Holocene environmental change in southwest Turkey: a palaeoecological record of lake and catchment-related changes

Abstract

Percentage, concentration and accumulation pollen data together with diatom and non-siliceous microfossil data are presented for the site of Gölhisar Gölü (37°8′N, 29°36′E; elevation 930 m), a small intramontane lake in Burdur Province, southwest Turkey. Microfossil assemblages from the longest sediment core (GHA: 813 cm) record changes in local and regional vegetation and lake productivity over the last ∼9500 years. Pollen spectra indicate that vegetation progressed from an open landscape with an increase in arboreal pollen occurring ∼8500 bp to mixed forest comprising oak, pine and juniper until around 3000 bp (Cal ∼1240 BC) when a human occupation phase becomes discernible from the pollen spectra. This occurs shortly after the deposition of a volcanic tephra layer which originated from the Minoan eruption of Santorini (Thera) and radiocarbon dated to 3330±70 yr bp (Cal ∼1600 BC). This human occupation phase is comparable to the Beyşehir Occupation phase recorded at other sites in southwest Turkey and involved forest clearance and the cultivation of fruit trees such as Olea, Juglans, Castanea and Vitis together with arable cereal growing and pastoralism. The presence of pollen types associated with the Beyşehir Occupation phase in deposits above the Santorini tephra layer confirms a Late Bronze Age/early Anatolian Dark Age date for its commencement. Since ∼3000 bp notable changes in aquatic ecology associated with tephra deposition and subsequent nutrient and sediment flux from the lake catchment are recorded. The Beyşehir Occupation phase at Gölhisar Gölü came to an end around 1300 bp (Cla AD ∼700) when pine appears to have become the dominant forest tree.