Impact of Paleoclimatic Changes on the Cultural and Historical Processes at the Turn of the Late Bronze—Early Iron Ages in the Northern Black Sea Region

Abstract

The Late Bronze Age crisis is one of the most significant events in human history an had occurred in about 1200 BCE. The aridization was one the reasons of a decline of agriculture, migrant expansion and the transition to nomadic style of life. In Eastern Mediterranean the collapse of the advanced civilizations such as the Mycenaean, Hittite, Canaanite, Akkadian occurred in this time. The reconstruction of cultural-historical processes at the turn of the Bronze-Early Iron Ages and environment during this “critical” period of 13th–9th centuries BCE in the Northern Black Sea region is important for understanding this event. Interdisciplinary investigations of the paleoclimatic reconstructions and the cultural traditions have been carried out at the key archaeological sites located in the North-Western Pontic region (Saharna Mică, Saharna Mare, Glinjeni II-La Șanț, Dikiy Sad sites and Cazaclia necropolis). For reconstruction of paleoclimatic conditions and anthropogenic activity, the methods of geochemical indication of paleoclimatic conditions and radiocarbon dating were applied. The climatic changes in the Dniester basin towards aridization around 11th–9th century’s calBC were a crisis of the Belozerkа culture in the Pontic steppe and the trigger for the spreading of the Cozia-Saharna cultural communities into the forest-steppe zone and the formation of fortified settlements the Saharna Miča, the Saharna Mare and the Glinjeni II-La Șanț.