The resilience of postglacial hunter-gatherers to abrupt climate change

Blockley, Simon; Candy, Ian; Matthews, Ian; Langdon, Peter G.; Langdon, Cath; Palmer, Adrian; Lincoln, Paul; Abrook, Ashley M.; Taylor, Barry; Conneller, Chantal; Bayliss, Alex; MacLeod, Alison; Deeprose, Laura; Darvill, Christopher M.; Kearney, Rebecca; Beavan, Nancy; Staff, Richard A.; Bamforth, Michael; Taylor, Maisie; Milner, Nicola

doi:10.1038/s41559-018-0508-4

Cited by 43 publications

(65 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…This allowed trees (Salix/Populus) to spread onto the peat. The same sequence has been recorded at Star Carr where Cladium increases following the shift to a shallower environment (Taylor and Alison 2018, p 130), before the lake edge deposits became terrestrialised and resulted in fen and carr forming by 10,450-10,165 cal bp (Supp Info 20-21 in Blockley et al 2018,). Assuming a similar rate of sedimentation in other parts of the basin the embayments at Seamer Carr, Lingholme, and Cayton (Fig.…”

Section: The Timing and Nature Of Wetland Succession In The Lake Flixsupporting

confidence: 61%

“…This pattern of settlement began to change from the latter stages of the early Mesolithic as sites on low-lying ground close to the shore were abandoned. The recent excavations at Star Carr, which focused on the area between 24 m and 25 m a.s.l., show occupation ending ca 10,500 cal bp (Milner et al 2018;Blockley et al 2018), whilst activity at Seamer Carr site C (which lay at a similar elevation) had ceased by ca 10,000 cal bp (Conneller et al 2016) (site locations in Fig. 2).…”

Section: Implications For Mesolithic Activitymentioning

confidence: 96%

“…Beyond the lake, pollen analysis has recorded a landscape of grassland and scrub with Juniperus, Salix and Betula that was replaced by Betula woodland from ca 11,100 cal bp (Fig. 4 in Blockley et al 2018).…”

Section: The Timing and Nature Of Wetland Succession In The Lake Flixmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Early Holocene wetland succession at Lake Flixton (UK) and its implications for Mesolithic settlement

Taylor

2019

Veget Hist Archaeobot

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This paper reports on new research into the timing and nature of post-glacial environmental change at Lake Flixton (North Yorkshire, UK). Previous investigations indicate a succession of wetland environments during the early Holocene, ultimately infilling the basin by ca 7,000 cal bp. The expansion of wetland environments, along with early Holocene woodland development, has been linked to changes in the human occupation of this landscape during the Mesolithic (ca 11,300-6,000 cal bp). However, our understanding of the timing and nature of environmental change within the palaeolake is poor, making it difficult to correlate to known patterns of Mesolithic activity. This paper provides a new record for both the chronology and character of environmental change within Lake Flixton, and discusses the implications for the Mesolithic occupation of the surrounding landscape.

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Section: The Timing and Nature Of Wetland Succession In The Lake Flixsupporting

confidence: 61%

Section: Implications For Mesolithic Activitymentioning

confidence: 96%

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Early Holocene wetland succession at Lake Flixton (UK) and its implications for Mesolithic settlement

Taylor

2019

Veget Hist Archaeobot

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“…By the end of the preceramic period, rooted in processes observed in the mid-Holocene record of Peru, politically and economically integrated hierarchical polities are an archaeological fact (Stothert et al 2003;Dillehay et al 2003;Pozorski and Pozorski 2008;. In turn, this trajectory may have increased the reliance of horticultural and high-altitude agro-pastoralist societies on anthropic niches to reinforce their pre-existing and adaptive strategies (Brooks 2006;Boivin et al 2016;Marsh 2016;Blockley et al 2018).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dates as data revisited: A statistical examination of the Peruvian preceramic radiocarbon record

Riris

2018

Journal of Archaeological Science

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This paper adopts a formal model-testing approach to the Peruvian radiocarbon (14 C) record, the site of the first aggregate analysis of this type of archaeological data. Using a large and improved regional dataset of radiometric determinations (n = 1180) from the period 14000-3000 14 C years before present, the study performs a comparative analysis of the demographic trajectories of two subregions, the desert coast and Andean highlands. Against the backdrop of theoretical models of population growth, and controlling for taphonomic factors and sampling biases, the study performs global significance and permutation tests on the data. These provide a necessary measure of statistical confidence that have hereto been absent from the discussion of pre-Columbian demography. Contrary to the findings of prior work, this study of radiocarbon data in Peru reveals that regional trends in the data are statistically indistinguishable. Further testing and comparison to climate archives is able to illustrate sustained population growth over the entire Holocene epoch in this region, with only a few notable exceptions at the end of the mid-Holocene (5000 cal BP). The findings of the analysis are viewed in relation to the cultural and technological changes that indigenous societies experienced in the timeframe in question, and some directions for methodological advances are suggested.

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“…Globally, the transition to the current interglacial sees a number of important climatic events, with Younger Dryas cooling marking the last stage of the glacial from ~13 ka cal BP, and rapid Holocene warming from ~11.7 ka cal BP (Blockley et al, 2012;Rasmussen et al, 2014), both influencing atmospheric regimes (Steffensen et al, 2008;Wang et al, 2001). The Early Holocene also features abrupt climatic events at ~11.4, 11.1, 9.3 and 8.2 ka cal BP (Blockley et al, 2018;Dykoski et al, 2005;Heiri et al, 2004;Hoek and Bos, 2007;Rasmussen et al, 2014;Zhang et al, 2018), thought to be linked to freshwater outbursts, reducing thermohaline circulation (THC) in the North Atlantic (Barber et al, 1999;Rohling and Pälike, 2005;Teller et al, 2002), solar minima (Bond et al, 2001;Dykoski et al, 2005), and volcanic eruptions (Anchukaitis et al, 2010;Cole-Dai et al, 2013;Sigl et al, 2015). This period provides important context for future climate changes, as much of the temperature variability is within the range predicted for the next 100-200 years (2-4 • C) (Collins et al, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hydrological (in)stability in Southern Siberia during the Younger Dryas and early Holocene

Harding

Безрукова

Kostrova

et al. 2020

Global and Planetary Change

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Southern Siberia is currently undergoing rapid warming, inducing changes in vegetation, loss of permafrost, and impacts on the hydrodynamics of lakes and rivers. Lake sediments are key archives of environmental change and contain a record of ecosystem variability, as well as providing proxy indicators of wider environmental and climatic change. Investigating how hydrological systems have responded to past shifts in climate can provide essential context for better understanding future ecosystem changes in Siberia. Oxygen isotope ratios within lacustrine records provide fundamental information on past variability in hydrological systems. Here we present a new oxygen isotope record from diatom silica (ẟ 18 O diatom) at Lake Baunt (55 • 11 ′ 15 ′′ N, 113 • 01,45 ′′ E), in the southern part of eastern Siberia, and consider how the site has responded to climate changes between the Younger Dryas and Early to Mid Holocene (ca. 12.4 to 6.2 ka cal BP). Excursions in ẟ 18 O diatom are influenced by air temperature and the seasonality, quantity, and source of atmospheric precipitation. These variables are a function of the strength of the Siberian High, which controls temperature, the proportion and quantity of winter versus summer precipitation, and the relative dominance of Atlantic versus Pacific air masses. A regional comparison with other Siberian ẟ 18 O diatom records, from lakes Baikal and Kotokel, suggests that ẟ 18 O diatom variations in southern Siberia reflect increased continentality during the Younger Dryas, delayed Early Holocene warming in the region, and substantial climate instability between ~10.5 to ~8.2 ka cal BP. Unstable conditions during the Early Holocene thermal optimum most likely reflect localised changes from glacial melting. Taking the profiles from three very different lakes together, highlight the influence of site specific factors on the individual records, and how one site is not indicative of the region as a whole. Overall, the study documents how sensitive this important region is to both internal and external forcing.

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The resilience of postglacial hunter-gatherers to abrupt climate change

Cited by 43 publications

References 38 publications

Early Holocene wetland succession at Lake Flixton (UK) and its implications for Mesolithic settlement

Early Holocene wetland succession at Lake Flixton (UK) and its implications for Mesolithic settlement

Dates as data revisited: A statistical examination of the Peruvian preceramic radiocarbon record

Hydrological (in)stability in Southern Siberia during the Younger Dryas and early Holocene

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