The 8.2 ka BP Holocene climate change event and human population resilience in northwest Atlantic Europe

Abstract

The 8.2 ka BP event may represent the largest, most abrupt Holocene climate event. This paper examines the impact of this event on human activity in the middle Mesolithic. It produces Bayesian statistical models for the chronology of anthropogenic sites in northwest Atlantic Europe for a 1000 year time window around the event to explore evidence for human responses to climate change or resilience in the face of this climate change event. By approaching evidence for activity at sites in Denmark, Belgium, France, Ireland and Britain we explore evidence for differential temporally- and spatially-transgressive local responses to climate change in this period to move to sub-continental scales of activity.