The 8200 cal BP abrupt environmental change and the Neolithic transition: A Mediterranean perspective

A major environmental and societal event struck the Mediterranean basin during the 9th millennium cal BP. A sudden and major climatic crisis occurred in the Northern Hemisphere around 8200 cal BP leading to hyper arid conditions along a tropical zone between 15° and 40° North (Near and Middle East), cooler and wetter conditions in western and central Europe, and marked climatic irregularity in the northern Mediterranean basin. At the same time, frequent cultural gaps are observed in cave infillings from Greece to the Spanish peninsula between 8500 and 8000 cal BP, making the vision of the European Mesolithic–Neolithic transition more complex. Furthermore, a stratigraphic and socio-economic rupture associated with a spatial redistribution of sites characterizes the PPNB-NC/Yarmoukian transition in the Near East. The impact of these climatic and environmental changes in the first centuries of the neolithisation of Mediterranean Europe is discussed, using the socio-cultural, economic, stratigraphic and chronological evidence for the first farmers and last hunter-gatherers. This evidence is compared to recent paleoclimatic and geo-archaeological data obtained from prehistoric contexts, in order to measure the hydro-morphological impact on activities in valleys and karstic rockshelters.