a considerable transformation coinciding with the elm decline at 3810 BC. The subsequent increase in summer temperatures and decrease in precipitation favoured wheat cultivation in the lake's catchment area, which was practised for approximately 140 years. A shift towards pastoral farming took place with the establishment of exceptionally dry conditions between 3650 and 3560 BC, when lake level and influx of allochthonous material were notably low. The onset of cool and wet conditions at the transition from the Early to Middle Neolithic possibly caused the initial decline of human activity in the area. Periods of particularly high precipitation during the Middle and early Late Neolithic contributed to the abandonment of the area by the first farmers. Comparison of the proxy record from the study site with other palynological and archaeological records from Ireland suggests that climatic variability on the decadal to centennial scale represented a primary control on the nature and duration of farming practices during the Neolithic. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Dating Neolithic rubble layers from Ba'ja and Basta sites in southern Jordan using luminescence

There is considerable evidence of widespread damage in the 7th millennium habitation sites across Jordan. The origins of this damage are unknown, but the most widely accepted hypothesis associates the resulting rubble and gravel deposits with the Holocene Rapid Climate Change. One way of testing the various hypotheses is to provide a more reliable chronology for the event(s) in question. In this study, we used quartz OSL and feldspar IRSL signals to date accumulative rubble layers at two archaeological sites in Southern Jordan; Ba'ja and Basta. By comparison with the OSL ages, the IRSL ages demonstrate that most of the quartz samples were sufficiently well bleached at deposition to provide accurate ages. Quartz ages show that deposition of the rubble layers took place in different episodes starting around 8.5 ka and 6.0 ka. Ages from Ba'ja site agree with the archaeological expectations of time of deposition. However, the results from Basta are younger than the archaeological expectations, which are based mainly on architectural style and stratigraphy.     

全新世环境考古研究进展

环境考古研究是国际上的热点问题之一,尤其是针对全新世以来的研究.以往的研究主要集中在气候突变事件对新石器文化的影响、人类对环境变迁的调整与适应、人类对于环境的影响与干预以及史前农业与气候环境的相关等方面.研究结果表明:极端气候事件的确对人类文化与农业文明产生了深远影响,但是人类也一定程度上对气候变迁做出了调整与响应.尽管在很长时间内,人类处于被动角色,但是随着时间延续,人与自然间关系也发生重大变动,逐步演变为人类对于自然的强烈影响与干预.目前各国科学家对此两个问题的讨论已经逐步摆脱定性阶段,开始向定量化方向发展.孢粉、磁化率、有机质等代用指标的运用,使得这一领域具有了更为广阔的前景和生命力.史前农业的研究牵涉的内容较为复杂,包括农业起源、农业传播以及农业发展过程中的诸多问题,它们与气候以及人类活动的关系一直是环境考古学家努力探索的方向,至今该领域的研究仍然存在很大争论和分歧.