Project: EACH - “EuroMediterranean Agency for Cultural Heritage”
C.1 - Analysis and preservation of biological diversity - proposal for poster
Holocene climatic-environmental changes and cultural trajectories in Mediterranean and
north-African areas
Anna Maria Mercuri*, Laura Sadori° and Paloma Uzquiano Ollero^
* Dipartimento del Museo di Paleobiologia e dell’Orto Botanico, Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Italy
° Dipartimento di Biologia Vegetale, Sapienza Università di Roma, Italy
^ U.N.E.D. C/Mediodía Grande, Madrid, Spain
During the Holocene, intense changes in climate, in environment and in cultural systems have
occurred (1,2). Cultural trajectories have shown trends fairly coincident with climatic changes in
Mediterranean and north-African areas (3). In particular, three main dry events of key relevance for
climatic-cultural changes seem to have occurred at ca. 8200 cal. yr BP, ca. 6000 cal. yr BP, and ca.
4200 cal. yr BP. Archaeobotanical records help to recognise and date human presence and activity
in different territories (4). Pollen and macroremains from archaeological sites strongly indicate that
when human groups occupied a site or region, they exploited the territory and made a choice among
plants for food, building and fire. They used and selected what the territory offered. When
climatic/environmental changes occurred, humans changed their plant resources from time to time
moving towards what was available on the territory and changing their subsistence strategies (5).
Overexploitation of thinned plant resources, including overgrazing, sometimes accelerated trend
towards aridity during drying climatic phases. As humans enforced the aridity crisis, the relevant
climate signal in palaeoclimatic records was enhanced. When dry climate depleted water and plant
resources under a sustainable level, humans necessarily moved to new places.
Anthropogenic indicators could be useful to distinguish climate signal from human impact in pollen
records. Charcoals can be evidence of human activity in phases not deeply known by pollen data.
Examples of pollen and charcoal studies from these areas aim at presenting how impressive cultural
changes had frequently concurred with critical climate oscillations. It seems that Bronze Age (6,7,8)
had marked the environment more than the Neolithic, probably because there is a relation between
knowledge improvement, culture development and evolution of complexity in land exploitation.
(1)
Berger, J.C. and Guillane, J. 2009. The 8200 cal BP abrupt environmental change and the Neolithic transition: a
Mediterranean perspective. Quaternary International 200, 31-49
(2)
Jalut, G., Dedoubata, J.J., Fontugne, M. and Otto, T. 2009: Holocene circum-Mediterranean vegetation changes:
climate forcing and human impact. Quaternary International 200, 4-18
(3)
A.M. Mercuri, L. Sadori, P. Uzquiano Ollero - Holocene climatic-environmental changes and cultural trajectories
in Mediterranean and north-African areas. In “Mid-Holocene climate change in the Mediterranean region and its
consequences”. Special issue of The Holocene (Roberts Ch. N., Sadori L., Perez R. eds)
(4)
“Cultural Landscapes of the Past”. Special issue of Plant Biosystems (Sadori L., Mercuri A.M. eds), in preparation
(5)
Mercuri A.M., 2008 - Human influence, plant landscape, evolution and climate inferences from the
archaeobotanical records of the Wadi Teshuinat area (Libyan Sahara). Journal of Arid Environments, 72: 19501967
(6)
Mercuri A.M., Accorsi C.A., Bandini Mazzanti M., Bosi G., Cardarelli A., Labate D., Trevisan Grandi G., 2006 Economy and environment of Bronze Age settlements - Terramaras - in the Po Plain (Northern Italy): first results
of the archaeobotanical research at the Terramara di Montale. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany, 16: 43-60
(7)
Sadori L., Giraudi C., Petitti P., Ramrath A., 2004. Human impact at Lago di Mezzano (central Italy) during the
Bronze Age: a multidisciplinary approach, Quaternary International, 113: 5-17
(8)
Rosen, A.M. 2007. Civilizing climate. Social responses to climate change in the Ancient Near East. Lanham, USA:
Altamira Press