The 4.2 ka BP Event in the Mediterranean Region: an overview
2018
Abstract. The Mediterranean region and the
Levant have returned some of the clearest evidence of a climatically dry
period occurring around 4200 years ago. However, some regional evidence is
controversial and contradictory, and issues remain regarding timing,
progression, and regional articulation of this event. In this paper, we review
the evidence from selected proxies (sea-surface temperature, precipitation,
and temperature reconstructed from pollen, δ 18 O on
speleothems, and δ 18 O on lacustrine carbonate) over the
Mediterranean Basin to infer possible regional climate patterns during the
interval between 4.3 and 3.8 ka. The values and limitations of
these proxies are discussed, and their potential for furnishing information
on seasonality is also explored. Despite the chronological uncertainties,
which are the main limitations for disentangling details of the climatic
conditions, the data suggest that winter over the Mediterranean involved drier
conditions, in addition to already dry summers. However, some exceptions to
this prevail – where wetter conditions seem to have persisted – suggesting
regional heterogeneity in climate patterns. Temperature data, even if sparse,
also suggest a cooling anomaly, even if this is not uniform. The most common
paradigm to interpret the precipitation regime in the Mediterranean – a
North Atlantic Oscillation-like pattern – is not completely satisfactory to
interpret the selected data.
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