Climate and chronology: environmental variability and the archaeology of marine isotope stage 3

Thesis

The relationship between large-scale palaeoclimatic variability and changes in human behaviour, technology, and distribution is frequently discussed in European Palaeolithic archaeology. However, making confident and causal links between these processes requires addressing some key chronological uncertainties and broader difficulties in palaeoenvironmental reconstruction. This thesis explores and illuminates some of these challenges, by focusing on the themes of Climate and Chronology.

During Marine Isotope Stage 3 (MIS 3; 60 to 30 thousand years before present), dramatic and abrupt temperature oscillations are evidenced by Greenland ice core records, implying significant changes to the earth’s climate system. These changes are likely to have had environmental and ecological impact across the northern hemisphere. However, the spatial footprint of these changes over Europe is unclear, with many palaeoenvironmental records showing discrepancies with the Greenland records during MIS 3, as well as with each other. A key challenge in this field is chronological. Obtaining precise and accurate radiocarbon determinations for both the archaeological and palaeoenvironmental records of MIS 3 can be very difficult, meaning that addressing and ascribing causality across their respective sequences is challenging.

Reconstructing the impact of these palaeoclimatic change demands the synthesis of a broad range of data types, as well as their associated uncertainties. This thesis addresses this challenge, focusing on the chronologies of palaeoenvironmental and archaeological changes during MIS 3. The research explores multiple methods to improve palaeoenvironmental reconstructions and their chronologies, employing General Circulation Models, Machine Learning and Bayesian statistics, and signal processing algorithms. Alongside computational approaches to these problems, laboratory-based research contributes experimental pretreatment protocols and updated estimates for the timings of archaeological changes in Palaeolithic Europe.

The various chapters of this research show that claims for a causal relationship between large-scale environmental change and archaeological shifts during the Late Pleistocene cannot be supported by current evidence. This is not to say there was no relationship between these processes. Rather, current chronologies and their associated uncertainties are not appropriate to answer the questions being asked of the data.

Authors: Ochocki, M

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-erympa92k
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: palaeolithic; environmental science; archaeology
• Subjects: Paleolithic period; Environmental sciences; Archaeology