Late Holocene drought responsible for the collapse of Old World civilizations is recorded in an Italian cave flowstone

• Published in: Geology
• Main Authors: Drysdale, Russell, Zanchetta, Giovanni, Hellstrom, John
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: Digital Commons @ University of South Florida 2006
• Subjects: Speleothems; Holocene; Drought; Geochemistry; Italy; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/kip_articles/6118; https://doi.org/10.1130/G22103.1

A severe drought in parts of low-latitude northeastern Africa and southwestern Asia ∼4200 yr ago caused major disruption to ancient civilizations. Stable isotope, trace element, and organic fluorescence data from a calcite flowstone collected from the well-watered Alpi Apuane karst of central-western Italy indicate that the climatic event responsible for this drought was also recorded in mid-latitude Europe. Although the timing of this event coincides with an episode of increased ice-rafted debris to the subpolar North Atlantic, the regional ocean-atmosphere response seems atypical of similar Holocene ice-rafting events. Furthermore, comparison of the flowstone data with other regional proxies suggests that the most extreme part of the dry spell occurred toward the end of a longer-term climate anomaly.