Stable isotope analysis of archaeological oak charcoal from eastern Anatolia as a marker of mid‐Holocene climate change

Abstract

Comparison between modern trees and archaeological charred wood is an under-explored method to study climate change, which may help to infer past environmental changes. The stable carbon content of deciduous oak charcoals was analysed for five periods covering more than a 1000 years (3350-2000 BC) at the site of Arslantepe, Turkey, together with modern deciduous oak specimens from five rare arboreal patches still present in the area (17-64 km from the site). In studies of past climate change it is difficult to distinguish human-induced changes from independent variations, such as the impact of past populations on the landscape and their relationship with climate changes in the mid-Holocene. Archaeology can evaluate climate signals preserved in fossil plants in light of past human life. This paper will contribute to understanding environmental changes that can be attributed to climate variation and those linked to human activities. We compared (13) C/(12) C of modern and fossil oaks in order to correlate the (13) C-content to environmental features of Arslantepe, both today and between 3350 and 2000 BC. At present, this area is semi-arid. The results show important similarities to palaeoenvironmental records for the rest of the Near East. The climate trend can be divided in three main phases: instability phase from ca. 3200 to 2900 BC; a phase of relative stability (until 2350 BC); and a final increase in aridity. The comparison of Δ(13) C values between fossil and modern plants shows that present climate is more arid than that between the end of the fourth and the whole third millennium BC.

Birth is but our death begun: A bioarchaeological assessment of skeletal emaciation in immature human skeletons in the context of environmental, social, and subsistence transition

“…along the banks of monsoon-fed rivers in the semi-arid landscape of north-west India and Pakistan (Bryson, 1981;Wright, 1993;Enzel et al, 1999;Von Rad, 1999;Phadtare, 2000;Singh and Bengtsson, 2004;Madella and Fuller, 2006;Migowski et al, 2006). From 2200 to 1700 BC, centuries-long drought contributed to disruptions in the interaction sphere across Middle and West Asia (Mayewski et al, 2004;Staubwasser and Weiss, 2006;Fiorentino et al, 2008;Frahm and Feinberg, 2013;Masi et al, 2013). While initially this period of increasing aridity appears to have corresponded to rapid population growth at Indus urban centers (2200-2000 BC), centuries of environmental change and economic disruption contributed to the abandonment of the urban lifestyle in South Asia, beginning around 1900 BC.…”

Comparative modeling of Bronze Age land use in the Malatya Plain (Turkey)

“…First, by combining results of the paleoclimate model and multiproxy-based paleoenvironmental reconstructions, we can quantify the rate of change in the environment under increasingly more arid conditions that were common during the Bronze Age (Bartosiewicz, 2010;Kuzucuo glu and Marro, 2007;Masi et al, 2013a;Roberts et al, 2011). In the Near East, multiproxy paleoenvironmental reconstructions suggest major periods of drought since the start of the Holocene, one of which is known as the 4.2 kyr BP event (Weiss et al, 1993).…”

“…In addition, wood remains have also provided data on structural elements, fuel, tools, and movable objects (Alvaro, 2010;Piccione et al, 2015;Sadori and Masi, 2012;Sadori et al, 2006Sadori et al, , 2008Vignola et al, 2014). Moreover, the archaeobotanical assemblage constituted an excellent database for paleoenvironmental reconstruction based on stable carbon isotope analysis (Baneschi et al, 2012;Masi et al, 2013aMasi et al, , 2013bMasi et al, , 2014. These studies indicate a wetter climate between the end of the fourth and the entire third millennium BC compared to today.…”

“…However, from about 4850 to 4500 cal. BP, climate in the Malatya Plain may suggest more humid conditions in late winter/early spring (Masi et al, 2013a(Masi et al, , 2013b.…”

Palaeoecology and long-term human impact in plant biology

“…This wellestablished approach was first used in northern and central European regions (Birks et al 1988;Faegri & Iversen 1989;Behre & Jacomet 1991), then in other regions such as the Mediterranean one (Sadori et al 2004;Mercuri et al 2012;Galop et al 2013;Orengo et al 2014), Africa (Mercuri 2008;Picornell Gelabert et al 2011;Giraudi et al 2012;Cremaschi et al 2014;Hély et al 2014) and Americas (Pearsall 2000;Anderson et al 2013). Valuable integration between palaeoclimate studies and natural resource management in Australia (Saunders & Taffs 2009;Mills et al 2013) and on fairly synchronous social and environmental changes in Asia (Asouti 2005;Biehl 2012;Masi et al 2013aMasi et al , 2013bLanggut et al 2014) are also known.…”