TY - JOUR

T1 - 2500 years of anthropogenic and climatic landscape transformation in the Stymphalia polje, Greece

AU - Seguin, Joana

AU - Bintliff, John L

AU - Grootes, Pieter M

AU - Bauersachs, Thorsten

AU - Dörfler, Walter

AU - Heymann, Christian

AU - Manning, Sturt W

AU - Müller, Samuel

AU - Nadeau, Marie-Josée

AU - Nelle, Oliver

AU - Steier, Peter

AU - Weber, Jan

AU - Wild, Eva-Maria

AU - Zagana, Eleni

AU - Unkel, Ingmar

N1 - Funding information: Funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft ( DFG, German Research Foundation - Projektnummer 2901391021 – SFB 1266 ). The positions of Joana Seguin and Jan Weber are funded by the DFG through the Collaborative Research Centre “ SFB 1266 ”. The position of Christian Heymann was funded by the DFG through the Graduate School “ Human Development in Landscapes ” at Christian-Albrechts-Universität Kiel. The authors acknowledge insights into the archaeology coupled with the history of the lake and the Hadrianic aqueduct from Hector Williams, Malcom Wagstaff, and Iannis Lolos. We kindly thank Tom Wilke (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen) for the determination of the mollusc species, Jesse Kalwij (Christian-Albrechts-Universität Kiel) for the determination of the plant species, and Bernhard Schmaltz (Christian-Albrechts-Universität Kiel) for the classification of the ceramic fragment. In alphabetical order, we kindly thank our following colleagues and students for their invaluable support in the field and in the laboratory: Mathias Bahns, Kimon Christanis, Sophia Dazert, Giorgos Floros, Elke Hänßler, Görkim Oskay, Giorgos Savalas, Marcus Schütz, and Stavros Vrachliotis. We also thank two anonymous reviewers and Neil Roberts as editor for their valuable and constructive comments on the manuscript. The project was carried out with the relevant permits from the Greek Authorities.

PY - 2019/6/1

Y1 - 2019/6/1

N2 - Lacustrine sediments generally record landscape development in the lake's catchment area controlled by palaeoclimatic and human induced changes. To improve our understanding on the anthropogenic and climatic influences on landscape development in Southern Greece for the last 2500 years, we report a 2 m-long, continuous high-resolution sedimentary record from shallow Lake Stymphalia (Peloponnese, Greece). Our proxies record climatically as well as anthropogenically induced landscape changes, influencing the lake area and lake depth. The Classical-Hellenistic era reflects a moderate, stable Mediterranean climate with low sedimentation rates. The parallel existence of the highly populated, major ancient city of Stymphalos, on the contemporary lake edge, doesn't seem to have caused lasting alterations in the record. The construction of the Hadrianic Aqueduct in the Roman era, ca. 130 AD, however causes an influential transformation in the lake development. It has a lasting effect on the lake hydrology as well as the vulnerability of this ecosystem. During Late Roman times, 5th to 6th century cal AD, the abandonment of the aqueduct combined with cooler climate conditions allows lake levels to recover. A phase of very high climatic instability was identified for the subsequent Early Byzantine (EB)period, during the 7th and 8th century cal AD. For this period, the later phase of the Late Antique Little Ice Age (LALIA), our proxies indicate further cooling and highly fluctuating water availability in a rather small lake area. The Middle Byzantine (MB)Period (9 th-12th century AD)is characterized by an over fivefold increase in sedimentation rates. Since local population was still well below Classical levels, we explain this singular period through an interaction of modest increase in land use but marked by careless management of deforested areas, warm and wet climatic conditions during the Medieval Warm Period and long-term effects of vulnerability caused by the aqueduct construction. Probably during this phase, the lake level rose through unparalleled sedimentary infill to flood and bury a significant part of the Lower Town of the abandoned ancient city. The Late Byzantine Period (13th and 14th century AD)sees core evidence for erosion of established, non-vegetated soils (high magnetic susceptibility), in a period of almost total depopulation. In the subsequent Ottoman era (late 15th – early 19th centuries AD)local settlement made only slight recovery, the climatic conditions seem less stable during the Little Ice Age (LIA)and the lake seasonally and later periodically starts to dry up, cumulating in a longer dry phase at the end of the 19th century AD, when agricultural activity on the polje floor was possible. The conclusion conforms with recent modelling of environmental change, critical of mono-causation, rather focussing on complex interactions of human and natural factors in the inception of landscape transformation.

AB - Lacustrine sediments generally record landscape development in the lake's catchment area controlled by palaeoclimatic and human induced changes. To improve our understanding on the anthropogenic and climatic influences on landscape development in Southern Greece for the last 2500 years, we report a 2 m-long, continuous high-resolution sedimentary record from shallow Lake Stymphalia (Peloponnese, Greece). Our proxies record climatically as well as anthropogenically induced landscape changes, influencing the lake area and lake depth. The Classical-Hellenistic era reflects a moderate, stable Mediterranean climate with low sedimentation rates. The parallel existence of the highly populated, major ancient city of Stymphalos, on the contemporary lake edge, doesn't seem to have caused lasting alterations in the record. The construction of the Hadrianic Aqueduct in the Roman era, ca. 130 AD, however causes an influential transformation in the lake development. It has a lasting effect on the lake hydrology as well as the vulnerability of this ecosystem. During Late Roman times, 5th to 6th century cal AD, the abandonment of the aqueduct combined with cooler climate conditions allows lake levels to recover. A phase of very high climatic instability was identified for the subsequent Early Byzantine (EB)period, during the 7th and 8th century cal AD. For this period, the later phase of the Late Antique Little Ice Age (LALIA), our proxies indicate further cooling and highly fluctuating water availability in a rather small lake area. The Middle Byzantine (MB)Period (9 th-12th century AD)is characterized by an over fivefold increase in sedimentation rates. Since local population was still well below Classical levels, we explain this singular period through an interaction of modest increase in land use but marked by careless management of deforested areas, warm and wet climatic conditions during the Medieval Warm Period and long-term effects of vulnerability caused by the aqueduct construction. Probably during this phase, the lake level rose through unparalleled sedimentary infill to flood and bury a significant part of the Lower Town of the abandoned ancient city. The Late Byzantine Period (13th and 14th century AD)sees core evidence for erosion of established, non-vegetated soils (high magnetic susceptibility), in a period of almost total depopulation. In the subsequent Ottoman era (late 15th – early 19th centuries AD)local settlement made only slight recovery, the climatic conditions seem less stable during the Little Ice Age (LIA)and the lake seasonally and later periodically starts to dry up, cumulating in a longer dry phase at the end of the 19th century AD, when agricultural activity on the polje floor was possible. The conclusion conforms with recent modelling of environmental change, critical of mono-causation, rather focussing on complex interactions of human and natural factors in the inception of landscape transformation.

KW - Eastern Mediterranean

KW - GDGT

KW - Geochemistry

KW - Greece

KW - Late Antique Little Ice Age

KW - Late Holocene

KW - Palaeoclimatology

KW - Palaeolimnology

KW - Sedimentology

KW - XRF

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85065230070&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.quascirev.2019.04.028

DO - 10.1016/j.quascirev.2019.04.028

M3 - Article

VL - 213

SP - 133

EP - 154

JO - Quaternary science reviews

JF - Quaternary science reviews

SN - 0277-3791

ER -