DATE2019-01-08 12:44:22
IDABSTRACT2014/109
CONTACTamy.prendergast@cantab.net
PRESENTATIONORAL
INVITED0
IDSESSION1
TITLEA LATE PLEISTOCENE REFUGIUM IN NORTH AFRICA? PALAEOENVIRONMENTAL RECONSTRUCTION FROM STABLE ISOTOPE ANALYSIS OF TERRESTRIAL GASTROPODS (HAUA FTEAH, LIBYA)
AUTHORSAmy L. Prendergast (1)|Rhiannon E. Stevens (2)|Graeme Barker (2)|Tamsin C. O'Connell (2)
AFFILIATIONS
  1. University of Mainz, Mainz, Germany
  2. University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
ABSTRACTIn this paper, we show that oxygen isotopes from the shell carbonate of modern Helix melanostoma land snails reflect climate parameters in the southeast Mediterranean. Strong and significant correlations were found between the oxygen isotope ratio of the shell and the oxygen isotope ratio of rainfall, and between the oxygen isotope ratio of the shell and rainfall amount suggesting that H. melanostoma shells can be used as a proxy for past rainfall conditions. Simple and multiple linear regressions were used to develop predictive models for these climate parameters. These models were applied to H. melanostoma shells from the archaeological site of Haua Fteah in Libya to construct a palaeoenvironmental framework for interpreting north African human-environment interactions from the Epipaleolithic to the Neolithic (~20,000 to 5,000 years ago). The land snail stable isotope records from Haua Fteah revealed that cool arid conditions in the cave peaked during MIS 2. However, this time was only marginally drier than previous and subsequent stages in the cave and coincided with an increase in occupation density. This suggests that the Gebel Akhdar may have served as an environmental refugium from the more extreme aridity in the surrounding Sahara and the arid coastal plains for Late Stone Age (LSA) populations in north Africa. Environmental conditions became progressively wetter towards the Holocene. However, generally wetter conditions were interrupted by two arid episodes at c.8.0 ka and 7.3 ka that appear to coincide with regional changes reflected elsewhere in the Mediterranean basin and also with technological changes in the archaeological sequence.
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