scholarly journals A Compositional Study (pXRF) of Early Holocene Obsidian Assemblages from Cyprus, Eastern Mediterranean

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 155-166 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theodora Moutsiou
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean Region ◽  
Early Holocene ◽  
Central Anatolia ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Sea Transport ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Landscape ◽  
Compositional Study

AbstractThis paper presents the results of the geochemical characterisation of complete obsidian assemblages dating to the Early Aceramic Neolithic (8200–6900 Cal BC) and located in Cyprus, eastern Mediterranean. Obsidian artefacts have over the years been recovered from a number of Early Holocene archaeological sites on the island of Cyprus. As there are no obsidian sources on Cyprus, the presence of obsidian island-wide indicates long-distance sea transport/distribution, central Anatolia usually considered as the main supplying region. Portable XRF technology (X-ray Fluorescence Spectrometry) was applied to determine numbers of obsidian sources represented in complete archaeological assemblages and address research questions concerning the social landscape Cyprus was part of during the Early Holocene, a time of significant change in the broader eastern Mediterranean region.

scholarly journals TESTING THE MIDDLE GROUND IN ASSYRO-ANATOLIAN MARRIAGES OF THE KĀRUM PERIOD

Iraq ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 79 ◽  
pp. 71-83
Author(s):  
Yağmur Heffron
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Social History ◽  
Central Anatolia ◽  
Middle Ground ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Cultural Contact ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Middle Bronze Age ◽  
Dynamic Time

Central Anatolia in the Middle Bronze Age is marked by a well-documented Old Assyrian presence during the kārum period (20th–17th century b.c.), a dynamic time of long-distance trade and cultural contact. One of the idiosyncrasies of the social history of this period is a special bigamous arrangement which allowed Assyrian men to enter second marriages on the condition that one wife remained at home in Aššur, and the other in Anatolia. In testing the extent to which a middle ground for cross-cultural compromise is recognisable in such Assyro-Anatolian marriage practices, this article considers whether the terminology used in reference to the first and second wives (amtum and aššatum respectively) can be interpreted as the crucial element of misunderstanding in middle ground formation.

First evidence of a distal early Holocene ash layer in Eastern Mediterranean deep-sea sediments derived from the anatolian volcanic province

2010 ◽  
Vol 73 (3) ◽  
pp. 497-506 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. Hamann ◽  
S. Wulf ◽  
O. Ersoy ◽  
W. Ehrmann ◽  
E. Aydar ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mediterranean Sea ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean Region ◽  
Volcanic Glass ◽  
Volcanic Field ◽  
Early Holocene ◽  
The South ◽  
Volcanic Province ◽  
Levantine Sea ◽  
Ash Layer

A hitherto unknown distal volcanic ash layer has been detected in a sediment core recovered from the southeastern Levantine Sea (Eastern Mediterranean Sea). Radiometric, stratigraphic and sedimentological data show that the tephra, here termed as S1 tephra, was deposited between 8970 and 8690 cal yr BP. The high-silica rhyolitic composition excludes an origin from any known eruptions of the Italian, Aegean or Arabian volcanic provinces but suggests a prevailing Central Anatolian provenance. We compare the S1 tephra with proximal to medial-distal tephra deposits from well-known Mediterranean ash layers and ash fall deposits from the Central Anatolian volcanic field using electron probe microanalyses on volcanic glass shards and morphological analyses on ash particles. We postulate a correlation with the Early Holocene "Dikkartın" dome eruption of Erciyes Dağ volcano (Cappadocia, Turkey). So far, no tephra of the Central Anatolian volcanic province has been detected in marine sediment archives in the Eastern Mediterranean region. The occurrence of the S1 tephra in the south-eastern part of the Levantine Sea indicates a wide dispersal of pyroclastic material from Erciyes Da? more than 600 km to the south and is therefore an important tephrostratigraphical marker in sediments of the easternmost Mediterranean Sea and the adjacent hinterland.

scholarly journals Active tectonics of the Eastern Mediterranean region: deduced from GPS, neotectonic and seismicity data

1997 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Barka ◽  
R. Reilinger
Keyword(s):  
Mediterranean Region ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean Region ◽  
Slip Rate ◽  
Strike Slip ◽  
Central Anatolia ◽  
Western Anatolia ◽  
Eastern Anatolia ◽  
Gps Measurements ◽  
Isparta Angle

This paper reviews the main tectonic features of the Eastern Mediterranean region combining the recent information obtained from GPS measurements, seismicity and neotectonic studies. GPS measurements reveal that the Arabian plate moves northward with respect to Eurasia at a rate of 23 ± 1 mm/yr, 10 mm/yr of this rate is taken up by shortening in the Caucasus. The internal deformation in Eastern Anatolia by conjugate strike-slip faulting and E-W trending thrusts, including the Bitlis frontal thrust, accommodates approximately a 15 mm/yr slip rate. The Northeast Anatolian fault, which extends from the Erzincan basin to Caucasus accommodates about 8 ± 5 mm/yr of left-lateral motion. The neotectonic fault pattern in Eastern Anatolia suggests that the NE Anatolian block moves in an E-ENE direction towards the South Caspian Sea. According to the same data, the Anatolian-Aegean block is undergoing a counter-clockwise rotation. However, from the residuals it appears that this solution can only be taken as a preliminary approximation. The Eulerian rotation pole indicates that slip rate along the North Anatolian fault is about 26 ± 3 mm/yr. This value is 10 mm/yr higher than slip rates obtained from geological data and historical earthquake records and it includes westward drift of the Pontides of a few millimetres/year or more. GPS measurements reveal that the East Anatolian fault accommodates an 11 ± 1 mm/yr relative motion. GPS data suggest that Central Anatolia behaves as a rigid block, but from neotectonic studies, it clearly appears that it is sliced by a number of conjugate strike-slip faults. The Isparta Angle area might be considered a major obstacle for the westward motion of the Anatolian block (Central and Eastern Anatolia). The western flank of this geological structure, the Fethiye-Burdur fault zone appears to be a major boundary with a slip rate of 15-20 mm/yr. The Western Anatolian grabens take up a total of 15 mm/yr NE-SW extension. The fact that motions in Central Anatolia relative to Eurasia, are 15-20 mm/yr while in Western Anatolia and Aegean Sea they are 30-40 mm/yr could suggest that Western Anatolia decouples from Central Anatolia and the Isparta Angle by the Fethiye-Burdur fault zone and Eski?ehir fault. It is also hypothesized that the differentiation of tectonic styles and velocities in the Anatolian-Aegean block are related to differences between the slabs lying under the Cyprus and Hellenic arcs.

A Sicilian–Cretan biogeographical disjunction in the land snail genus Cornu (Gastropoda: Helicidae)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernhard Hausdorf ◽  
Sonja Bamberger ◽  
Frank Walther
Keyword(s):  
Mediterranean Region ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Molecular Genetic ◽  
Divergence Time ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean Region ◽  
Land Snail ◽  
Western Mediterranean ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Western Africa ◽  
The Mediterranean

Abstract We report an unusual biogeographical disjunction between the western and the eastern Mediterranean region. Cornu (Gastropoda: Helicidae) is a western Mediterranean land snail genus. It includes Cornu (Cornu) aspersum, which originated in north-western Africa and was distributed by humans for food or accidentally, first throughout the Mediterranean region and, subsequently, to all continents except Antarctica. It also includes three species belonging to the subgenus Erctella, which are all endemic to Sicily. We discovered a new species of Cornu on the Greek island of Crete. The morphological and molecular genetic analyses showed that the species from Crete is a disjunct representative of the subgenus Erctella. We hypothesize that the disjunction originated by a long-distance dispersal event of the ancestors of the Cretan species from Sicily by birds or by sea currents, perhaps facilitated by a tsunami or a similar event. The Cretan lineage separated from the Sicilian species in the Late Miocene or Early Pliocene. This divergence time is compatible with the hypothesis that the ancestor of Cornu cretense sp. nov. was washed from Sicily to Crete by the Zanclean flood that refilled the Mediterranean basin after it had dried up during the Messinian salinity crisis.

scholarly journals Precipitation cycles in Turkey

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erkan Yılmaz ◽  
Yılmaz Akdi ◽  
Esra Uğurca ◽  
İhsan Çiçek ◽  
Cemal Atakan
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean Region ◽  
Central Anatolia ◽  
The Black Sea ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Air Masses ◽  
Precipitation Regimes ◽  
Annual Total ◽  
Precipitation Cycles

AbstractTurkey is located in the temperate zone; thus, it is influenced by regionally different air masses during summers and winters, resulting in different precipitation regimes. Often, systems with varying masses of air repeatedly affect Turkey; however, at times, these periods are disrupted and difficult to predict. This study analyzes whether a certain periodicity exists in the seasonal and annual total precipitation of 74 meteorological stations in Turkey using periodograms. The analyses conducted herein showed more than one period in the series; therefore, this study was extended, and the first six periods were examined. As a result, we found 2-, 3-, 4-, and 5-year precipitation cycles (PCs) in the short term; 6-, 7-, and 8-year PCs in the medium term; and 11-, 12-, 14-, 17-, and 21-year PCs in the long term in Turkey’s PC. While seasonal distributions exhibited similarities, there were significant differences in the seasonal frequencies owing to seasonal variations in the systems affecting Turkey. The cycles vary by region, and some of these cycles can be found in each region. Three cycles have been identified in Turkey according to frequency and length, namely: (1) short-term cycle across Turkey; (2) Eastern and Central Anatolia, the Black Sea, and Aegean regions; and (3) borders of Central Anatolian and the eastern Mediterranean region. A cluster identifies unrelated locations as the affected local factors. Cycles are connected to the NAO, whereas solar activity is observed throughout Turkey. The analysis showed that certain cycles were repeated and were not dominant in each period, with the best example of this cycle as the 7–14–21 consecutive cycles.

scholarly journals Interactions between climate change and human activities during the early to mid-Holocene in the eastern Mediterranean basins

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (9) ◽  
pp. 1847-1877 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean-Francois Berger ◽  
Laurent Lespez ◽  
Catherine Kuzucuoğlu ◽  
Arthur Glais ◽  
Fuad Hourani ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Mediterranean Area ◽  
Climate Impacts ◽  
Early Holocene ◽  
Central Anatolia ◽  
Central Mediterranean ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Lake Systems ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. This paper focuses on early Holocene rapid climate change (RCC) records in the Mediterranean zone, which are under-represented in continental archives (9.2 to 8.2 ka events) and on their impact on prehistoric societies. This lack of data handicaps the general interpretation of climate impacts on human societies, which flourished in recent years. Key questions remain about the impact of early Holocene cooling events on the Mediterranean climate, ecosystems and human societies. In this paper, we discuss some examples from river and lake systems from the eastern to central Mediterranean area (central Anatolia, Cyprus, northeastern and northwestern Greece) that illustrate some palaeohydrological and erosion variations that modified the sustainability of the first Neolithic populations in this region. Results allow us to present direct land–sea correlations and to reconstruct regional long-term trends as well as millennial- to centennial-scale climatic changes. In this context, we question the socio-economic and geographical adaptation capacities of these societies (mobility, technology, economic practices, social organisation) during the “early Holocene” interval (11.7 to 8.2 ka), which corresponds partly to the Sapropel 1 deposition in the eastern Mediterranean sea.

CryptoTEPHras in the ICDP Dead Sea deep core to synchronise past eastern MEditerranean hydroclimate (TEPH-ME)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ina Neugebauer ◽  
Markus J. Schwab ◽  
Simon Blockley ◽  
Christine S. Lane ◽  
Birgit Plessen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean Region ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
Central Anatolia ◽  
Geochemical Data ◽  
Lag Phase ◽  
Deep Basin ◽  
Critical Position ◽  
Global Comparison ◽  
The Dead

<p>The hypersaline Dead Sea is a key palaeoclimate archive in the south-eastern Mediterranean region, situated at a critical position between more humid Mediterranean climate and the hyper-arid Saharo-Arabian desert belt. The ca 450 m long ICDP drill core 5017-1, recovered from the deepest part of the Dead Sea, spans the last ~220,000 years as constrained by radiocarbon, U-Th dating and floating δ<sup>18</sup>O stratigraphy methods. Nevertheless, an independent dating method is much needed because (i) radiocarbon dating is limited to the last ~40,000 years; (ii) U-Th dating of authigenic carbonates requires a complex correction procedure leading to large age uncertainties; and (iii) wiggle matching of oxygen isotope data is not independent and, hence, does not allow the identification of lead- and lag-phase relationships of changing hydroclimate in comparison to other palaeoclimate records.</p><p>Tephrochronology has been demonstrated a powerful tool for dating and synchronisation of palaeoclimate records for regional and global comparison. Due to a lack of visible tephra layers in the Dead Sea sediment record, direct links with the eastern Mediterranean tephrostratigraphical lattice are still absent. Recently, the first cryptotephra ever identified in Dead Sea sediments has been associated with the early Holocene S1-tephra from central Anatolia. This discovery encouraged a systematic search for tephra time-markers in the ICDP deep-basin core 5017-1, with the aim of improving the chronology of the deep record significantly and providing a tool for precise regional synchronisation of proxy records.</p><p>In the first phase of the TEPH-ME project focusing on the early last glacial (ca 100-110 ka) and lateglacial (ca 11-15 ka) time intervals in the ICDP core, we have identified more cryptotephra layers than expected. First glass geochemical data suggest that the majority of volcanic ash in the Dead Sea sediments originates from Anatolian volcanic provinces. Even though proximal Anatolian tephra data for comparison are still limited, the identification of cryptotephra in the long Dead Sea record provides novel opportunities to advance the tephrostratigraphical framework in this region, e.g. through synchronising the Dead Sea and Lake Van (eastern Anatolia) sediment records, but also with archaeological and palaeoenvironmental sites that are currently investigated in the Levant and in Arabia.</p>

ISOTOPIC ANALYSES REVEAL GEOGRAPHICAL AND SOCIOECONOMIC PATTERNS IN HISTORICAL DOMESTIC ANIMAL TRADE BETWEEN PREDOMINANTLY WHEAT- AND MAIZE-GROWING AGRICULTURAL REGIONS IN EASTERN NORTH AMERICA

2017 ◽  
Vol 82 (2) ◽  
pp. 341-352 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Guiry ◽  
Paul Szpak ◽  
Michael P. Richards
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
North American ◽  
Domestic Animal ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Upper Canada ◽  
Social Significance ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
The Social ◽  
Isotopic Analyses ◽  
Urban Contexts

Historical zooarchaeologists have made significant contributions to key questions about the social, economic, and nutritional dimensions of domestic animal use in North American colonial contexts; however, techniques commonly employed in faunal analyses do not offer a means of assessing many important aspects of how animals were husbanded and traded. We apply isotopic analyses to faunal remains from archaeological sites to assess the social and economic importance of meat trade and consumption of local and foreign animal products in northeastern North America. Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analyses of 310 cattle and pigs from 18 rural and urban archaeological sites in Upper Canada (present-day southern Ontario, Canada; ca. A.D. 1790–1890) are compared with livestock from contemporary American sources to quantify the importance of meat from different origins at rural and higher- and lower-status urban contexts. Results show significant differences between urban and rural households in the consumption of local animals and meat products acquired through long-distance trade. A striking pattern in urban contexts provides new evidence for the social significance of meat origins in historical Upper Canada and highlights the potential for isotopic approaches to reveal otherwise-hidden evidence for social and economic roles of animals in North American archaeology.

scholarly journals Interactions between climate change and human activities during the Early to Mid Holocene in the East Mediterranean basins

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. F. Berger ◽  
L. Lespez ◽  
C. Kuzucuoğlu ◽  
A. Glais ◽  
F. Hourani ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Mediterranean Area ◽  
Climate Impact ◽  
Early Holocene ◽  
Central Anatolia ◽  
Central Mediterranean ◽  
Long Term Trends ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Lake Systems ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. This paper focuses on Early Holocene Rapid Climate Changes (RCC) records in the Mediterranean zone, which are under-represented in continental archives (9.2 to 8.2 ka events) and on their impact on prehistoric societies. This lack of data handicaps indeed assumptions about climate impact on human societies which flourished in recent years. Key questions remain about the impact of Early Holocene cooling events on the Mediterranean climate, ecosystems and human societies. In this paper, we discuss some examples from river and lake systems from the eastern to central Mediterranean area (Central Anatolia, Cyprus, NE and NW Greece,) that illustrate some paleohydrological and erosion variations that modified the sustainability of the first Neolithic populations in this region. Results allow us to present direct land-sea correlations, and to reconstruct regional long-term trends as well as millennial to centennial-scaled climatic changes. In this context, we question the socio-economic and geographical adaptation capacities of these societies (mobility, technology, economic practices, social organisation) during the "Early Holocene" interval (11.7 to 8.2 ka) which corresponds partly to the Sapropele 1 deposition in the Eastern Mediterranean sea.

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