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Synchronizing a Late Glacial Abrupt Cooling Event with Paleoenvironmental and Population Changes: Case Study of the Moervaart Paleolake Area (NW Belgium)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 February 2016

Philippe Crombé*
Affiliation:
Ghent University, Department of Archaeology, Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 35, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium
Erick Robinson
Affiliation:
Ghent University, Department of Archaeology, Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 35, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium
Mark van Strydonck
Affiliation:
Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage, Jubelpark 1, B-1000 Brussels, Belgium
*
2. Corresponding author. Email: [email protected].

Abstract

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 lb (or Intra-Allerød 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).

Type
Statistics and Modeling
Copyright
Copyright © 2014 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

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