Authors
1
Research Institute for Earth Sciences, Geological Survey of Iran,, Tehran-Iran
2
Aix Marseille Univ, Univ Avignon, CNRS, IRD, IMBE (Institut Méditerranéen de Biodiversité et d’Ecologie), Aix-en-Provence, France
3
School of Geology, College of Science, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
4
Iranian National Institute for Oceanography and Atmospheric Science (INIOAS), No. 3, Etemadzadeh Street, West Fatemi Avenue, Tehran, Iran
10.22084/nb.2023.26444.2501
Abstract
Early Bronze Age human societies rose and flourished in southeastern Iran during the 3rd millennium BCE. Some of the most important settlements were based in Konar Sandal, Shahr-i Sokhta, Tepe Yahya, Bampur, and Shahdad which were vital for trade, agriculture, and cultural exchange. Halil Rud cultural zone is one of the most unknown and mysterious human settlements in the third millennium BC, which represents the several thousand years civilization of Iran. Studies reveal that Jiroft culture must have been a socio-economically advanced agrarian society with extended trade links with other cultural centers. This settlement suddenly became uninhabited in the late third millennium BC and then flourished again in the first millennium BC. The question is whether climate change in the region during the late Holocene affected early human settlements in central and southeastern Iran? Therefore, in this study, we seek to answer this question by reconstructing Paleoenvironmental changes and comparing it with archaeological findings. The mixture of unique archaeological and phytogeographic, and climatic settings makes Halil Rud cultural zone a compelling region to study paleoenvironmental changes and human-environment interactions. For this purpose, various climatic proxies, including pollen were used on a two-and-a-half-meter sediment core retrieved from a peatland near the ancient Kenar Sandal, to reconstruct Paleoenvironmental changes and its interactions with ancient human societies of the Halil Rud Valley since the Late Bronze
Vegetation of the valley during the late Holocene was characterized by Saharo-Sindian pseudo-savannah flora. However, the land-cover has shifted from open xeric scrubland forests to more open, degraded landscape. Results obtained from multi-proxy investigation, have shown between 4000 and 2800 cal yr BP (especially from 3400 to 2800 cal yr BP) the valley experience dry conditions. The prolonged droughts that have suppressed agriculture may be attributed to the Siberian anticyclones. Declining desert shrubs indicate milder climates between 3800 and 3400 cal yr BP and between 2800 and 600 cal yr BP.
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