Synchronizing a Late Glacial Abrupt Cooling Event with Paleoenvironmental and Population Changes: Case Study of the Moervaart Paleolake Area (NW Belgium)

• Published in: Radiocarbon
• Main Authors: Crombé, Philippe, Robinson, Erick, van Strydonck, Mark
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 2014
• Subjects: General Earth and Planetary Sciences; Archeology; Greenland
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.2458/56.17345; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0033822200049912

Sum probability and Bayesian modeling of a substantial series of radiocarbon dates from a former extensive lake area in NW Belgium, known as the Moervaart area, allow important hydrological changes to be synchronized with Greenland Interstadial lb (or Intra-Allerød Cold Period). It is postulated that the disappearance of nearly all open water systems (Moervaart lake, anastomosing gullies, and dune-slacks) in response to this short but abrupt cooling event was responsible for a nearly total retreat of hunter-gatherers already some centuries before the start of Greenland Stadial 1 (Younger Dryas).