Paper short abstract:

Using new palaeoclimate proxy data from two caves together with archaeological survey data and historical sources we present a more complex approach to the ancient Peloponnese, involving political agency, climate variability, and environmental dynamics from the 5th century BC to the 1st century AD.

Paper long abstract:

The study of ancient Peloponnesian landscapes has a long history and the cultural developments within these environments are well known and have been extensively investigated. Numerous archaeological field surveys have been conducted since the 1960s, tracing long term site and settlement patterns in bounded regions in the Peloponnese. Micro-regional settlement trajectories, as provided by intensive survey archaeology, highlight some degree of variability in terms of the chronology of expansion and contraction between the eastern and the western part of the Peninsula during the second half of the first millennium BC. Within previous research emphasis has been placed on the significance of political agency as the main driving force behind socioeconomic dynamics observed in the material and historical record, both in terms of a broader Peloponnesian narrative as well as in regards to local developments. New stable isotope data from speleothems collected from different cave sites on the Peloponnese give insights to the climate history of the Peninsula. The proxy data from the different sites display a mainly coherent picture but for the period 100 BC - AD 200 (2050 - 1750 cal BP) there are indications of climatic differences between the eastern and the western part. The paleoclimate data provide us with novel perspectives to investigate the potential impact of climate on local settlement structures. Using the new palaeoclimate data together with other available environmental proxy records (primarily pollen) we can therefore build a more complex landscape narrative of the ancient Peloponnese, involving political agency, climate variability, and environmental dynamics.