Sychronizing 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: 2014
• Subjects: History and Archaeology; CENTRAL RHINELAND; PLEISTOCENE-HOLOCENE TRANSITION; RADIOCARBON; NETHERLANDS; CALIBRATION; RECORDS; STRATIGRAPHY; ERUPTION; ALLEROD; GERMANY; Greenland
• Online Access: https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/4343588; http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-4343588; https://doi.org/10.2458/56.17345; https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/4343588/file/4343597

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 1b (or Intra-Allerod 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).