Abstracts, XIV OPTIMA Meeting, Palermo (Italy) , 9-15

XIV OPTIMA Meeting, Palermo (Italy), 9-15 September 2013
Archaeopalynology of lacustrine records from Greece
KOULI K.
Faculty of Geology & Geoenvironment, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece. E-mail: akouli@geol.uoa.gr
The long and composite history of human presence and activities in the Hellenic peninsula is indetail
documented by the longtime archaeological research. Excavation and survey archaeological
records show intense habitation since the Early Holocene and increasing social complexity during the
middle and late Holocene: emerge and collapse of cultures, urban centers and states, establishment of
exchange and trade routes. The several major cultural changes that have been observed in archaeological
records offer the opportunity of comparing human societies and activities with recorded climate
variability in the area.
Holocene vegetation record of Greece displays remarkable temporal and spatial variability, revealing
the heterogeneity of the landscapes. Pindos mountain ridge separates the Greek peninsula into different
climatic regions: a western “maritime”, with significantly higher precipitation, and an eastern
typical Mediterranean one. In addition pollen records confirm a N-S climatic trend by documenting the
occurrence of mixed deciduous oak forests alternated with mountainous conifer and later beech forests
in the northern areas and enhanced schlerophyllous evergreen vegetation in the south. Prehistoric
human activities, like cultivation, grazing or lumbering, have left an imprint on local plant communities
without alternating the regional flora until about 4000BP. Bearing in mind that the tracing of
human impact on Holocene plant communities is rather complex -as the expansion of Mediterranean
schlerophyllous vegetation can be both the response of human clearance and shift toward drier climates-,
the several abrupt short-term episodes of retreat of woodlands recorded (e.g. 8700, 7600, 5600
και 4300 ΒΡ) have been explained as the result of either human activity and/or climatic fluctuations.
In that perspective, the comparison of terrestrial high resolution palaeovegetation records with
pollen and other mutiproxy climatic data from marine sediment cores of the landlocked Aegean Sea,
contribute to the discussion on the main shaping factor of palaeovegetation patterns. This correlation
and synthesis of paleovegetation records with the cultural context in times of independently known climatic
conditions elucidates the shaping factors of vegetation dynamics in Greece and connect vegetation
fluctuations to human and/or climatic fluctuations in an effort of decoding of man–environment
relationship in the past.
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