Changes [Dec 03, 2007]
BibliographySome dates in the environmental history of the Near East (Cordova 2005, Wilkinson 2003):
* 18,000 - 16,000 BP (Before Present): Late Glacial Maximum-Pleistocene
* 15,000 - 11,000 BP: Amelioration of the climate in the Near East, expansion of forests, rising of oceans, more rain.
* 11,000 - 10,000 BP: Cooling of the atmosphere, partial return to glacial conditions, some reduction of forests. Beginnings of plant cultivation and animal domestication in the Near East, mainly the Levant and Anatolia.
* 9,000 - 6,000 BP: Holocene Climatic Optimum. Rise of temperatures, increase of rains, woodlands/forests advance into former steppe regions in Turkey and Iran. Establishment of farming villages and larger settlements. Urbanization in Southern Mesopotamia at the very end.
Further Reading
On the use of satellite imagery in Near eastern archaeology:
Kouchoukos, Nicholas; 2001. “Satellite images and Near Eastern landscapes,” Near Eastern Archaeology 64: 80-91.
Below two satellite images are from Kouchoukos 2001, p. 82. Both are images of a region in the Susiana plain. First one a Corona image of late 1960s and the second one a Spot image of the same area in 1990s. The dramatic landscape transformation through the establishment of a network of irrigation canals has obliterated earlier landscape features which offered traces of Sasanian and Islamic irrigation systems.
