Human-shaped landscape history in NE Greece. A palaeoenvironmental perspective

Abstract

Following palaeobotanical, sedimentological and archaeological research recently conducted on and around the tell of Dikili Tash (Eastern Macedonia, Greece), we present continuous palaeoenvironmental data on this multi-period site. This study combines pollen, non-pollen palynomorphs (NPPs), macro-charcoal and sedimentological analyses that are compared with archaeological data from the Middle Neolithic to Antiquity period. It provides an overview of the local environment near the former Tenaghi-Philippon marsh and a comprehensive view of human impact on vegetation cover in lowlands. As early as ca. 4550 cal BC, an initial phase of change in vegetation cover, has been recorded. This period, in the Eastern Mediterranean region, is one of intensifying human activities and social interactions into the Balkan region, which resulting in the foundation and transformation of early Late Neolithic societies. Although the palynological record does not show the crops species grown, the intensive clearance resulted in the increase of open herbaceous landscapes with anthropogenic indicators. This, as well as the increase of macro-charcoal values strongly supports a more or less continuously shaping of the landscape by human induced fires. New tree species that also became established at this time include Olea and Castanea.. The presence of three main formations can be argued from the Early Neolithic to Antiquity: (1) riparian vegetation, (2) oak woodlands and (3) open vegetation in the form of wooded grasslands. Beyond the responses to climate changes, the vegetation composition reflects a regionally diversified land management system as indicated by a greater diversity in cultivated or harvested plants. The study reveals two phases of decline in land use directly on the edge of the marsh, although indicators of anthropogenic disturbance of the vegetation never entirely disappear during these periods between 3900-3300 cal BC at the transition from the Late Neolithic (LNII) to the Bronze Age and from 1650-800 cal BC when we observe a reorganization of the settlement on the higher slopes. In contrast, four periods are characterized by an increase in land use extension and intensification: Late Neolithic (4500-3900 cal BC); Early to Middle Bronze Age (3000-1600 cal BC), the Iron Age (1000-800 cal BC) and Antiquity during the Macedonian (ca. 357-148 cal BC) and Roman periods (148 cal BC-cal AD 395).

Mid- to Late Holocene geomorphodynamics in a long-term settled mountain catchment in the Pergamon micro-region, western Turkey

“…Evidence for the increased sediment load and discharge of the Bakırçay River in the Tekkedere area (i.e., maximum floodplain extension, a 1000-year-long still water environment, and shifted secondary channels) coincides with this Middle Holocene humid period. These fluvial dynamics are not only observed in Tekkedere but also in other areas in the Pergamon micro-region (Schneider et al, 2015, 2017; Becker et al, 2020a) and the eastern Mediterranean region (Dusar et al, 2011; Benito et al, 2015; Glais et al, 2017; Bulkan et al, 2018; Ocakoğlu et al, 2019).…”

First evidence of a lake at Ancient Phaistos (Messara Plain, South-Central Crete, Greece): Reconstructing paleoenvironments and differentiating the roles of human land-use and paleoclimate from Minoan to Roman times

“…kyr BP event has its origins in climatic shifts from the North Atlantic to the Mediterranean area (Fletcher and Zielhofer, 2013), with a distinct increase in winter precipitation and summer aridity (Kuhnt et al, 2008). However, this resulted in diverse impacts in areas around the Mediterranean Sea, including an increase in humidity indices in the north-eastern Aegean Sea (Glais et al, 2017; Psomiadis et al, 2018). These contradictory findings of both arid and humid trends have triggered various discussions, for example, of the effect of both climatic oscillations and the intensification of human land-use (Roberts et al, 2011; Marinova et al, 2012; Weiberg et al, 2016).…”

Holocene demographic fluctuations, climate and erosion in the Mediterranean: A meta data-analysis

“…The second period of soil erosion and alluvial aggradation took place during the Ottoman period, linked to the intensification of farming in the plain and the valleys, along with the increase of grazing in the surrounding mountainous areas (Lespez, 2003). Therefore, we are sure that erosion in these small river basins in Northern Greece was triggered by local human activities and exacerbated by meteorological events, especially storms and their associated flash floods (Glais et al, 2016(Glais et al, , 2017Lespez, 2007).…”