Browsing by Author "Laermanns, Hannes"

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    Rapid climate change, integrated human–environment–historical records and societal resilience in Georgia
    (MDPI , 2024-08-19) Loveluck, Christopher P; Tielidze, Levan G; Elashvili, Mikheil; Kurbatov, Andrei V; Gadrani, Lela; Erb-Satullo, Nathaniel; von Suchodoletz, Hans; Dan, Anca; Laermanns, Hannes; Brückner, Helmut; Schlotzhauer, Udo; Sulava, Nino; Chagelishvili, Rusudan
    In the midlatitudes of the planet, we are facing the imminent disappearance of one of our best high-resolution (pre)historic climate and anthropogenic pollution archives, namely the loss of glacial ice, through accelerated global warming. To capture these records and interpret these vanishing archives, it is imperative that we extract ice-cores from midlatitude regions where glaciers still survive and analyse them within frameworks of inter-disciplinary research. In this paper, we focus on Georgia, part of the Greater Caucasus. Results of ice-core analyses from the region have never, to date, been integrated with its other abundant palaeo-environmental, archaeological and historical sources. We review the results of international projects on palaeo-environmental/geoarchaeological sediment archives, the archaeology of metal economies and preliminary ice-core data in Georgia. Collectively, we show that the different strands need to be integrated to fully explore relationships between climate/landscape change and human societal transformations. We then introduce an inclusive interdisciplinary framework for ongoing research on these themes, with an ultimate future goal of using data from the past to inform societal resilience strategies in the present.
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    The Lake Paravani archive – a contribution to the late Quaternary landscape evolution of the Lesser Caucasus (Georgia)
    (Wiley, 2024-07-01) Gademann, Daniel; Ustiashvili, Nino; Adikashvili, Luka; Navrozashvili, Levan; Erb-Satullo, Nathaniel L.; van der Meij, W. Marijn; Kirkitadze, Giorgi; Koff, Tiiu; Elashvili, Mikheil; Brückner, Helmut; Laermanns, Hannes
    Lake Paravani, located on the volcanic Javakheti Plateau in the central part of the Lesser Caucasus at 2073 m a.s.l., forms a unique geo-bio-archive for palaeoenvironmental reconstructions in this remote region. Based on sediment cores from the southwestern part of the lake we expand the existing palynological and sedimentological records beyond the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). For the first time, it is possible to reconstruct the palaeoenvironment in this part of the Lesser Caucasus back to c. 28 cal. ka BP. Our study shows that until 16 cal. ka BP glacial conditions dominated (Phase I) in the region; there is, however, proof that the lake already existed during the LGM. In the following transitional Phase II from 16 until 6 cal. ka BP, cold and arid conditions with sparse steppe vegetation and a lowered lake level prevailed. Around 10 cal. ka BP, tree pollen started to expand while herbaceous pollen, especially Chenopodiaceae, declined. In Phase III, since 6 cal. ka BP, mixed forest probably represented the Holocene climatic optimum. Fluctuating lake levels indicate shifting climatic conditions. The minor changes of arboreal pollen hin the uppermost part of Phase II may be an indication of human activity. The more humid, vegetation-rich environment and mild climate around 4.5–2 cal. ka BP correlate with the expansion of the Late Bronze Age settlements in this area (from ~3.5 cal. ka BP/~1.5 ka BC). The proliferation of sites on the plateau, along with even higher-altitude sites possibly dating to the same period, may indicate that this climate amelioration played an important role in enabling more sustained human occupation. The results extend the record on Lake Paravani by several millennia beyond the LGM and complement the palaeo-lake reconstructions of the wider region, e.g. at Lake Van (Türkiye) or Lake Sevan (Armenia).