Abstract
Lake Kinneret, also known as the Sea of Galilee and Lake Tiberias, is located in the northeast of Israel. At a lake level of 211 m b.s.l. (below mean sea level), the central basin is 43 m deep. The maximum length of the lake is 21 km (N–S) and its maximum width is 12 km (W–E). Lake Kinneret’s surface area is 166 km2. A new 17.8 m long sedimentary core was drilled in 2010. Here, we present the entire palynological record from it, which covers the last ~ 9,000 years. Special emphasis is given to the natural and human-influenced vegetation history of Galilee in comparison to that of the more southerly Dead Sea region. Significant signs of human impact are the first Olea (olive) increase during the beginning of the Chalcolithic period between 7,000 and 6,500 years ago, as well as the prominent Olea phase during the Hellenistic/Roman/Byzantine period between 2,300 and 1,500 years ago. Mediterranean macchia and bathas scrub vegetation, as known in the area today, has developed in the southern Levant under human impact since the last ca. 1,500 years.
Highlights
The southern Levantine region between the Dead Sea and Mt
We evaluate the start of Olea cultivation at the Late Neolithic/ Early Chalcolithic transition, as well as the further development of the cultural landscape until the establishment of the present-day Mediterranean vegetation of macchia or bathas scrub, based on the pollen signal in conjunction with the archaeological setting
A new pollen record from the deepest part of Lake Kinneret recording the last 9,000 years fills a gap in the vegetation history of the southern Levant between the Dead Sea in the south of Israel and the Golan Heights in the north (Fig. 1)
Summary
The southern Levantine region between the Dead Sea and Mt. Hermon, including the river Jordan catchment area, is an excellent laboratory for the study of Holocene vegetation and climate history in the Near East. 28,000 and 22,500 cal bp, when the Sea of Galilee rose above the modern lake level and temporarily merged with Lake Lisan, the precursor of the Dead Sea. Concerning the Holocene vegetation history of Lake Kinneret, Baruch (1986) analysed a 4 m sediment core, which covers only the late Holocene, the last 4,000 years. Based on an excellent chronology, special emphasis is given to the natural and human-influenced vegetation history of Galilee related to the regional climate development as shown in the Kinneret lake level record (Hazan et al 2005). The comparisons to the more southern Dead Sea records as shown in the well-dated Ein Gedi pollen profile (Litt et al 2012) as well as to the Holocene lake level curve (Kushnir and Stein 2010; Stein et al 2010) are taken into account to show similarities and differences of the vegetation signals related to the steep climatic gradient in the southern Levant. Reconstructing the potential natural plant cover is rather complicated
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