Vegetation change in southeastern Greece during the Late Pleistocene. The wood charcoal record from Klissoura Cave 1 (Peloponnese, Greece)

Abstract

The late Pleistocene and early Holocene vegetation of southeastern Greece is coming to light through the study of well-preserved wood charcoal assemblages from cave sites in the Peloponnese dating from the Middle Palaeolithic to the Neolithic. New anthracological results from Klissoura Cave 1 in the Argolid are presented. These, alongside the recently published charcoal sequence from Franchthi Cave (Asouti et al., 2018) and preliminary anthracological results from Kephalari Cave are integrated in a synthetic discussion, which tracks changes in the vegetation from the late Pleistocene to the early Holocene. Specific markers of vegetation change are looked for in the anthracological record, i.e. Olea europaea, deciduous Quercus, Juniperus sp., Amygdalus, Maloideae. The charcoal sequence from Klissoura Cave 1 spans from 123 ka BP to 35 ka cal BP. The results show that, during the MIS 5e, thermophilous Olea/mesophilous deciduous Quercus woodlands prevailed in the area under the influence of warm and relatively humid conditions. Lower precipitation after MIS 5e and in the course of MIS 5 resulted in the expansion of thermophilous Olea woodlands under increasingly drier conditions. Open Amygdalus woodland expanded in the later part of MIS 5 in agreement with progressively drier and cooler conditions. Juniperus woodland prevailed at the beginning of MIS 3 while progressively warmer and more humid interstadial conditions favoured the expansion of mesophilous Quercus woodland. Drier conditions during the later part of MIS 3 would have resulted in changes in the composition of the mesophilous woodlands and another cycle of expansion of Amygdalus open vegetation. Changes in the vegetation during MIS 2 and the Lateglacial follow similar patterns according to complementary anthracological evidence from the Kephalari and Franchthi caves.