An Archaeological Exploration of Prehistoric Land Use and Adaptations to Climate in the Southern Balkans

Hostettler, Marco (6 June 2024). An Archaeological Exploration of Prehistoric Land Use and Adaptations to Climate in the Southern Balkans (Unpublished). In: Climate of the past and societal responses to environmental changes. University of Bern. 5.– 8. June 2024.

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The Southern Balkans designate a region comprising the territories of North Macedonia, Albania and Greece. The landscape of this area was mainly created by tectonic activity and limestone weathering and is one of the geographically most diverse regions of Europe. It spreads from high altitude plains and lake systems to the Aegean Sea with its Mediterranean climate. Around 7000–6500 BC farming practises reached the Aegean Coast and subsequently spread into the European mainland in the millennia to follow. Here, farming and the involved societies under- went the adaptations which allowed them the further spread into the continent along different routes.
Radiocarbon data taken from archaeological contexts in the area show that after an initial phase, a wide range of diverse environmental zones on different elevations was settled. This means, people had adapted to different climatic conditions, possibly taking advantage from coinciding climate changes at the time. Archaeological evidence suggests unbroken presence of human activities in the Balkans until ca. 4000 BC, when the evidence for human activities sharply decreases. The phase coincides with maxima in forestation at least in parts of the region as suggested by independent sources. Only after 3500 BC a growing human presence connected to the Onset of the Early Bronze Age can be detected using radiocarbon dates.
During these early millenia of farming societies in the Balkans, several backlashes in human activities can be observed. These have been discussed to be connected to climate events, such as the 8.2 ka BP event at the onset of the Neolithic on the European mainland or the 4.2 ka event at the end of the Early Bronze Age. The aim of this poster is to discuss how the diachronically changing food systems might have been affected by these climatic impacts and what that might have meant for the involved societies. By exploring the respective subsistence economies and land use systems of the Neolithic and Bronze Age societies, probable resilience strategies or vulnerabilities facing climatic variability are discussed.

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