A Climatic Framework for Cretan Civilisations

Overview

Climate has influenced human society in the Eastern Mediterranean for millennia. The region is imperative for studying European societal change, from the first stepping points out of Africa to some of the earliest agricultural villages and cities. Crete is critical in this context; it is where the oldest European civilisation, the Minoans, built several “palace sites” (centres of consumption, storage and distribution of agricultural products), and it contains a rich history of subsequent cultures. Recently published palaeoclimate records from Crete point towards significant climate impacts during the last 10,000 years (Ghilardi et al., 2018; Ghilardi et al., 2019; Jouffroy-Bapicot et al., 2021). But there is still a need for well-dated, independent, spatially distributed palaeo-climatic records from Crete. These are needed to constrain the seasonal to decadal scale extreme climate events (droughts, wildfires) that are more likely to have impacted human societies over a single lifetime. Distributed records are necessary because Crete is a large island located in a climatically transitional zone with complex mountainous terrain (max alt: 2,456 m), yielding a mosaic of microclimates (e.g. av. precipitation varies from 440mm/yr in SE Crete to 2000mm/yr in uplands of NW Crete). Our project aims to characterise this complexity through independent but complementary proxy records which include lake records, cave stalagmites and tree rings. An intriguing aspect is that majority of ancient Cretan settlements were established in dry, water-scarce sites, unlike the ancient Egyptians or Sumerians, the Minoans did not have access to large scale freshwater systems (e.g. the Nile, or Tigris- Euphrates). How did they manage water? Did a drying climate and fires stress their water management systems and weaken their society, prior to the eruption of Santorini? Did extreme weather events contribute to conflict or changes in trade routes and diet for the Minoans and subsequent cultures? Fortunately, there are abundant opportunities to address these knowledge gaps and develop accurate records of hydro- climatic change from Crete, via lake and cave sediment, stalagmites and tree-rings.

High-resolution terrestrial climate records are clearly required for meaningful comparison with Crete’s exquisitely rich archaeological and historical records. Your PhD will include a synthesis of existing climatic and archaeological data and targeted field expeditions to obtain additional material. Subsequent geochemical analyses will focus on the analysis of lake and cave sediments. Lake records provide a plethora of environmental information (including lake temperatures, vegetation change and biomass burning) from preserved biomarkers and microfossils. Such lake records can then be compared to high resolution stalagmite and tree-ring records.

Figure 1: Climatic and societal history of Crete (left-hand panels): Recently published lake records point to significant climatic changes on Crete during the Holocene (Ghilardi et al., 2018; Jouffroy-Bapicot et al., 2021). But well dated, high resolution Hydroclimate records from Crete are needed to compare with Crete’s exquisitely rich archaeological record, which includes abundant evidence of the importance of water management. Cretan Archaeology and History (right-hand images): A) Palaeolithic hand axe from south Crete⁵; B) Neolithic clay Goddess figurine, south Crete ⁸; C) Artists reconstruction of the Minoan Palace of Knossos, north Crete ¹⁰; D) Minoan water storage cistern at Zakros palace²; E)  The Minoan ‘Phaistos Disk’, southern Crete¹; F) Clay tablet (ca. 3400BP) written in Linear B (the Myceanean script), Knossos, Crete ³; G) Lato⁴: one of several Dorian hill-top towns; H) Water cistern Lato, east Crete⁶; I) Gortyn, central Crete ⁷, gained prominence during Hellenistic through Roman Periods; J) Remains of a Roman aqueduct, Gortyn⁹; K) Theatre at Aptera, western Crete the settlement dates from 4400BP ¹¹; L) Roman water cistern at Aptera (ca. 2100BP)¹²; M) Byzantine fortifications, Chania, western Crete (1300–1400BP)¹³; N) Byzantine water cistern, Areti Monastery, eastern Crete²; O) Venetian fortifications (1205-1669CE), Spinalonga, Crete¹⁴; P) Remnants of Venetian aqueduct, Karidaki, central Crete; Q) Ottoman drinking fountain, Ierapetra, Crete²; R) Ottoman reconstructed Foundana aqueduct at Aghia Irini, Central Crete².

Figure Refs: 1: Wikipedia, P. D.-. Phaistos Disc (2019); 2: Markinos, Y., et al., Water History 8, 137-157,(2014);  3: Linear B Tablet. Ancient History Encyclopedia (2014). 4: Image from Lonely Planet; 5: Strasser, T. F. et al. Hesperia, 79, 145-190, (2010);  6: Mays, L. M. & Angelakis, A. N. Water 5, 1916-1940, (2013); 7: Ryckaert, M. (2009); 8: Archaeological Museum of Heraklion, (2014);  9: Schram, W. (2019);  10: Artists Reconstruction of the Palace of Knossos (Pinterest), (2019); 11: Neoskosmos. (2018);  12, 13, 14: Images from West-Crete.com, (2019).