Geoarchaeological and paleoenvironmental reconstruction of the Late Quaternary climate- environmental-human nexus in the Kurdistan region of Iraq

Luca Forti,Andrea Pezzotta,Luca Peyronel,Cecilia Conati Barbaro,Assunta Florenzano,Anna Maria Mercuri,Ilaria Mazzini,Eleonora Regattieri,Andrea Zerboni,Daniele Morandi Bonacossi

doi:10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-545

Abstract

&lt;p&gt;During the late Quaternary, Iraqi Kurdistan was the scenario of several fundamental human-related&lt;br&gt;events including the dispersion of Homo in Asia and Europe, the origin of agriculture, the beginning&lt;br&gt;of urbanization, and the formation of the first state entities. We present the initial results of a&lt;br&gt;geoarchaeological investigation in this area, which aims to reconstruct a detailed framework of the&lt;br&gt;relationship between climatic changes, landscape responses, human adaptation, and settlement&lt;br&gt;distribution during the Late Quaternary. Paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic data were collected&lt;br&gt;from two key areas: the territory of the Navkur and Faideh plains, in northern Kurdistan, and a portion&lt;br&gt;of the Erbil plain, in southern Kurdistan. In the two regions, the Land of Niniveh and MAIPE&lt;br&gt;archaeological missions are operating. Remote sensing, GIS analyses, and geomorphological survey&lt;br&gt;are the tools used for the geomorphological reconstruction of ancient hydrology (fluvial pattern) and&lt;br&gt;the evolution of distinct landforms. Geochemical and geochronological analyses on speleothems from&lt;br&gt;the Zagros piedmont caves of same region provide information on Holocene climatic variability in&lt;br&gt;the area. Whereas environmental settings and human land use are investigated on the basis of&lt;br&gt;sedimentological, palynological, micropaleontological, and geochemical analyses of a fluvio-&lt;br&gt;lacustrine sequences preliminary dated between 40 and 9 ka BP. The lacustrine sequence is composed&lt;br&gt;by clayey and silt-sandy sediments alternating calcareous and organic matter-rich layers.&lt;br&gt;Environmental and geomorphological data have been compared with archaeological information&lt;br&gt;(mostly the chronological distribution of the archaeological sites) to interpret exploitation of natural&lt;br&gt;resources, the settlement dynamics and shift in land use.&amp;#160;&lt;/p&gt;

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