The construction and stabilization episodes of the northwestern Negev dunefield - palaeoclimate, palaeoenvironment and implications for prehistoric, historic and modern humans.

Autor

Institutionen

1 Dept. of Marine GeoSciences, Charney School of Marine Studies, University of Haifa, Mt. Carmel Haifa, 31905 Israel;
2 Dept. of Maritime Civilizations, Charney School of Marine Studies and the Leon Recanati Institute for Maritime Studies (RIMS), University of Haifa, Mt. Carmel Haifa, 31905 Israel;
3 School of Sciences, Achva Academic College, Israel;

Abstract

The northwestern Negev desert dunefield (Israel) is probably the most densely dated dune body in the world. Over 230 luminescence (TL, IRSL, and mainly OSL) and radiocarbon ages and dates have been retrieved from calcic and sandy palaeosols serving as dune substrates, sand sheets, vegetated linear dunes (VLDs), dune-bordering fluvial deposits, and archaeological sites which provide additional chronologic constraints. By reviewing and reassessing the chronologies and their significance along with detailed stratigraphic, structural and geomorphologic understandings, the major episodes of aeolian activity and stability are outlined.

Age clusters during the late Pleistocene, late Holocene and modern times are reliable recorders of main sand and dune mobilization episodes and intervals. Combining the results with late Quaternary records assists in generating the palaeoclimate framework for the southern Levant. Rapid sand mobilizations during the Heinrich 1 and Younger Dryas were characterized by powerful winds also at the synoptic and hemispheric scales. The NW Negev aeolian and fluvial environments led to unique and different relations with prehistoric, historic and modern human activity and abondament.

Tags: 
Jahrestagung
2017
Erlangen
Vortrag