Multi-Proxy Paleoenvironmental Studies At Lakes Kournas and Limnes, Crete:

Recently I began work on a multidisciplinary paleoenvironmental project in the Mediterranean, along with researchers from the University of Florida, the University of Texas at Austin, and Yale University, examining the possible role of climate change in the cultural development and demise of the Minoan civilization.  Paleoenvironmental and archaeological data from the eastern Mediterranean implicate abrupt climate change (i.e., drought) as a causal factor in the demise of the Akkadian Empire about 2200 B.C.  Archaeological investigations in the Aegean also suggest that the collapse of early Minoan civilization occurred ca. 2200 B.C. Multiple archived sediment cores (recovered in 2001 and 2002) from Lake Kournas, central Crete, and the Límnes basin, a small sinkhole lake located within the Akrotiri Peninsula (western Crete) have been analyzed to determine whether the abrupt onset of arid conditions recorded in the eastern Mediterranean extended into the Aegean and to assess the impact of this climate event on the Minoan populations of the Aegean 

Related Programs:

University of Florida - Department of Geological Sciences (Dr. Jason Curtis)
University of Texas at Austin - Department of Classics (Dr. Jennifer Moody)
Yale University - Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations (Dr. Harvey Weiss)

Multi-Proxy Lake Sediment Records from Northern Epirus and Greek Macedonia:

This study is utilizing multi-proxy analyses of sediment cores to generate high-resolution accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon dated records of Holocene environmental variability in northern Greece (Epirus) and Aegean Macedonia (Greek Macedonia). We will specifically measure the oxygen isotopic composition of biogenic carbonate preserved in the lake sediments to reconstruct precipitation and evaporation changes. Sedimentological and paleoecological information will provide corroborative information on the local and/or regional extent of Holocene climate transitions in the Mediterranean, as well as human impacts on the environment. Data from the Greek lakes will permit direct comparison of climate fluctuations in the northern Aegean with other high-resolution Mediterranean and west Asian paleoclimate archives and thereby refine the spatial and temporal dimension of the abrupt climate change events.

Related Programs:

Aristotle University of Thessaloniki - School of Agriculture (Dr. George Zalidis)
University of Florida - Department of Geological Sciences (Dr. Jason Curtis)