Environmental change in Crete: a 9000-year record of Holocene vegetation history and the effect of the Santorini eruption

Abstract

Palynological investigations were carried out in the coastal lowland of northwestern Crete, in the area of Lake Kournas. Results comprise the longest continuous vegetation record (9000 radiocarbon years) for Crete. From about 8500 to 7500 BP, open deciduous-oak forest occurred and appears to reflect the driest conditions of the Holocene. After 7500 BP, tree-pollen numbers increase. Some of these tree species are thought to be autochthonous, but for at least six species this is doubted and the presence of their pollen is ascribed to long-distance transport. Up to 6000 BP, the local vegetation included deciduous and evergreen oaks, Pistacia, Phillyrea and a variety of herbs. Only after 7000 BP, some species, e.g., Mercurialis annua, Cynocrambe and spores of Pteridium, might indicate the effects of Neolithic habitation. Towards 6000 BP, plane tree and Styrax (storax) appear; from about 6000 BP, olive is present and human activity becomes more evident. Slowly, pollen types indicative of the exploitation of present-day Mediterranean vegetation, e.g., Poterium and Ericaceae, appear and the presence of the alga Gloeotrichia indicates a rise in phosphate. A striking aspect of the sediment core nearest to the sea is a pumice layer originating from the Theran (Santorini) eruption. From the manner of its deposition it is concluded that no tsunami met the Cretan beach. Influence of the eruption from Thera on the vegetation is hardly visible. Decrease of economically important cultivated plants, e.g., olive, already took place decades, up to about a century, before the volcanic eruption. Around the time of the eruption, the values of some pollen types hardly changed, others increased and another group decreased. This pollen behaviour appears to be explained rather by socio-economic changes, such as withdrawing of the inhabitants to the interior for reasons other than volcanic effects. It is concluded from the pollen cores that no major climatic changes affected northwestern Crete during the Holocene but the first two millennia of the Holocene tended to be drier than the following period when there was an increase in moisture-demanding trees. It is difficult to assign changes in the Cretan vegetation to climatic effects in a period when human impact was gathering strength.

Keywords

Archaeology environmental change vegetation history palynology Thera Santorini volcano Crete Holocene

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Atherden, M.A. 2000: Human impact on the vegetation of southern Greece and problems of palynological interpretations: a case study from Crete. In Halstead, P. and Frederick, C. , editors, Landscape and landuse in postglacial Greece, Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press , 62-78.

Atherden, M.A. and Hall, J.A. 1994: Holocene pollen diagrams from Greece . In Bottema, S. and Heusser, C.J., guest editors, Historical Biology, An International Journal of Paleobiology, Special Issue: Symposium on Floral and Vegetational History of Mediterranean Climate Regions, 8th International Palynological Congress, Aix-en-Provence, 6-12 September 1992 vol. 9(1-2), 117-130 .

Atherden, M.A. and Hall, J.A. 1999: Human impact on vegetation in the White Mountains of Crete since AD 500 . The Holocene 9, 183-193 .

Baruch, U. 1983: The palynology of a late Holocene core from Lake Kinneret. Jerusalem: Department of Prehistory, Institute of Archaeology, The Hebrew University .

Baruch, U. and Bottema, S. 1999: A new pollen diagram from Lake Hula: vegetational, climatic and anthropogenic implications. In Kawanabe, H. , Coulter, G.W. and Roosevelt, A.C. , editors, Ancient lakes; their cultural and biological diversity, Ghent, Belgium: Kenobi Productions , 75-86.

Bottema, S. 1974: Late Quaternary vegetation history of northwestern Greece. Thesis, State University, Groningen .

Bottema, S. 1975: The interpretation of pollen spectra from prehistoric settlements (with special attention to Liguliflorae). Palaeohistoria 17, 17-35 .

Bottema, S. 1979: Pollen analytical investigations in Thessaly (Greece). Palaeohistoria 21, 19-40 .

Bottema, S. 1980: Pollen analytical investigations on Crete . Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 31, 193-217 .

10.

Bottema, S. 1988: A reconstruction of the Halos environment on the basis of palynological information. Appendix in Reinders, H.R. , New Halos, a Hellenistic town in Thessalia, Greece, thesis, State University, Groningen, 216-226.

11.

Bottema, S. 1996: Notes on the Holocene Vegetation History of Crete. In Reese, D.S , editor, Pleistocene and Holocene fauna of Crete and its first settlers, Monographs in World Archaeology 28, Madison, WI: Prehistory Press , 53-61.

12.

Bottema, S. 2000: The Holocene history of walnut, sweet-chestnut, manna-ash and plane tree in the Eastern Mediterranean . Pallas 52, 35-61 .

13.

Bottema, S. 2001: A note on the pollen representation of ivy (Hedera helix L.) . Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 117, 159-166 .

14.

Bottema, S. and Barkoudah, Y. 1979: Modern pollen precipitation in Syria and Lebanon and its relation to vegetation . Pollen et Spores 21 427-480 .

15.

Bottema, S. and Woldring, H. 1984: Late Quaternary vegetation and climate of southwestern Turkey, Part II . Palaeohistoria 26, 123-149 .

16.

Bottema, S. and Woldring, H. 1990: Anthropogenic indicators in the pollen record of the Eastern Mediterranean. In Bottema, S. , Entjes-Nieborg, G. and van Zeist, W. , editors, Man' role in the shaping of the Eastern Mediterranean landscape, Rotterdam: Balkema , 231-265.

17.

Bottema, S. , Sarpaki, A. , Reinders, H.R. and MacGillavry, J.N. 1997: Minoifsch Kreta en de uitbarsting van Santorini . Paleo-Aktueel 8, 97-100 .

18.

Browicz, K. 1982: Chorology of trees and shrubs in south-west Asia and adjacent regions, vol. 1. Warszawa-Poznari, Polish Academy of Sciences, Institute of Dendrochronology: Polish Scientific Publishers .

19.

Driessen, J. and Macdonald, C.F. 1997: The troubled island. Minoan Crete before and after the Santorini eruption. Liege and University of Texas at Austin: Aegaeum, Annales d'a rechóologie e'geenne de l'Universite de Liege et UT-PASP 17.

20.

Eastwood, W.J. , Pearce, NJ.G. , Wetsgate, J.A. and Perkins, W.T. 1998a: Recognition of Santorini (Minoan) tephra in lake sediments from Golhisar Golu, southwest Turkey, by laser ablation ICP-MS . Journal of Archaeological Science 28, 677-687 .

21.

Eastwood, W.J. , Pearce, NJ.G. , Westgate, J.A. , Perkins, W.T. , Lamb, H.F. and Roberts, N. 1999: Geochemistry of Santorini (Minoan) tephra in lake sediments from southwest Turkey . Global and Planetary Change 21, 17-29 .

22.

Eastwood, W.J. , Roberts, C.N. and Lamb, H.F. 1998b: Evidence for human occupance in southwest Turkey: the Beysehir Occupation Phase . Anatolian Studies 48, 69-86 .

23.

Faegri, K. and Iversen, J. 1989: Textbook of pollen analysis (fourth edition). Chichester: Wiley .

24.

Greuter, W. 1971: L'apport de i'homme a la flore spontan&e de la Crete . Boissiera 19, 329-337 .

25.

Greuter, W. 1975: Die Insel Kreta eine geobotanische Skizze . Veroffentlichungen des Geobotanischen Instituts ETH, Stiftung Rubel, Zurich 55 141-197 .

26.

Hegi, G. 1975: Illustrierte Flora van Mitteleuropa, Vol. V/1. Berlin, Hamburg: Paul Parey .

27.

Jahn, R. and Schonfelder, P. 1995: Exkursionsflora fur Kreta, Stuttgart: Ulmer .

28.

Kroll, H. 1984: Bronze Age and Iron Age agriculture in Kastanas, Macedonia. In van Zeist, W. and Casparie, W.A. , editors, Plants and ancient man, Rotterdam, Boston: Balkema , 243-247.

29.

Landwehr, J. 1980: Atlas Nederlandse levermossen. Utrecht: Koninklijke Nederlandse Natuurhistorische Vereniging .

30.

Meirano, V. 2000: Mets et vegetaux en Grande Grece: nouvelles donnees de la coroplathie . Pallas 52, 167-193 .

31.

Moody, J. 1987: The environmental and cultural prehistory of the Khania region of West Crete. Neolithic through Late Minoan Ill. PhD thesis, University of Minnesota Ann Arbor: University Microfilms , no. 8723836.

32.

Moody, J. 2003: The Bronze Age beat from western Crete: a survey of the evidence. In Day, L.P. , Mook, M.S. , and Muhly, J.D. Crete beyond the palaces: Proceedings of the Crete 2000 Conference. Philadelphia: INSTAP Academic Press, in press.

33.

Moody, J. , Rackham, O. and Rapp, G. 1996: Environmental archaeology of prehistoric N.W. Crete . Journal of Field Archaeology 23, 273-297 .

34.

Moore, P.D. , Webb, J.A. and Collison, M.E. 1991: Pollen analysis, Oxford: Blackwell .

35.

Niklewski, J. and van Zeist, W. 1970: A late Quaternary pollen diagram from northwestern Syria . Acta Botanica Neerlandica 19(5), 737-754 .

36.

Page, D.L. 1970: The Santorini Volcano and the devastation of Minoan Crete. London: Society for the Promotion of Hellenistic Studies .

37.

Papathanasopoulos,O. 1996: Neolithikos Politismos stin Ellada. Athens: Nicólaos P. Goulandri Foundation and Museum of Cycladic Art , 207-208.

38.

Rackham, O. 1972: Appendix III. Charcoal and plaster impressions. In Warren, P. , Myrtos, London: Thames and Hudson , 299-304.

39.

Rackham, O. 1990: The greening of Myrtos. In Bottema, S. , Entjes-Nieborg, G. and van Zeist, W. , editors, Man' role in the shaping of the eastern Mediterraean landscape, Rotterdam: Balkema , 341-349.

40.

Rackham, O. and Moody, J. 1996: The making of the Cretan landscape. Manchester: Manchester University Press .

41.

Reese, D.S. , editor 1996: Pleistocene and Holocene fauna of Crete and its first settlers. Monographs in World Archaeology 28. Madison, WI: Prehistory Press .

42.

Renfrew, J.M. 1972: Appendix V. The plant remains. In Warren, P. , Myrtos, London: Thames and Hudson , 315-317.

43.

Sarpaki, A. 1992: Traditional techniques of grape cultivation (in Greek with English summary). In The history of Greek wine, Athens: Cultural and Technical Foundation (ETVA) , 54-60, 294.

44.

Sarpaki, A. 1999: The archaeobotanical study of Tzambakas House, Rethymno, Crete . In Tsedakis, Y. and Hartlew, H., editors, Minoans and Mycenaeans: flavours of their time, Athens: Greek Ministry of Culture and National Archaeological Museum, 37, 40-41 .

45.

Sarpaki, A. and Bending, J. 2003: Mochlos: archaeobotanical assemblages from 3 buildings. The Chalinomouri farmhouse and the Artisans' Quarters (Building A and B) from Coast Mochlos. In Barnard, K.A. and Brogan, T.M., Mochlos period 111. Neopalatial settlement on the coast: the Artisans' Quarters and the farmhouse at Chalinomouri I.2. in press.

46.

Schoch, W. 2003: Mochlos charcoals. In Barnard, K.A. and Brogan, T.M. , Mochlos period III. Neopalatial settlement on the coast: the Artisans' Quarters and the farmnhouse at Chalinomouri I. 2, in press.

47.

Shay, C.T. , Shay, J.M. and Zwiazek, J. 1995: The modern flora and plant remains from Bronze Age Deposits at Kommos . In Shay, C.T. and Shay, J.M., Komnmos I, The Komnmnos Region and Houses of the Minoan Town, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1 16-62 .

48.

Turland, NJ. , Chilton, L. and Press, J.R. 1993: Flora of the Cretan area. London: Natural History Museum .

49.

Tutin, T.G. , Heywood, V.H. , Burges, N.A. , Valentine, D.H. , Walters, S.M. and Webb, D.A. 1964: Flora Europaea, vol. 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press .

50.

Tutin, T.G. , Heywood, V.H. , Burges, N.A. , Valentine, D.H. , Walters, S.M. and Webb, D.A. 1968: Flora Europaea, vol. 2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press .

51.

Sytze Bottema and Anaya Sarpaki: Vegetation history of Crete and the Santorini eruption 749

1972: Flora Europaea, vol. 3. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press .

52.

van Zeist, W. and Bottema, S. 1991: Late Quaternary vegetation of the Near East. TAVO Beihefte zum Tiibinger Atlas des Vorderen Orients 18. Wiesbaden: Dr Ludwig Reichert Verlag , 156-156 pp.

53.

van Zeist, W. and de Roller, G.J. 1993: Plant remains from Maadi, a Predynastic site in Lower Egypt . Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 2, 1-14 .

54.

van Zeist, W. , Bottema, S. and van der Veen, M. 2001: Diet and vegetation of ancient Carthage. The archaeobotanical evidence. Groningen: private publication (available from authors).

55.

van Zeist, W. , Woldring, H. and Stapert, D. 1975: Late Quaternary vegetation and climate of southwestern Turkey . Palaeohistoria 17, 53-143 .

56.

Warren, P. and Hankey, V. 1989: Aegean Bronze Age chronology. Bristol: Bristol Classical Press .

57.

Willis, KJ. 1992: The Late Quatemary vegetational history of northwest Greece, I, II, III . New Phytologist 121, 101-155 .

58.

Willis, KJ. 1994: The vegetational history of the Balkans . Quaternary Science Reviews 13, 769-788 .

59.

Zohary, M. and Orshan, G. 1965: An outline of the geobotany of Crete . Israel Journal of Botany 14 (supplement), 1-49 .