During the period of instrumental records, the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) has strongly influenced interannual precipitation variations in the western Mediterranean, while some eastern parts of the basin have shown an anti-phase relationship in precipitation and atmospheric pressure. Here we explore how the NAO and other atmospheric circulation modes operated over the longer timescales of the Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA) and Little Ice Age (LIA). High-resolution palaeolimnological evidence from opposite ends of the Mediterranean basin, supplemented by other palaeoclimate data, is used to track shifts in regional hydro-climatic conditions. Multiple geochemical, sedimentological, isotopic and palaeoecological proxies from Estanya and Montcortés lakes in northeast Spain and Nar lake in central Turkey have been crosscorrelated at decadal time intervals since AD 900. These dryland lakes capture sensitively changes in precipitation/evaporation (P/E) balance by adjustments in water level and salinity, and are especially valuable for reconstructing variability over decadal-centennial timescales. Iberian lakes show lower water levels and higher salinities during the 11th to 13th centuries synchronous with the MCA and generally more humid conditions during the 'LIA' (15th-19th centuries). This pattern is also clearly evident in tree-ring records from Morocco and from marine cores in the western Mediterranean Sea. In the eastern Mediterranean, palaeoclimatic records from Turkey, Greece and the Levant show generally drier hydro-climatic conditions during the LIA and a wetter phase during the MCA. This implies that a bipolar climate see-saw has operated in the Mediterranean for the last 1100 years. However, while western Mediterranean aridity appears consistent with persistent positive NAO state during the MCA, the pattern is less clear in the eastern Mediterranean. Here the strongest evidence for higher winter season precipitation during the MCA comes from central Turkey in the northeastern sector of the Mediterranean basin. This in turn implies that the LIA/MCA hydroclimatic pattern in the Mediterranean was determined by a combination of different climate modes along with major physical geographical controls, and not by NAO forcing alone, or that the character of the NAO and its teleconnections have been non-stationary.

Individual palaeoenvironmental records represent a combination of regional-scale (e.g. climatic) and site-specific local factors. Here we compare multiple climate proxies from two nearby maar lake records, assuming that common signals are due to regional-scale forcing. A new core sequence from Nar Lake in Turkey is dated by varves and U-Th to the last 13.8 ka. Markedly dry periods during the Lateglacial stadial, at 4.3-3.7 and at 3.2-2.6 ka BP, are associated with peaks in Mg/dolomite, positive d18 O, elevated diatom-inferred electrical conductivity, an absence of laminated sediments and low Quercus/chenopod ratios. Wet phases occurred during the early-mid Holocene and 1.5-0.6 ka BP, characterized by negative d18 O, calcite precipitation, high Ca/Sr ratios, a high percentage of planktonic diatoms, laminated sediments and high Quercus/chenopod ratios. Comparison with the record from nearby Eski Acıgö l shows good overall correspondence for many proxies, especially for d 18 O. Differences are related to basin infilling and lake ontogeny at Eski Acıgö l, which consequently fails to register climatic changes during the last 2 ka, and to increased flux of lithogenic elements into Nar Lake during the last 2.6 ka, not primarily climatic in origin. In attempting to separate a regional signal from site-specific 'noise', two lakes may therefore be better than one.

Les fouilles du site daté de l’Épipaléolithique ancien de ‘ Ayn Qasiyya dans l’oasis d’Azraq (Est de la Jordanie) fournissent des données nouvelles et importantes pour notre compréhension des causes de la sédentarisation, des effets écologiques sur l’évolution culturelle, des pratiques funéraires et des relations sociales en Asie du Sud-Ouest à la fi n du Pléistocène. Cet article présente un résumé du travail sur ce site et il fournit les résultats préliminaires de l’analyse de la faune, des artefacts et des restes humains. En outre, il discute de l’importance de ces résultats dans le contexte de la séquence culturelle locale et régionale à la fi n du Pléistocène. Nos données offrent un aperçu de la relation entre les industries lithiques du Nébékien et du Kébarien. Elles suggèrent que l’environnement local de l’oasis d’Azraq a facilité le début de la pédogénèse vers 21 000-20 000 cal. BP. Enfin, elles confirment la nature éphémère des pratiques funéraires de l’Épipaléolithique ancien.

This synthesis paper offers a comparative perspective on how seven different Mediterranean regions, from Iberia and Morocco to the Levant, have been transformed by human and natural agencies during the last ten millennia. It draws on a range of sources of data notably, 1) archaeological site surveys (n=32k) and 14 C dates (n=12k) as proxies for long-term population change, 2) pollen records as a proxy for past vegetation and land cover (n=157), and 3) proxies, such as stable isotopes, from lake, cave and marine records as indicators of hydro-climate (n=47). Where possible, these data sets have been made spatially and temporally congruent in order to examine relationships between them statistically and graphically. Data have been aggregated or averaged for each region/subregion and put into 200-year time windows. Archaeo-demographic data show a clear increase at the start of Neolithic farming, followed by a series of regionally-asynchronous fluctuations in population, prior to a pan-Mediterranean Roman settlement maximum. Pollen data indicate a Late Holocene decline in %Arboreal Pollen in those regions that were initially well-wooded, but not in drier regions of the southern/eastern Mediterranean. Overall, the clearest palynological proxy for human land cover change is provided by the OJCV (tree crop) index. The cultivation of these trees in the eastern Mediterranean after 6500 Cal yr BP may have been an adaptive response to mid-Holocene climatic desiccation. These anthropogenic pollen indicators correlate more closely with trends in population than with regional hydro-climatic z-scores, implying that they reflect primarily human activities. During the mid-Holocene, most Mediterranean landscapes were transformed by a combination of climate and rural land use, but after ~3500 Cal yr BP, human actions became increasingly dominant in determining land cover. During the last 1500 years the dominant landscape trajectory in the eastern Mediterranean was markedly different to that in the central/western Mediterranean.

24Palaeo-hydrological interpretations of lake sediment proxies can benefit from a robust 25 understanding of the modern lake environment. In this study, we use Nar Gölü, a non-outlet, 26 monomictic maar lake in central Turkey, as a field site for a natural experiment using 27 observations and measurements over a 17-year monitoring period (1997)(1998)(1999)(2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014)