Climate Change at the End of the Third Millennium BC — Evidence from Varved Lacustrine Sediments

Abstract

The sedimentary record of Lake Holzmaar provides an absolute varve chronology confirmed by AMS-14C data. Before 2500 BC and after 1800 BC depositional processes were controlled by both human and palaeoclimatic influences. Between the end of the Neolithic and the onset of the Bronze Age no anthropogenic interference with the environment is suggested by the archaeological data. An increase in dry density and magnetic susceptibility during the period 2500 to 1800 BC (in sideral years) is therefore, attributed to palaeoclimatic causes. These sediment changes are interpreted to be the result of increased runoff related to an increase of precipitation and/or colder temperatures which is in agreement with other proxy records from northern and central Europe, indicating cold and wet conditions at this time.