Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T15:32:34.507Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

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 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Baales, M. 2006. Environnement et archéologie durant le Paléolithique final dans la region du Rhin moyen (Rhénanie, Allemagne): conclusions des 15 dernières années de recherches. L'Anthropologie 110:418–44.Google Scholar
Baales, M, Grimm, S, Jöris, O. 2001. Hunters of the ≫. Golden Mile ≪. The late Allerød Federmessergruppen site at Bad Breisig, central Rhineland, Germany. Notae Praehistoricae 21:6772.Google Scholar
Baales, M, Jöris, O, Street, M, Bittmann, F, Weninger, B, Wiethold, J. 2002. Impact of the Late Glacial eruption of the Laacher See volcano, Central Rhineland, Germany. Quaternary Research 58(3):273–88.Google Scholar
Blockley, SPE, Lane, CS, Hardiman, M, Rasmussen, SO, Seierstad, IK, Steffensen, JP, Svensson, A, Lotter, AF, Turney, CS, Bronk Ramsey, C, INTIMATE members. 2012. Synchronisation of palaeoenvironmental records over the last 60,000 years, and an extended INTIMATE event stratigraphy to 48,000 b2k. Quaternary Science Reviews 36:210.Google Scholar
Bodu, P. 2000. Les faciès tardiglaciaires à grandes lames rectilignes et les ensembles à pointes de Malaurie dans le sud du Bassin parisien: quelques réflexions à partir de l'exemple du Closeau (Hauts-de-Seine). In: Crotti, P, editor. Méso 97, Lausanne, 21–23 novembre 1997. Lausanne: Cahiers d'Archéologie Romande. p928.Google Scholar
Bodu, P, Valentin, B. 1997. Groupes à Federmesser ou Aziliens dans le sud et l'ouest du bassin parisien. Propositions pour un nouveau modèle d'évolution. Bulletin Société Préhistorique Française 94:341–7.Google Scholar
Bos, JAA, Bohncke, SJP, Janssen, CR. 2006. Lake-level fluctuations and small-scale vegetation patterns during the late glacial in The Netherlands. Journal of Paleolimnology 35(2):211–38.Google Scholar
Bos, JAA, Verbruggen, F, Engels, S, Crombé, P. 2013. The influence of environmental changes on local and regional vegetation patterns at Rieme (NW Belgium): implications for Final Palaeolithic habitation. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 22(1): 1738.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 1995. Radiocarbon calibration and analysis of stratigraphy. Radiocarbon 37(2):425–30.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 2001. Comment on ‘The use of Bayesian statistics for 14C dates of chronologically ordered samples: a critical analysis.’ Radiocarbon 42(2):199202.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 2008. Deposition models for chronological records. Quaternary Science Reviews 27(1–2):4260.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 2009. Bayesian analysis of radiocarbon dates. Radiocarbon 51(1):337–60.Google Scholar
Crombé, P, Sergant, J, Robinson, E, De Reu, J. 2011. Hunter-gatherer responses to environmental change during the Pleistocene-Holocene transition in the southern North Sea basin: Final Palaeolithic-Final Mesolithic land use in northwest Belgium. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 30(3):454–71.Google Scholar
Crombé, P, Van Strydonck, M, Boudin, M, Van den Brande, T, Derese, C, Vandenberghe, DAG, Van den Haute, P, Court-Picon, M, Verniers, J, Bos, JAA, Verbruggen, F, Antrop, M, Bats, M, Bourgeois, J, De Reu, J, De Maeyer, P, De Smedt, P, Finke, PA, Van Meirvenne, M, Zwertvaegher, A. 2012. Absolute dating (14C and OSL) of the formation of coversand ridges occupied by prehistoric hunter-gatherers in NW Belgium. Radiocarbon 54(3–4):715–26.Google Scholar
Crombé, P, De Smedt, P, Davies, NS, Gelorini, V, Zwertvaegher, A, Langohr, R, Van Damme, D, Van Strydonck, M, Antrop, M, Bourgeois, J, De Maeyer, P, De Reu, J, Finke, PA, Van Meirvenne, M, Verniers, J. 2013. Hunter-gatherer responses to the changing environment of the Moervaart palaeolake (NW Belgium) during the Late Glacial and Early Holocene. Quaternary International 308–309:162–77.Google Scholar
Crombé, P, Deeben, J, Van Strydonck, M. 2014. Hunting in a changing environment: the transition from the Younger Dryas to the (Pre)boreal in Belgium and the southern Netherlands. In: Naudinot, N, Michel, S, editors. Actes du XXVIIe Congrès Préhistorique de France, transitions, Ruptures et Continuité durant la Préhistoire, Bordeaux-Lez Eyzies, 31 mai-5 juin 2010. Paris: Mémoires de la Société Préhistorique Française.Google Scholar
De Bie, M, Vermeersch, PM. 1998. Pleistocene-Holocene transition in Benelux. Quaternary International 49–50:2943.Google Scholar
De Moor, G, Heyse, I. 1978. De morfologische evolutie van de Vlaamse vallei. De Aardrijkskunde 4(1):343–75.Google Scholar
De Smedt, P, Van Meirvenne, M, Meerschman, E, Saey, T, Bats, M, Court-Picon, M, De Reu, J, Zwertvaegher, A, Antrop, M, Bourgeois, J, De Maeyer, P, Finke, PA, Verniers, J, Crombé, P. 2011. Reconstructing palaeochannel morphology with a mobile multicoil electromagnetic induction sensor. Geomorphology 130(3–4):136–41.Google Scholar
De Smedt, P, Van Meirvenne, M, Davies, NS, Bats, M, Saey, T, De Reu, J, Meerschman, E, Gelorini, V, Zwertvaegher, A, Antrop, M, Bourgeois, J, De Maeyer, P, Finke, PA, Verniers, J, Crombé, P. 2012. A multidisciplinary approach to reconstructing Late Glacial and Early Holocene landscapes. Journal of Archaeological Science 40(2):1260–7.Google Scholar
Deschodt, L, Teheux, E, Lantoine, J, Auguste, P, Limondin-Lozouet, N. 2009. The Dourges's Final Palaeolithic sites: a lacustrine and marshy area in a lowland of northern France. In: De Dapper, M, Vermeulen, F, Deprez, S, Taelman, D, editors. Ol' Man River. Geo-archaeological Aspects of Rivers and River Plains. Ghent: Academia Press (Archaeological Reports Ghent University 5). p 333–61.Google Scholar
Donnelly, JP, Driscoll, NW, Uchupi, E, Keigwin, LC, Schwab, WC, Thieler, ER, Swift, SA. 2005. Catastrophic meltwater discharge down the Hudson Valley: a potential trigger for the Intra-Allerød cold period. Geology 33:8992.Google Scholar
Fagnart, JP, Coudret, P. 2000. Le Tardiglaciaire dans le Nord de la France. In: Valentin, B, Bodu, P, Christensen, M, editors. L'Europe centrale et septentrionale. au Tardiglaciaire. Actes de la table ronde internationale de Nemours, 14–16 mai 1997. Nemours: éditions APRAIF (Mémoires du Musée de Préhistoire d'Ile-de-France 7). p 111–28.Google Scholar
Hatté, C, Jull, AJT. 2007. Radiocarbon dating: plant macrofossils. In: Elias, SA, editor. Encyclopedia of Quaternary Science. Oxford: Elsevier. p 2958–65.Google Scholar
Heyse, I. 1979. Bijdrage tot de geomorfologische kennis van het noordwesten van Oost-Vlaanderen (België). Brussels: Verhandelingen van de Koninklijke Academie voor Wetenschappen, Letteren en Schone Kunsten van België 40. 217 p.Google Scholar
Heyse, I. 1983. Preliminary results of the study of a Vistulian Late Glacial drainage pattern in the Scheldt basin (Belgium-Flemish Valley-Moervaart depression). Quaternary Studies in Poland 4:135–43.Google Scholar
Hoek, W, Bohncke, SJP. 2002. Climatic and environmental events over the Last Termination, as recorded in The Netherlands: a review. Netherlands Journal of Geosciences 81 (1):123–37.Google Scholar
Howard, JD, Fitzsimons, SJ, Jacobsen, GE, Vandergoes, MJ, Norris, RJ. 2013. Identifying a reliable target fraction for radiocarbon dating sedimentary records from lakes. Quaternary Geochronology 17:6880.Google Scholar
Lauwerier, RGM, Deeben, J. 2011. Burnt animal remains from Federmesser sites in the Netherlands. Archäologisches Korrespondenzblatt 41:120.Google Scholar
Meylemans, E, De Smedt, P, Storme, A, Bastiaens, J, Deforce, K, Desloover, D, Van Meirvenne, M. 2011. A multi-disciplinary palaeoenvironmental survey in the western Moervaart-depression (Ghent, prov. Oost-Vlaanderen, B). Notae Praehistoricae 31:191200.Google Scholar
Nadeau, M-J, Grootes, PM, Schliecher, M, Hasselberg, P, Rieck, A, Bitterling, M. 1998. Sample throughput and data quality at the Leibniz-Labor AMS facility. Radiocarbon 40(1):239–45.Google Scholar
Reimer, PJ, Baillie, MGL, Bard, E, Bayliss, A, Beck, JW, Blackwell, PG, Bronk Ramsey, C, Buck, CE, Burr, GS, Edwards, RL, Friedrich, M, Grootes, PM, Guilderson, TP, Hajdas, I, Heaton, TJ, Hogg, AG, Hughen, KA, Kaiser, KF, Kromer, B, McCormac, FG, Manning, SW, Reimer, RW, Richards, DA, Southon, JR, Talamo, S, Turney, CSM, van der Plicht, J, Weyhenmeyer, CE. 2009. IntCal09 and Marine09 radiocarbon age calibration curves, 0-50,000 years cal BP. Radiocarbon 51(4):1111–50.Google Scholar
Riede, F. 2008. The Laacher See-eruption (12,920 BP) and material culture change at the end of the Allerød in Northern Europe. Journal of Archaeological Science 35(3):591–9.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M, Reimer, P. 1993. Extended 14C data base and revised CALIB 3.0 14C age calibration program. Radiocarbon 35(1):215–30.Google Scholar
Turney, CSM, Coope, GR, Harkness, DD, Lowe, JJ, Walker, DA. 2000. Implications for the dating of Wisconsinan (Weichselian). Late-Glacial events of systematic radiocarbon age differences between plant macrofossils from a site in SW Ireland. Quaternary Research 53(1):114–21.Google Scholar
Usinger, H. 1981. Ein weit verbreiteter hiatus in spätglazialen seesedimenten: mögliche ursache für fehlinterpretation von pollendiagrammen und hinweis auf klimatisch verursachte seespiegelbewegungen. Eiszeitalter und Gegenwart 34:91107.Google Scholar
Valentin, B. 2006. Jalons pour une Paléohistoire des derniers chasseurs (XIVe – VIe millénaire avant J.-C.). Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne (Cahiers Archéologiques de Paris 1). 325 p.Google Scholar
van Raden, UJ, Colombaroli, D, Gilli, A, Schwander, J, Bernasconi, SM, van Leeuwen, J, Leuenberger, M, Eicher, U. 2013. High-resolution late-glacial chronology for the Gerzensee lake record (Switzerland): δ18O correlation between a Gerzensee-stack and NGRIP. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 391B:1324.Google Scholar
Van Strydonck, M, van der Borg, K. 1990–1991. The construction of a preparation line for AMS-targets at the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage Brussels. Bulletin of the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage 23:228–34.Google Scholar
Verbruggen, C, Denys, L, Kiden, P. 1996. Belgium. In: Berglund, BE, Birks, HJB, Ralska-Jasiewiczowa, M, Wright, HE, editors. Palaeoecological Events During the Last 15,000 Years: Regional Syntheses of Palaeoecological Studies of Lakes and Mires in Europe. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons. p 553–74.Google Scholar
Werbrouck, I, Antrop, M, Van Eetvelde, V, Stal, C, De Maeyer, P, Bats, M, Bourgeois, J, Court-Picon, M, Crombé, P, De Reu, J, De Smedt, P, Finke, PA, Van Meirvenne, M, Verniers, J, Zwertvaegher, A. 2011. Digital elevation model generation for historical landscape analysis based on LiDAR data, a case study in Flanders (Belgium). Expert Systems with Applications 38(7):8179–85.Google Scholar
Zwertvaegher, A, Finke, PA, De Reu, J, Vandenbohede, A, Lebbe, L, Bats, M, De Clercq, W, De Smedt, P, Gelorini, V, Sergant, J, Antrop, M, Bourgeois, J, De Maeyer, P, Van Meirvenne, M, Verniers, J, Crombé, P. 2013. Reconstructing phreatic palaeogroundwater levels in a geoarchaeological context: a case study in Flanders, Belgium. Geoarchaeology 28(2): 170–89.Google Scholar