Vegetation history of the Maharlou Lake basin (SW Iran) with special reference to the Achaemenid period (550–330 bc)

Abstract

This study presents the results of a palynological investigation on a sediment core from the seasonal and saline Lake Maharlou in the Zagros Mountains in southwest Iran. We emphasised studying the role of man in modifying the vegetation of the area and the dominant agricultural practices during the Imperial Persia period (2,500–1,299 cal bp; 550 bc-ad 651), particularly the Achaemenid Empire (2,500–2,280 cal bp; 550–330 bc). Scattered pistachio-almond scrub combined with Quercus brantii was the main vegetation type of the basin during the period studied. The present study depicts a significant increase in agriculture, suggesting urban development during the Late Antiquity and early Islamic Iranian dynasties. The inferred chronology of arboricultural activities is compatible with historical evidence showing that Fars Province witnessed economic and agricultural flourishing during these periods. The presence of the ‘Persian gardens’ is supported by the co-increase of cypress tree pollen frequencies with pollen of other cultivated trees, especially Platanus; both trees were cultivated for their shade and symbolic values. This study also provides pollen evidence of Punica granatum during the Achaemenid period and Phoenix dactylifera cultivation during the early post-Sasanian era. The variations in indicator pollen ratios among Poaceae, Artemisia, and Amaranthaceae appear compatible with the palaeohydrology of the basin and show periods of aridity followed by higher moisture availability. We suggest that anthropogenic activities played the leading role in vegetation change in the Maharlou Lake basin enhanced by climatic changes during the last ~4,000 years.

Palaeoecology and conservation of endangered hidden species; example of the liverwort Riella (Riellaceae)

“…The presence of Riella spores has been so far reported and published from only three sites i.e. Lake Urmia (Djamali et al 2008b;Talebi et al 2016), Lake Parishan (Djamali et al 2015), and Lake Maharlou (Saeidi Ghavi Andam et al 2020). Most of the fossil spore data presented in this paper are thus, the first records of Riella from the…”

Pulvar River changes in the Pasargadae plain (Fars, Iran) during the Holocene and the consequences for water management in the first millennium BCE

“…The deposit of T2 could have been caused by two phenomena that were probably coupled: a temporary rise in precipitation and intensive cultivation during the Medieval period (Saeidi Ghavi Andam et al, 2020). The climatic modification would have favoured a return of erosion on the slopes and an increase in the Pulvar's sedimentary load (Fig.…”

“…In the Fars region, the hydro-climatic reconstructions of two large lakes (Maharlou, 80 km south of Pasargadae, and Parishan, 150 km southwest of Pasargadae) not only reveal the high sensitivity of these hydro-systems to natural climatic variations in a semi-arid continental context, but also the significant modification of the hydrochemistry and the position of the water tables in their catchment basins as a result of human activities (Jones et al, 2015;Brisset et al, 2019). For both lakes, palynological investigations have shown a very prominent phase of human activity (observed for the Achaemenid period), with evidence of large-scale agro-pastoralism and, especially, the development of irrigated tree-farming (Djamali et al, 2015;Saeidi Ghavi Andam et al, 2020). Preliminary assessment of sediment cores in several wetland systems of the Persepolis basin and surrounding regions also show a very close human-wetland interaction, and the use of spring wetland water resources by humans at least since the Achaemenid period (Djamali et al, 2018).…”

Reviewing the Palaeoenvironmental Record to Better Understand Long-Term Human-Environment Interaction in Inner Asia During the Late Holocene

“…In addition to increases in Juglans pollen, the presence of Platanus pollen suggests an aesthetic and economic investment into this landscape. Potts (2018) notes the mid-Holocene spread of Juglans and Platanus in pollen records across Iran, which precedes the deep cultural significance of walnut and plane trees in the later Persian and Islamic periods when pollen of both types expands in records from Iran (Saeidi Ghavi Andam et al, 2021). Platanus pollen is recorded in a Pleistocene loess-palaeosol record from southern Tajikistan (Dodonov and Baiguzina, 1995), however, in the topmost pedocomplex 1, dated relative to Marine Isotope Stage 5, it is poorly represented and also appears absent from other Early Holocene pollen records in the region.…”