300-Year drought frames Late Bronze Age to Early Iron Age transition in the Near East : new palaeoecological data from Cyprus and Syria
- Author
- David Kaniewski, Nick Marriner, Joachim Bretschneider (UGent) , Greta Jans, Christophe Morhange, Rachid Cheddadi, Thierry Otto, Frédéric Luce and Elise Van Campo
- Organization
- Abstract
- In Eastern Mediterranean history, 1200 BCE is a symbolic date. Its significance is tied to the important upheavals that destabilised regional-scale economic systems, leading to the dislocation of mighty Empires and, finally, to the "demise" of a societal model (termed "the Crisis Years"). Recent studies have suggested that a centuries-long drought, of regional scale, termed the 3.2 ka BP event, could be one of the motors behind this spiral of decline. Here, we focus on this pivotal period, coupling new palaeoenvironmental data and radiocarbon dates from Syria (the site of Tell Tweini) and Cyprus (the site of Pyla-Kokkinokremnos), to probe whether climate change accelerated changes in the Eastern Mediterranean's Old World, by inducing crop failures/low harvests, possibly engendering severe food shortages and even famine. We show that the Late Bronze Age crisis and the following Dark Ages were framed by an similar to 300-year drought episode that significantly impacted crop yields and may have led to famine. Our data underline the agro-productive sensitivity of ancient Mediterranean societies to environmental changes, as well as the potential link between adverse climate pressures and harvest/famine.
- Keywords
- Late Bronze Age crisis, Climate change, Drought 3.2 ka BP event, Food shortages, Famine, Eastern Mediterranean, HOLOCENE CLIMATIC-CHANGE, SOUTHERN LEVANT, HIGH-RESOLUTION, MEDITERRANEAN REGION, POLLEN DATA, RECORD, VEGETATION, VARIABILITY, NILE, SEA
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Citation
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication: http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-8589517
- MLA
- Kaniewski, David, et al. “300-Year Drought Frames Late Bronze Age to Early Iron Age Transition in the Near East : New Palaeoecological Data from Cyprus and Syria.” REGIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE, vol. 19, no. 8, 2019, pp. 2287–97, doi:10.1007/s10113-018-01460-w.
- APA
- Kaniewski, D., Marriner, N., Bretschneider, J., Jans, G., Morhange, C., Cheddadi, R., … Van Campo, E. (2019). 300-Year drought frames Late Bronze Age to Early Iron Age transition in the Near East : new palaeoecological data from Cyprus and Syria. REGIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE, 19(8), 2287–2297. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-018-01460-w
- Chicago author-date
- Kaniewski, David, Nick Marriner, Joachim Bretschneider, Greta Jans, Christophe Morhange, Rachid Cheddadi, Thierry Otto, Frédéric Luce, and Elise Van Campo. 2019. “300-Year Drought Frames Late Bronze Age to Early Iron Age Transition in the Near East : New Palaeoecological Data from Cyprus and Syria.” REGIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE 19 (8): 2287–97. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-018-01460-w.
- Chicago author-date (all authors)
- Kaniewski, David, Nick Marriner, Joachim Bretschneider, Greta Jans, Christophe Morhange, Rachid Cheddadi, Thierry Otto, Frédéric Luce, and Elise Van Campo. 2019. “300-Year Drought Frames Late Bronze Age to Early Iron Age Transition in the Near East : New Palaeoecological Data from Cyprus and Syria.” REGIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE 19 (8): 2287–2297. doi:10.1007/s10113-018-01460-w.
- Vancouver
- 1.Kaniewski D, Marriner N, Bretschneider J, Jans G, Morhange C, Cheddadi R, et al. 300-Year drought frames Late Bronze Age to Early Iron Age transition in the Near East : new palaeoecological data from Cyprus and Syria. REGIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE. 2019;19(8):2287–97.
- IEEE
- [1]D. Kaniewski et al., “300-Year drought frames Late Bronze Age to Early Iron Age transition in the Near East : new palaeoecological data from Cyprus and Syria,” REGIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE, vol. 19, no. 8, pp. 2287–2297, 2019.
@article{8589517,
abstract = {{In Eastern Mediterranean history, 1200 BCE is a symbolic date. Its significance is tied to the important upheavals that destabilised regional-scale economic systems, leading to the dislocation of mighty Empires and, finally, to the "demise" of a societal model (termed "the Crisis Years"). Recent studies have suggested that a centuries-long drought, of regional scale, termed the 3.2 ka BP event, could be one of the motors behind this spiral of decline. Here, we focus on this pivotal period, coupling new palaeoenvironmental data and radiocarbon dates from Syria (the site of Tell Tweini) and Cyprus (the site of Pyla-Kokkinokremnos), to probe whether climate change accelerated changes in the Eastern Mediterranean's Old World, by inducing crop failures/low harvests, possibly engendering severe food shortages and even famine. We show that the Late Bronze Age crisis and the following Dark Ages were framed by an similar to 300-year drought episode that significantly impacted crop yields and may have led to famine. Our data underline the agro-productive sensitivity of ancient Mediterranean societies to environmental changes, as well as the potential link between adverse climate pressures and harvest/famine.}},
author = {{Kaniewski, David and Marriner, Nick and Bretschneider, Joachim and Jans, Greta and Morhange, Christophe and Cheddadi, Rachid and Otto, Thierry and Luce, Frédéric and Van Campo, Elise}},
issn = {{1436-3798}},
journal = {{REGIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE}},
keywords = {{Late Bronze Age crisis,Climate change,Drought 3.2 ka BP event,Food shortages,Famine,Eastern Mediterranean,HOLOCENE CLIMATIC-CHANGE,SOUTHERN LEVANT,HIGH-RESOLUTION,MEDITERRANEAN REGION,POLLEN DATA,RECORD,VEGETATION,VARIABILITY,NILE,SEA}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{8}},
pages = {{2287--2297}},
title = {{300-Year drought frames Late Bronze Age to Early Iron Age transition in the Near East : new palaeoecological data from Cyprus and Syria}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10113-018-01460-w}},
volume = {{19}},
year = {{2019}},
}
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