Regional climate change and the onset of farming in northern Germany and southern Scandinavia ...

In Europe, the transition from hunter–gatherer–fisher-based communities into societies mainly relying on farming was spread from the southeast towards the north and west during the Holocene. In central Germany, farming was adopted at ~7500 cal. yr BP, whereas the shift is evident at ~6000–5500 cal....

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Krossa, Veronica Rohde, Moros, Matthias, Leduc, Guillaume, Hinz, Martin, Blanz, Thomas, Schneider, Ralph
Format: Text
Language:English
Published: Sage 2017
Subjects:
Online Access:https://dx.doi.org/10.7892/boris.120160
https://boris.unibe.ch/120160/
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Summary:In Europe, the transition from hunter–gatherer–fisher-based communities into societies mainly relying on farming was spread from the southeast towards the north and west during the Holocene. In central Germany, farming was adopted at ~7500 cal. yr BP, whereas the shift is evident at ~6000–5500 cal. yr BP in northern Germany and southern Scandinavia. Consequently, farming techniques were available for more than a millennium. Some studies argue that climate change might have played a role in the onset of farming in those areas. The aim of this study is to reconstruct the mid- to late-Holocene sea surface temperature (SST) evolution in the Skagerrak to document potential regional climatic impacts on changes in human economy. We compare our results with a record of human settlement activity in northern Germany and southern Scandinavia. Prior to ~6300 cal. yr BP, warm SSTs are documented throughout the Skagerrak, suggesting dominance of North Atlantic sourced water inflow providing mild climatic conditions. ...