Abstract
Abstract. A high quantity of well-dated, high-resolution, continuous geoarchives is needed to connect palaeoenvironmental reconstructions with socio-environmental and cultural transformations in a geographically heterogeneous region such as southern Greece. However, detailed and continuous palaeoclimatic and palaeoenvironmental archives from the NE Peloponnese are still sparse. Here, we present two new palaeolake archives of Pheneos and Kaisari covering the last 10 500 and 6500 years, respectively. For the last 5000 years, we compare them with sediment records from adjacent Lake Stymphalia and the Asea valley by applying the same set of sedimentological, geochemical, and statistical analyses to all four lacustrine archives. Continuous geochemical X-ray fluorescence (XRF) core scanning records provide evidence for hydrological variations and environmental changes since the Early Helladic period (5050 BP), the beginning of the Bronze Age in Greece. We hereby focus on different spatial scales to estimate the validity range of the proxy signals. Ten elements were selected (Al, Si, K, Ca, Ti, Mn, Fe, Rb, Sr, Zr) for a principal component analysis. The clr(Ca∕Ti) was chosen as the most meaningful proxy, reflecting varying input of carbonaceous vs. clastic input, which may be linked to changes in the hydrological conditions. Our results show phases when permanent lake water bodies existed (ca. 5000–3600 cal BP) as well as phases with periodic desiccation of the lakes during younger times. While Pheneos and Kaisari show a drying trend during the transition phase from the Late Helladic period to the Proto-Geometric period (ca. 3200–2800 cal BP), Stymphalia and Asea show a rather short dry peak around 3200 cal BP followed by a wetter phase. Although all our geoarchives show evidence for drier phases, their timing and duration display considerable site-to-site differences which may be explained by site-specific responses in individual ecosystems. Age uncertainties, however, may likewise explain some deviations, as the dating is based on bulk sediment samples including potential unknown reservoir effects. The high regional geographical diversity within the Peloponnese combined with the dating challenges in the limestone-rich area and the variation in our data testify that any hypothetical mono-causal connection between palaeoenvironmental changes in a single geoarchive and contemporaneous societal transformations across the Peloponnese would be an oversimplification.
Highlights
The eastern Mediterranean can be considered a region of high importance for palaeoenvironmental research, as it experienced a long history of cultural development and human–environment interaction throughout the Middle to Late Holocene (Izdebski et al, 2016; Roberts et al, 2011).Middle to Late Holocene environmental archives often provide records on palaeoenvironmental changes containing a combination of natural climatic and anthropogenic signals, which are often not easy to disentangle
Our comparative analysis of PC1 proxy responses between neighbouring lakes improved the palaeoclimatic interpretation compared to single-site studies such as Stymphalia and Asea
Based on the geochemical analysis of the four study sites, we identified different phases when permanent lake water bodies existed at all sites, as well as phases when the lakes episodically or at least seasonally dried out, contributing to closing a gap in the understanding of water availability in the northern and central Peloponnese during culturally important periods
Summary
The eastern Mediterranean can be considered a region of high importance for palaeoenvironmental research, as it experienced a long history of cultural development and human–environment interaction throughout the Middle to Late Holocene (Izdebski et al, 2016; Roberts et al, 2011). Middle to Late Holocene environmental archives often provide records on palaeoenvironmental changes containing a combination of natural climatic and anthropogenic signals, which are often not easy to disentangle. From southern Greece and the Peloponnese, high-resolution environmental archives covering this time period are still relatively sparse or often discontinuous (Finné et al, 2011; Gogou et al, 2016; Luterbacher et al, 2012, McCormick et al, 2012; Atherden and Hall, 1994; Izdebski et al, 2016; Jahns, 1993). Lake sediments record climatic changes as well as local catchment-specific processes (Roberts et al, 2008). To distinguish local from regional or even hemispheric climatic signals, a combination of a larger number of geoarchives and an analysis of multiple proxies seems more promising (Finné et al, 2019)
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