A speleothem-based reconstruction of Early Holocene the climate-environmental-human nexus in the Fertile Crescent

At the beginning of Holocene, the Fertile Crescent (FC) – and particularly the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) – was the scenario of several fundamental cultural events such as the origin of agriculture, the beginning of urbanization, and the formation of the first state entities. The role played by climate and environmental changes on these cultural processes is highly debated, but local, continuous, and well-dated palaeoclimatic records are still scarce. In this contribution, we present the results of a palaeoclimatological and palaeoenvironmental investigation in this area, derived from a speleothem covering the Early Holocene Early (ca. 11 to 7.3 ka), and encompassing the Neolithic to Early Chalcolithic periods. The speleothem record shows multi-centennial hydroclimatic fluctuations that can be related to changes in the intensity of the Siberian High (SH). The SH affected regional synoptic conditions, influencing the amount of winter precipitation, and modulating the length of wet season. The comparison of our data with the local archaeological record suggests a link between these hydroclimatic fluctuations with changes in settlement patterns and a re-organization of subsistence strategies, particularly to the exploitation of water resources.