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300-year drought frames Late Bronze Age to Early Iron Age transition in the Near East: new palaeoecological data from Cyprus and Syria

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Abstract

In Eastern Mediterranean history, 1200 BCE is a symbolic date. Its significance is tied to the important upheavals that destabilised regional-scale economic systems, leading to the dislocation of mighty Empires and, finally, to the “demise” of a societal model (termed “the Crisis Years”). Recent studies have suggested that a centuries-long drought, of regional scale, termed the 3.2 ka BP event, could be one of the motors behind this spiral of decline. Here, we focus on this pivotal period, coupling new palaeoenvironmental data and radiocarbon dates from Syria (the site of Tell Tweini) and Cyprus (the site of Pyla-Kokkinokremnos), to probe whether climate change accelerated changes in the Eastern Mediterranean’s Old World, by inducing crop failures/low harvests, possibly engendering severe food shortages and even famine. We show that the Late Bronze Age crisis and the following Dark Ages were framed by an ~ 300-year drought episode that significantly impacted crop yields and may have led to famine. Our data underline the agro-productive sensitivity of ancient Mediterranean societies to environmental changes, as well as the potential link between adverse climate pressures and harvest/famine.

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Funding

Support was provided by the Institut Universitaire de France, CLIMSORIENT program, the University of Ghent—Department of Archaeology and the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO, G010218 N). This work is a contribution to Labex OT-Med (n° ANR-11-LABX-0061) and has received funding from the Excellence Initiative of Aix-Marseille University—A*MIDEX, a French “Investissements d’Avenir” project.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Université Paul Sabatier-Toulouse 3, EcoLab (Laboratoire d’Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Environnement), Bâtiment 4R1, 118 Route de Narbonne, 31062, Toulouse cedex 9, France

    David Kaniewski, Thierry Otto, Frédéric Luce & Elise Van Campo

  2. CNRS, EcoLab (Laboratoire d’Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Environnement), 31062, Toulouse cedex 9, France

    David Kaniewski, Thierry Otto, Frédéric Luce & Elise Van Campo

  3. Secteur Biologie-Médecine-Santé, Institut Universitaire de France, 103 boulevard Saint Michel, 75005, Paris, France

    David Kaniewski

  4. CNRS, Laboratoire Chrono-Environnement UMR6249, Université de Franche-Comté, UFR ST, 16 Route de Gray, 25030, Besançon, France

    Nick Marriner

  5. Department of Archaeology / Ancient Near East, Faculty of Art and Philosophy, Ghent University, Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 35, 9000, Ghent, Belgium

    Joachim Bretschneider

  6. Near Eastern Studies, Faculteit Letteren, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Blijde-Inkomststraat 21, 3000, Leuven, Belgium

    Greta Jans

  7. CNRS, IRD, INRA, Collège de France, CEREGE, Aix-Marseille Université, Aix-en-Provence, France

    Christophe Morhange

  8. Recanati Institute for Maritime Studies, University of Haifa (RIMS), Mount Carmel, 31905, Haifa, Israel

    Christophe Morhange

  9. Université Montpellier II, CNRS-UM2-IRD, ISEM, Montpellier, France

    Rachid Cheddadi

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  1. David Kaniewski
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Kaniewski, D., Marriner, N., Bretschneider, J. et al. 300-year drought frames Late Bronze Age to Early Iron Age transition in the Near East: new palaeoecological data from Cyprus and Syria. Reg Environ Change 19, 2287–2297 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-018-01460-w

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