The 8.2ka event evidence for human-environment interaction in north-west Atlantic Europe

Summary

The 8.2ka ’event’ is represented by significant cooling in multi-proxy palaeoenvironmental records (e.g. Alley et al. 1997; Kobashi et al. 2007; Thomas et al. 2007; cf. Wiersma 2008). This temperature drop, and its related consequences, have been presented as factors in human social changes across Europe and the Near East (e.g. Roberts et al. 2011; van der Plicht et al. 2011). However, given the complexity of regional and local ecosystems, the impacts across broad geographical scales were likely variable, and possibly, time transgressive. Moreover, the time range of the signal in Dye3/GRIP/GISP2 records have been estimated by Rohling and Palike (2005) as indicating long-term cooling over 400-600 years. In order to address influences of climate change on human societies, archaeological case studies need to address the temporal and spatial context of environmental changes over the span of the ‘event’, but for several hundred years either side to better understand possible leads and lags in responses. This case-study presents one approach, assessing the evidence for human activity, and pollen and beetle records either side of the 8.2ka ’event’ in north west Atlantic Europe. Specific attention is paid to problems of chronological resolution in archaeological and palaeoenvironmental data, and chronological data treatment.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• Human Adaptations to Lateglacial and Early Holocene Climate and Environmental Changes: Towards a Trans-Atlantic Perspective (Part 1)

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