Israel: Botanical remains from over 10,000 years show evolution of winters

A group of researchers who conducted an innovative project documenting Israel's climate over a period of 10 millennia reveals that winters in Israel were colder 20,000 years ago, with the lowest temperatures in January about five degrees Celsius lower than today's, and precipitation levels similar to today's, as per the reports of the Jerusalem Post. Archaeologists from Tel Aviv University, Tel-Hai College, and the University of Montpellier in France were able to reconstruct how the weather evolved throughout that time period by analysing botanical remnants from the Hula Valley in northern Israel dating from 10,000 to 20,000 years ago.

The research was recently published in the Quaternary Science Review magazine. According to the Jerusalem Post, TAU archaeobotanist Dr Dafna Langgut stated that by examining botanical remains, she has been working on reconstructing the climatic and ecological history of the region. A total of 600 pollens were recovered from 60 plant sediments that were radiocarbon-dated. The researchers were able to create a pollen-based paleoclimate model as a result of this discovery.

Temperature change aided in the transition from hunter-gatherer nomadic lifestyles

While Israel and the Levant were not blanketed in ice like many other parts of the world at the time of the last Ice Age, conditions were very different from what they are today. Species such as olive trees, pistachio trees, and oaks became increasingly common as temperatures climbed roughly 5,000 years later, according to the Jaresalum Post. The researchers said that temperature change in the region aided in the transition from hunter-gatherer nomadic lifestyles to the first permanent towns based on agriculture, as evidenced by the site where the botanical remnants were discovered.

Small groups of hunter-gatherers discovered a fishing and hunting site near the southern margin of Paleolake Hula some 20,000 years ago, according to the Jerusalem Post. The site would be used for the next 10,000 years after those first visitors, providing an incredible record of how the climate, vegetation, animals, and, most importantly, the ancient occupants of the country lived and changed through millennia.

Currently working on another site in the Negev

Prof. Gonen Sharon of Tel Hai noted that around 15,000 years ago, they saw a tremendous change in lifestyle, the development of settled life in villages, as well as other dramatic changes that culminated during the Neolithic period, the greatest event in human history that is the shift to an agricultural lifestyle that changed the world as we know it today, according to the Jerusalem Post. The researcher is currently working on another site in the Negev, a former lake with plant sediments dating back 1.5 million years, to give more information on how climate has developed in the region.

Image: AP