Project summary

The project explores how Cyprus responded to climate change and how these changes affected the development of the local societies in the past, in particular during the early and late Bronze Age, when climate variability is considered to have been one of the concurring causes that led to societal collapse on the island.

Project details

Location: Cyprus

Year(s): 2018-2020

Project director(s): Matthew J. Pound (Northumbria University), Emma P. Hocking (Northumbria University), Calian J. Hazell (Northumbria University)

Lead institutions and funding:

• University of Northumbria
• CBRL (team project award)

Project description

Cyprus has a rich archaeological record of Bronze Age societies. This project set out to investigate the palaeoenvironment of the Bronze Age and the consequences of prehistoric climate change events in Cyprus. After our field reconnaissance identified multiple palaeoenvironmental archives on the island, we selected the Akrotiri Marsh as our first study site.

In the spring of 2018 and 2019, sediment cores were extracted from the Akrotiri Marsh and radiocarbon dating identified a peat layer that
corresponded to the Bronze Age. Pollen analysis demonstrated that the marsh has been present for the last 5,000 years but has contracted and expanded in response to climate – particularly evident around known Bronze Age climate change events. Diatom (siliceous algae) analysis also showed that the marsh had suffered an interval of reduced freshwater input at 3,200 years before present in response to climate change. Finally, trace metal analysis showed a clear enrichment of copper in the sediment during the Prehistoric Bronze Age and showed increasing pollution in response to metalworking.

After the COVID-19 pandemic, we intend to take sediment cores from other locations in Cyprus to provide greater detail to our palaeoenvironmental knowledge. These will include sites at altitude to explore any human impacts on the environment in the Troodos Mountains. Data collected so far provides the first 5,000-year record of palaeoenvironments in Cyprus, including sections sampled at a 10-year resolution to aid connection to societal relevant timescales. It shows environmental change in response to fluctuations in water availability and documents pollution associated with prehistoric copper extraction.

Project bibliography

Hazell, Calian J. , Pound, Matthew J.  and Emma P. Hocking. 2022. Response of the Akrotiri Marsh, island of Cyprus, to Bronze Age climate change. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 587.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2021.110788

Pound, Matthew J., Hocking, Emma P., Hazell, Calian J. 2020. Providing the palaeoenvironmental context to the boom and bust of prehistorical Cypriot societies: report of the first field season in March 2018. Bulletin of the Council for British Research in the Levant 2018-2019, pp 31-32.

Pound, Matthew. 2021. Providing the palaeoenvironmental context to the boom and bust of prehistorical Cypriot societies. Bulletin of the Council for British Research in the Levant 2020, p 16.

Also, see the CBRL Blog (2018): Living with climate change during the Bronze Age – CBRL

Published:07 December 2021