Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-g7gxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T07:06:46.816Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Holocene Climate Variability and Cultural Evolution in the Near East from the Dead Sea Sedimentary Record

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Claudia Migowski ,
Mordechai Stein ,
Sushma Prasad ,
Jörg F.W. Negendank  and
Amotz Agnon
Claudia Migowski
Affiliation:
GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam, Sec. 3.3 Climate Dynamics and Sediments, Telegrafenberg, 14473 Potsdam, Germany
Mordechai Stein*
Affiliation:
Geological Survey of Israel, 30 Malkhe Yisrael St., Jerusalem 95501, Israel Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Givat Ram, Jerusalem 91904, Israel
Sushma Prasad
Affiliation:
GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam, Sec. 3.3 Climate Dynamics and Sediments, Telegrafenberg, 14473 Potsdam, Germany
Jörg F.W. Negendank
Affiliation:
GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam, Sec. 3.3 Climate Dynamics and Sediments, Telegrafenberg, 14473 Potsdam, Germany
Amotz Agnon
Affiliation:
Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Givat Ram, Jerusalem 91904, Israel
*
⁎Corresponding author. Geological Survey of Israel, 30 Malkhe Yisrael St., Jerusalem 95501, Israel. Fax: +972 2 5662581. E-mail address:motis@vms.huji.ac.il (M. Stein).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A comprehensive record of lake level changes in the Dead Sea has been reconstructed using multiple, well dated sediment cores recovered from the Dead Sea shore. Interpreting the lake level changes as monitors of precipitation in the Dead Sea drainage area and the regional eastern Mediterranean palaeoclimate, we document the presence of two major wet phases (∼ 10–8.6 and ∼ 5.6–3.5 cal kyr BP) and multiple abrupt arid events during the Holocene. The arid events in the Holocene Dead Sea appear to coincide with major breaks in the Near East cultural evolution (at ∼ 8.6, 8.2, 4.2, 3.5 cal kyr BP). Wetter periods are marked by the enlargement of smaller settlements and growth of farming communities in desert regions, suggesting a parallelism between climate and Near East cultural development.

Keywords

Dead SeaHolocenePaleoclimatePaleohydrologyNear EastCulture history
Type
Special Issue Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 66 , Issue 3 , November 2006 , pp. 421 - 431
Copyright
University of Washington

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Amiran, R., and Ilan, O. Early Arad II. The Chalcolithic and Early Bronze IB settlements and the Early Bronze II city. (1996). Architecture and Town Planning, Jerusalem.Google Scholar
Arz, H., Lamy, F., Pätzold, J., Müller, P.J., and Prins, M. Mediterranean moisture source for an Early-Holocene humid period in the northern Red Sea. Science 300, (2003). 118–121.Google Scholar
Barkan, E., Luz, B., and Lazar, B. Dynamics of the carbon dioxide system in the Dead Sea. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 65, (2001). 355–368.Google Scholar
Bar-Matthews, M., Ayalon, A., Gilmour, M., Matthews, A., and Hawkesworth, C.J. Sea–land oxygen isotopic relationships from planctonic foraminifera and speleothems in the Eastern Mediterranean region and their implication for paleorainfall during interglacial intervals. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 67, (2003). 3181–3199.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bartov, Y., (2004). Sedimentary fill analysis of a continental basin—The late Pleistocene Dead Sea. PhD Thesis, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem. 120 pp. (in Hebrew, with extended English abstract).Google Scholar
Bartov, Y., Stein, M., Enzel, Y., Agnon, A., and Reches, Z. Lake levels and sequence stratigraphy of Lake Lisan, the late Pleistocene precursor of the Dead Sea. Quaternary Research 57, (2002). 9–21.Google Scholar
Bar-Yosef, O. The impact of radiocarbon dating on old world archaeology: past achievements and future expectations. Radiocarbon 42, 1 (2000). 23–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bar-Yosef, O., and Kra, R.S. Late Quaternary chronology and paleoclimates of the eastern Mediterranean, Radiocarbon, Tucson, AZ. (1995). 371 pp. Google Scholar
Ben-Tor, A., and Rubiato, M.T. Excavating Hazor, II. Did the Israelites destroy the Canaanite city?. Biblical Archaeology Review 25, (1999). 22–39.Google Scholar
Bookman (Ken-Tor), R., Enzel, Y., Agnon, A., and Stein, M. Late Holocene lake levels of the Dead Sea. Geological Society of America Bulletin 116, 5 (2004). 555–571.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Connan, J., Nissenbaum, A., and Dessort, D. Molecular archaeology-export of Dead Sea asphalt to Canaan and Egypt in the Chalcolithic-Early Bronze Age (4th–3rd Mill, B.C.). Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 56, (1992). 2743–2759.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cullen, H.M., DeMenocal, P.B., Hemming, S., Brown, F.H., Guilderson, T., and Sirocko, F. Climate change and the collapse of the Akkadian empire: evidence from the deep sea. Geology 28, (2000). 379–382.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DeMenocal, P.B. Cultural responses to climate change during the late Holocene. Science 292, (2001). 667–673.Google Scholar
Enzel, Y., Ken-Tor, R., Sharon, D., Stein, M., Gvirtzman, H., and Dayan, U. Dead Sea lake level variations and Holocene climates in the Near East: implications to historical responses and modern water resources. Quaternary Research 60, (2003). 263–273.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frumkin, A., Kadan, G., Enzel, Y., and Eyal, Y. Radiocarbon chronology of the Holocene Dead Sea: attempting a regional correlation. Radiocarbon 43, 3 (2001). 1179–1189.Google Scholar
Garfinkel, Y. The Yarmukian culture in Israel. Paléorient 19, (1993). 115–134.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gebel, H.G.K., and Dahl-Hermansen, B. The 2000 season of excavations at Late PPNB Ba'ja. NeoLithics 2–3/00, (2000). 20–22.Google Scholar
Goodfriend, G.A. Terrestrial stable isotope records of late Quaternary paleoclimates in the eastern Mediterranean region. Quaternary Science Reviews 18, (1999). 501–513.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hazan, N., Stein, M., Agnon, A., Marco, S., Nadel, D., Negendank, J.F.W., Schwab, M., and Neev, D. The late Pleistocene—Holocene limnological history of Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee), Israel. Quaternary Research 63, (2005). 60–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heim, C., Nowaczyk, N.R., Negendank, J.F.W., Leroy, S.A.G., and Ben-Avraham, Z. Near East desertification: evidence from the Dead Sea. Naturwissenschaften 84, (1997). 398–401.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Horowitz, A. Palynology of Arid Lands. (1992). Elsevier, Amsterdam. 546 pp. Google Scholar
Kadan, G., (1997). Evidence for Dead Sea level fluctuations and recent tectonism from the Holocene fan delta of Nahal Darga. MSc Thesis. Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Be’er Sheva., 54 pp. (in Hebrew, English abstract).Google Scholar
Lamb, H.F., Gasse, F., Benkaddour, A., El Hamouti, N., van der Kaars, S., Perkins, W.T., Pearce, N.J., and Roberts, C.N. Relation between century-scale Holocene arid intervals in tropical and temperate zones. Nature 373, (1995). 134–137.Google Scholar
Landmann, G., and Reimer, A. Climatically induced lake level changes at lake Van, Turkey, during the Pleistocene/Holocene transition. Global Biogeochemical Cycles 10, 4 (1996). 797–808.Google Scholar
Machlus, M., Enzel, Y., Goldstein, S.L., Marco, S., and Stein, M. Reconstructing low levels of Lake Lisan by correlating fan-delta and lacustrine deposits. Quaternary International 73/74, (2000). 137–144.Google Scholar
Migowski, C., Agnon, A., Bookman, R., Negendank, J.F.W., and Stein, M. Recurrence pattern of Holocene earthquakes along the Dead Sea Transform revealed by varve-counting and radiocarbon dating of lacustrine sediments. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 222, (2004). 301–314.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Neev, D., and Emery, K.O. The Dead Sea: depositional processes and environments of evaporites. Jerusalem, Geological Survey of Israel Bulletin 41, (1967). (147 pp.) Google Scholar
Neev, D., and Emery, K.O. The Destruction of Sodom, Gomorrah, and Jericho. (1995). Oxford Univ. Press, New York. 175 pp. Google Scholar
Niemi, T.M., Smith, A.M. II Initial results of the southeastern wadi Araba, Jordan geoarchaeological study: Implications for shifts in late Quaternary aridity. Geoarchaeology 14, 8 (1999). 791–820.Google Scholar
Rindsberger, M., Magaritz, M., Carmi, I., and Gilad, D. The relation between air mass trajectories and the water isotope composition of rain in the Mediterranean sea area. Geophysical Research Letters 10, 1 (1983). 43–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rossignol-Strick, M. Late Quaternary climate in the Eastern Mediterranean region. Paléorient 19, (1993). 135–152.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stein, M. The sedimentary and geochemical record of Neogene-Quaternary water bodies in the Dead Sea basin—Inferences for the regional paleoclimatic history. Journal of Paleolimnology 21, (2001). 271–282.Google Scholar
Stein, M., (2002). The fall and rise of the Dead Sea during the post Glacial and the Younger Dryas event. Geochimica et Cosmochimca Acta Special supplement. Abstracts of the 12th Annual V.M. Goldschmidt meeting, . Davos. P A-738.Google Scholar
Stein, M., Starinsky, A., Katz, A., Goldstein, S.L., Machlus, M., and Schramm, A. Strontium isotopic, chemical and sedimentological evidence for the evolution of Lake Lisan and the Dead Sea. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 61, (1997). 3975–3992.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vieweger, D. Archäologie der biblischen Welt, UTB. (2003). Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, Göttingen. 480 pp. Google Scholar
Weiss, H., Courty, M.-A., Wetterstrom, W., Meadow, R., Senior, L., Guichard, F., and Curnow, A. The genesis and collapse of third millennium north Mesopotamian civilization. Science 261, (1993). 995–1004.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Yechieli, Y., Magaritz, M., Levy, Y., Weber, U., Kafri, U., Woelfli, W., and Bonani, G. Late Quaternary geological history of the Dead Sea area, Israel. Quaternary Research 39, (1993). 59–67.Google Scholar