• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: 8200 cal yr BP event; Radiocarbon; Neolithisation; Thrace; ice core; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.500.2062; http://www.pik-potsdam.de/members/bauer/publications-1/weninger_etal_qr2006.pdf

rn va circulation 8200 yr ago had a catastrophic influence on Neolithic civilisation in large parts of southeastern Europe, Anatolia, Cyprus, and the Near 200 yr. A large number of contemporaneous climate events are documented in terrestrial records in North America (Yu and (Leuenberger et al., 1999, from N of N2 measurements in the GRIP ice core). A reduction in air temperature of this magnitude is likely to be linked with drier conditions and stronger winds over the North Atlantic and drier monsoon regions (Alley et al., (20Eicher, 1999; Spooner et al., 2002), the Caribbean (Hughen et al., 2000), Europe (Von Grafenstein et al., 1999; McDermott etEast. The event at 8200 cal yr BP is observed in a large number of high-resolution climate proxies in the Northern Hemisphere, and in many cases corresponds to markedly cold and arid conditions. We identify the relevant archaeological levels of major Neolithic settlements in Central Anatolia, Cyprus, Greece and Bulgaria, and examine published stratigraphic, architectural, cultural and geoarchaeological studies for these sites. The specific archaeological events and processes we observe at a number of these sites during the study interval 8400–8000 cal yr BP lead us to refine some previously established Neolithisation models. The introduction of farming to South-East Europe occurs in all study regions (Thrace, Macedonia, Thessaly, Bulgaria) near 8200 cal yr BP. We observe major disruptions of Neolithic cultures in the Levant, North Syria, South-East Anatolia, Central Anatolia and Cyprus, at the same time. We conclude that the 8200 cal yr BP aridity event triggered the spread of early farmers, by different routes, out of West Asia and the Near East into Greece and Bulgaria.