Holocene climate change and prehistoric settlement in the lower Danube valley

Macklin, Mark G.; Boroneanț, Adina; Pickard, Catriona; Bartosiewicz, László; Higham, Thomas

doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2014.09.031

Cited by 15 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…While the record for the Mesolithic and Neolithic periods is good, thanks to the presence of famous sites that have attracted continuous scientific attention (e.g. the Danube Gorges and the site of Vinča; see recently Bonsall et al 2015; Tasić et al 2016), later periods are less well-covered. This situation is particularly unfortunate as this area lies at the crossroads of many natural communication routes connecting central Europe with the Balkan peninsula and, beyond, the Aegean and the Adriatic seas.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Absolute Dating of Copper and Early Bronze Age Levels at the Eponymous Archaeological Site Bubanj (Southeastern Serbia)

Bulatović¹,

Linden

2017

Radiocarbon

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This paper reports the first radiocarbon (14C) dates obtained for the Eneolithic/Bronze Age site of Bubanj, Serbia. Despite featuring prominently in the existing typo-chronological schemes for southeastern Europe, the history of research and recent large-scale destruction of the site had prevented so far the acquisition of samples from secure archaeological contexts. We fill this documentary gap by presenting 10 new14C dates, covering the late 5th, 4th, and 3rd millennia cal BC. These dates are compared to the existing documentation from the literature, in order to assess the placement of Bubanj within its wider archaeological context.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Absolute Dating of Copper and Early Bronze Age Levels at the Eponymous Archaeological Site Bubanj (Southeastern Serbia)

Bulatović¹,

Linden

2017

Radiocarbon

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“…The peaks that surpass the mean value of the relative probability indicate that during that time the fluvial activity on the rivers had a greater intensity than in other time intervals. These years are indicated on the figure next to the peaks, respectively: 6200, 5300, 4100-4080, 3600, 23004100-4080, 3600, -22004100-4080, 3600, , 19004100-4080, 3600, , 1300 The fluvial units on the rivers from Siret basin which were exemplified here, supplemented by other documented reports for Romania (Howard et al, 2004;Perșoiu, 2010;Bonsall et al, 2015; lead to the conclusion that periods of alluvial sedimentation correlate well with episodes of climatic cooling, higher rainfall and enhanced river activity.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 56%

Mid and Late Holocene flooding reconstruction based on fluvial archives of the East Carpathian rivers

Rãdoane

Chiriloaei

Rădoane

et al. 2018

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This paper focused on the analysis of the interpretation potential given by fluvial archives, in order to decipher the Mid- to Late Holocene sedimentary history. The database discussed here refers to 65 dated ages (mostly radiocarbon), mappings of the most representative floodplain reaches of Suceava, Moldova and Siret rivers, and 23 outcrops analysed in floodplain deposits (river banks or gravel pits). The study results concentrated on (a) describing the regional features of Eastern Carpathian floodplains, (b) the floodplain morphology and its correlation with the structure of fluvial deposits and (c) identifying the paleoevents of fluvial activity on a centennial timescale. In this way, we were able to identify a general pattern of the dynamic geomorphology history for the rivers situated eastward of the Carpathians, which resulted from combining the Mid- to Late Holocene sedimentation phases, the avulsion and lateral migration processes that occurred during high fluvial activity intervals and the morphological adjustment of the rivers channels, from braiding to wandering and sinuously–meandering. The chronological overlay of the events revealed that the time intervals with the most extensive fluvial processes on the rivers draining the Eastern Carpathians occurred (in years before present) during 6200, 5300, 4100–4080, 3600, 2300–2200 (Iron Age), 1300 (Migrations Period), 950–970 (Medieval Climate Anomaly), 750–520 BP (Little Ice Age)and that these intervals generally overlap the high precipitation palaeoclimatic episodes documented in Romania. The fluvial activity of the rivers during the Mid- to Late Holocene has been compared as well with several records of paleo–climates variability over the geographical area of Romania. The result showed that many flooding episodes were coincident with the wet and cold intervals which were also identified in the variation of the other proxydata, especially after 4.7 kcal BP.

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“…Bonsall et al . 47,48 have previously argued that this particular climatic oscillation dated between c. 6300 and 6100 cal BC might have affected significantly Late Mesolithic settlement pattern in the Danube Gorges area along the river edges and especially low-lying portions of the sites due to the increased risk of flooding, thus prompting relocation of settlements. It should be noted that to date the only evidence used to argue this scenario in the Danube Gorges area comes from the distribution of radiocarbon dates with arguable “gap” in the occupation of all sites except Lepenski Vir during this cold spell.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…48 also suggested that lower lying parts of Lepenski Vir were affected by flooding, which might have removed datable material during floods, prompting people to move their dwelling structures to higher parts of the site. This scenario is unlikely on the basis of the evidence presented here for two reasons.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

High-Resolution AMS Dating of Architecture, Boulder Artworks and the Transition to Farming at Lepenski Vir

Borić

Higham

Cristiani

et al. 2018

Sci Rep

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The archaeological site of Lepenski Vir is widely known after its remarkable stone art sculptures that represent a unique and unprecedented case of Holocene hunter-gatherer creativity. These artworks were found largely associated with equally unique trapezoidal limestone building floors around their centrally located rectangular stone-lined hearths. A debate has raged since the discovery of the site about the chronological place of various discovered features. While over years different views from that of the excavator about the stratigraphy and chronology of the site have been put forward, some major disagreements about the chronological position of the features that make this site a key point of reference in European Prehistory persist. Despite challenges of re-analyzing the site’s stratigraphy from the original excavation records, taphonomic problems, and issues of reservoir offsets when providing radiocarbon measurements on human and dog bones, our targeted AMS (Accelerator Mass Spectrometry) dating of various contexts from this site with the application of Bayesian statistical modelling allows us to propose with confidence a new and sound chronological framework and provide formal estimates for several key developments represented in the archaeological record of Lepenski Vir that help us in understanding the transition of last foragers to first farmers in southeast Europe as a whole.

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Holocene climate change and prehistoric settlement in the lower Danube valley

Cited by 15 publications

References 45 publications

Absolute Dating of Copper and Early Bronze Age Levels at the Eponymous Archaeological Site Bubanj (Southeastern Serbia)

Absolute Dating of Copper and Early Bronze Age Levels at the Eponymous Archaeological Site Bubanj (Southeastern Serbia)

Mid and Late Holocene flooding reconstruction based on fluvial archives of the East Carpathian rivers

High-Resolution AMS Dating of Architecture, Boulder Artworks and the Transition to Farming at Lepenski Vir

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