Reading between the lines: ?18O and ?13C isotopes of Unio elongatulus shell increments as proxies for local palaeoenvironments in mid-Holocene northern Syria

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dc.contributor.authorCakirlar, Canan
dc.contributor.authorSesen, Ridvan
dc.date.accessioned2024-04-24T16:02:49Z
dc.date.available2024-04-24T16:02:49Z
dc.date.issued2013
dc.departmentDicle Üniversitesien_US
dc.description.abstractThe much debated link between the collapse of urban centres in northern Syria and climate change at the end of third millennium BC is arguably one of the best known cases about human societies' struggle with the unpredictable nature of the Holocene. Fine-grained analyses of bioarchaeological materials offer excellent opportunities to overcome some of the difficulties encountered in such studies that tackle the effects of changing environmental and climatic conditions on human civilisations during the Holocene. This paper explains the results of a pilot study that uses archaeological freshwater clams (Unio elongatulus) from northern Syria as intermediary anthropobiogenic proxies to infer about the seasonal rhythms of local pluvial regimes and their possible fluctuations at the turn of the third millennium BC. Having secreted their CaCO3 in chemical and periodical accordance with the ambient environment and ending up at tell sites through human activity, these bivalves are suitable vessels of information about human ecology in northern Syria at the end of third millennium BC. Marked differences were observed between the isotopic (delta O-18 and delta C-13) compositions of shells from Tell Mozan, an urban site that continued to exist throughout the rapid climate event, and those from Tell Leilan, which went into hiatus at the end of third millennium BC. These results have important implications about the potentially severe effects of micro-environmental differences on distinct human communities inhabiting the same culturally unified region.en_US
dc.description.sponsorshipSmithsonian Institution postdoctoral fellowshipen_US
dc.description.sponsorshipThis research was funded through a Smithsonian Institution postdoctoral fellowship. We are grateful to Suzan and Ibrahim Cengiz Cevik and their family who welcomed Cakirlar to their home in Nusaybin on the Turkish-Syrian border and to Augusta MacMahon who hosted her at Tell Brak during her research in Syria. We are particularly indebted to Melinda Zeder for placing this research in the agenda of Smithsonian Human Ecology and Archaeobiology Program. Monica Doll provided the bivalve samples from Tell Mozan. Alice Bianchi and Anne Wissing provided the stratigraphic information for the samples from Tell Mozan. Robert Hershler provided guidance in using the National Museum of Natural History bivalve collections. Maia Dedrick assisted thick section preparations at the Museum Support Center of the Smithsonian Institution. Part of the thick sectioning work was supervised by Jeff Speakman. Scott Whittaker assisted the ESEM imaging at the National Museum of Natural History. Irvy Quitmyer provided help with probing the thick sections with the micromill at the Florida Museum of Natural History. Jason Curtis conducted the work at the mass spectrometry lab at the University of Florida, Gainesville. We are thankful to these people without whom this research would not have been possible. Support to attend this workshop came from the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences.en_US
dc.identifier.doi10.1007/s12520-013-0125-8
dc.identifier.endpage94en_US
dc.identifier.issn1866-9557
dc.identifier.issn1866-9565
dc.identifier.issue2en_US
dc.identifier.scopus2-s2.0-84879138435
dc.identifier.scopusqualityQ1
dc.identifier.startpage85en_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-013-0125-8
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/11468/14922
dc.identifier.volume5en_US
dc.identifier.wosWOS:000324893000002
dc.identifier.wosqualityQ2
dc.indekslendigikaynakWeb of Science
dc.indekslendigikaynakScopus
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisherSpringer Heidelbergen_US
dc.relation.ispartofArchaeological and Anthropological Sciences
dc.relation.publicationcategoryMakale - Uluslararası Hakemli Dergi - Kurum Öğretim Elemanıen_US
dc.rightsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/closedAccessen_US
dc.subject4200 Bp Eventen_US
dc.subjectMesopotamiaen_US
dc.subjectClimate Changeen_US
dc.subjectSocietal Collapseen_US
dc.subjectMolluscan Sclerochronologyen_US
dc.subjectStable Isotope Geochemistryen_US
dc.titleReading between the lines: ?18O and ?13C isotopes of Unio elongatulus shell increments as proxies for local palaeoenvironments in mid-Holocene northern Syriaen_US
dc.titleReading between the lines: ?18O and ?13C isotopes of Unio elongatulus shell increments as proxies for local palaeoenvironments in mid-Holocene northern Syria
dc.typeArticleen_US

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