The 4.2 ka BP event in the Levant

Abstract. The 4.2 ka BP event is defined as a phase of environmental stress characterized by severe and prolonged drought of global extent. The event is recorded from the North Atlantic through Europe to Asia, leading scientists to evoke a 300-yr global mega-drought. Focusing on the Mediterranean and the Near East, this abrupt climate episode radically altered precipitation, with an estimated 30–50 % drop in precipitation in the eastern basin. While many studies reveal similar trends in the northern Mediterranean (from Spain to Turkey and the northern Levant), data from northern Africa and central/southern Levant are more nuanced, suggesting a weaker imprint of this climate shift on the environment and/or different climate patterns. Here, we provide a synthesis of environmental reconstructions for the Levant and show that, while the 4.2 ka BP event also corresponds to a drier period, a different climate pattern emerges in the central/southern Levant, with two dry phases framing a wetter period, suggesting a W-shaped event, particularly well defined by records from the Dead Sea area.