DATE2016-05-30 10:14:24
IDABSTRACT20160530101424-1044
CONTACTmartin.finne@antiken.uu.se
PRESENTATIONORAL-PLENARY
INVITED0
IDSESSION3
TITLEBRONZE AGE PRECIPITATION VARIABILITY RECORDED IN A SPELEOTHEM FROM MAVRI TRYPA CAVE, PELOPONNESE, GREECE
AUTHORSMartin Finné (1,2,3), Karin Holmgren (4,2,3), Chuan-chou Shen (5), Hsun-ming Hu (5)
AFFILIATIONS
  1. Department Of Archaeology And Ancient History, Uppsala University Uppsala (Sweden)
  2. Department Of Physical Geography, Stockholm University Stockholm (Sweden)
  3. Navarino Environmental Observatory Messinia (Greece)
  4. Swedish University Of Agricultural Sciences Uppsala (Sweden)
  5. High-precision Mass Spectrometry And Environment Change Laboratory (hispec), Department Of Geosciences, National Taiwan University Taipei (Taiwan)
ABSTRACTNew insights into the climate during the Aegean Bronze Age is provided by high resolution stable isotope data (d18O and d13C) from a stalagmite from Mavri Trypa Cave, SW Peloponnese. The stable oxygen isotopes reflect variability in precipitation amount. The chronology of the stalagmite is based on 24 U-Th ages with an average uncertainty of ±25 years. The stalagmite formed between 4700 and 1300 cal years BP. Petrographic thin section analysis revealed two interruptions in growth, between 4200 and 3800 cal yrs BP and between 2950 and 2050 cal yrs BP. Here, we focus on the growth periods from 4700 to 4200 cal yrs BP and from 3800 to 2950 cal yrs BP, the former coinciding in time with the Early Helladic II period and the latter with a period extending from the end of the Middle Bronze Age to end of the Late Bronze Age, on the Greek Mainland. In these periods, the role of climate change for societal evolution has been heavily debated. These discussions have, however, been hampered by the lack of local paleoclimate data. With the addition of the well-dated record from Mavri Trypa this problem is alleviated. The stable oxygen isotope data from Mavri Trypa indicate two periods of pronounced dry conditions between 4350 and 4200 cal yrs BP and 3080 to 2950 cal yrs BP both ending with prolonged interruptions in stalagmite formation. Beyond these very dry periods, we find evidence of two less pronounced dry periods of apparently similar magnitude, in the Late Bronze Age. A first period of around 150 years of overall drier conditions is centered on 3450 cal yrs BP, coinciding with LH II, and the second is a c. two decades long dry phase centered around 3200 cal yrs BP concurring with the end of the LH IIIB and thus the final phases of the Mycenaean palatial era.
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