HR: 1330h
AN: PP42B-0874    [PDF]
TI: Dating, definition, and impacts of Holocene short-term climate change episodes: issues and prospects with an Aegean area focus
AU: * Manning, S W
EM: s.w.manning@reading.ac.uk
AF: Department of Archaeology, University of Reading, PO Box 217 Whiteknights, Reading, RG6 6AB United Kingdom
AB: Much attention currently focuses on the identification and role of significant short-term (century-scale) climate change episodes, with instances of such episodes in the past offering analogues for possible present and future scenarios. Archaeology has so far been under-used as a relevant data source. It has a great deal to contribute with rich datasets pertaining to the impacts on humans and their habitats from such events. The Aegean region - the case study considered in this paper - has a rich database from the Neolithic period (9th millennium BC) onwards. But a key issue must first be addressed: the ability to establish tight chronological resolution for all data types to be considered. This is critical to ensure that only genuinely coeval and associated phenomena as observed in various records are considered together. There is otherwise a danger that researchers suck in a variety of un-linked data and smear them together inappropriately. The problem centres particularly on radiocarbon dating, since this is the main basis to prehistoric archaeological dating, and also the dating of most pollen records, sediment records, and so on. For example, significant short-term global climate change episodes have been recognised at 8.2, 5.2 and 4.2 ka BP. However, is it a coincidence that each of these dates lie in periods when radiocarbon levels effectively plateau - that is real calendar dates over 100-200$+$ year periods yield essentially very similar radiocarbon ages? Are disassociated data being associated through similar radiocarbon ages rather than their true calendar dates? This problem, and potential strategies to a solution through radiocarbon wiggle-matching, will be explored for the above episodes. Concentrating then on the 4.2 ka BP episode, data from one particular case - the Aegean region - will be assessed in terms of our ability to define the 4.2 ka BP event. Current limitations will be highlighted. The differing impacts of the episode in the region will then be surveyed to highlight the variety of responses such episodes can promote contingent on local circumstances and evolutionary trajectories.
DE: 1620 Climate dynamics (3309)
DE: 1812 Drought
DE: 3344 Paleoclimatology
DE: 6213 Dust
SC: Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology [PP]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting