Overview of environmental changes and human colonization in the Balearic Islands (Western Mediterranean) and their impacts on vegetation composition during the Holocene

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2016.09.018Get rights and content

Highlights

  • insularity, Holocene climatic changes, pollen analysis, anthracology, fire, Naviform and Talayotic cultures, Western Mediterranean

Abstract

According to radiometric dates and the current state of research, the Balearic Islands were not colonized by humans prior to c. 4420/4220 cal yr BP. Therefore, it is possible to know the natural evolution of the landscape of the Balearic Islands for the first two-thirds of the Holocene (c. 10,000 to c. 4300 cal yr BP). This study aims to improve our understanding of the respective roles of human societies and/or climate in the transformation of vegetation cover during the Late Holocene in this Western Mediterranean archipelago. The results show the importance and control of climate oscillations in the evolution of vegetation throughout the Early and Middle Holocene. Our data clearly show that the transformation of the landscape started before the first human settlements. In Minorca (north-eastern Gymnesian Islands), this upheaval occurred between 5825 and 4675 cal yr BP (fourth to third millennium BC), while in Majorca (the largest of the Gymnesian Islands) the transition is less well dated, oscillating between 7169 and 2535 cal yr BP. In the southern Pityusic Islands, observed changes in Ibiza are less pronounced and coincide with the 4.2 cal kyr BP climate event, synchronous with human colonization. The correlation between forest fires and rapid climate events, as well as the resilience of vegetation until the Middle Ages (tenth century) in Ibiza, suggest that the evolution of climatic conditions is the preponderant parameter for explaining Holocene vegetation changes on these islands.

Introduction

Palaeoecological research focused on the Holocene has allowed for assessing the relationship between climate change and vegetation history. Generally, drying and cooling oscillations are documented during the Holocene, and a transition from wetter to drier conditions is observed in the Mediterranean area, which consolidated after the Middle-to-Late Holocene transition and affected the landscape configuration with the expansion of Mediterranean sclerophyllous woodland (Jalut et al., 2000, Roberts et al., 2001, Sadori and Narcisi, 2001, Carrión et al., 2010, Pérez-Obiol et al., 2011). However, there is debate about the causes of changes in vegetation evolution from the Neolithic onwards due to the increasing trend of human impact. The adoption of farming practices presupposes an alteration of natural landscapes and presents a remarkable new factor to consider when investigating palaeoenvironmental changes (Ruddiman, 2003, Ruddiman et al., 2015), and especially vegetation changes, as found in some pollen records from the Mediterranean area (Riera-Mora and Esteban-Amat, 1994, Sadori and Narcisi, 2001, Yll et al., 2003, Drescher-Schneider et al., 2007, Colombaroli et al., 2008, Kouli and Dermitzakis, 2008, Vannière et al., 2008, Vescovi et al., 2010, Marinova et al., 2012, Revelles et al., 2015).

Islands have always been considered ‘experimental laboratories’ for the detailed study of environmental change because of their high sensitivity (isolated areas and low resilience) to climatic and anthropic factors. Most studies have shown that the human colonization of islands contributed to environmental change and landscape transformation (Flenley et al., 1991, Dumont et al., 1998, Vigne, 1999, Prebble and Dowe, 2008). However, with more detailed research, it is possible to assess whether climatic factors were important variables in vegetation resilience (Athens et al., 2002, Sáez et al., 2009, Cañellas-Boltà et al., 2013, Rull et al., 2013, Rull et al., 2015). Distinguishing between the two aforementioned factors is often very difficult, especially considering possible sedimentary hiatuses and reversals in radiometric dating in the studied palaeoenvironmental sequences (e.g. Horrocks et al., 2013). This does not facilitate an understanding of natural landscape evolution and the role of humans in such changes. Our interest in the Balearic Islands stems from the fact that human presence is not attested until around c. 4320 cal yr BP (2500–2300 cal BC), with a population increase occurring around 3650 cal yr BP. The archipelago, with islands of small and medium dimensions (Table 1), is located in the Western Mediterranean (Fig. 1) and presents a typical Mediterranean climate (Table 1).

In Minorca and Mallorca, potential vegetation is typically Mediterranean, made up of Balearic evergreen oak forests (with Quercus ilex as the main component) and, in lower and windier areas, shrub formations related to thermo-Mediterranean forests (Peinado and Rivas-Martínez, 1987). These are dominated by Olea europaea var. sylvestris, Prasium majus, Euphorbia dendroides, and Phillyrea rodriguezii (Rivas-Martínez, 1987). The domain of the Phoenician juniper (Juniperus phoenicea) appears in Ibiza and Formentera.

This article summarizes pollen and anthracological results obtained up to now in the largest archipelago of the Western Mediterranean in archaeological and natural contexts. The fact that the Balearic Islands were uninhabited until the Late Holocene permits assessment of the climatic control of vegetation evolution in a Mediterranean area during the Middle Holocene. We aim to show the importance of climate in the Mediterranean Holocene landscape with or without human influence. Here, we i) evaluate the influence of climate change on vegetation evolution during the Middle-to-Late Holocene, ii) reconstruct the impact of human colonization on the landscape from the Late Holocene onwards, and iii) assess natural differences and compare climate change influence and vegetation evolution between the islands.

Section snippets

History of human occupation

Archaeological evidence from the Balearic Islands is relatively recent compared to other insular Mediterranean territories, and to date there are no vestiges from the Neolithic period (Micó, 2005, Micó, 2006). Nevertheless, the dates of the first occupation and permanent human settlement of these islands are not well defined yet. Although evidence reveals that humans arrived on these islands during the sixth millennium BP, the most detailed dates for their arrival range from 4850 to 4300 cal yr

Reviewed sites and palaeovegetation data

These islands have not been widely studied from a palaeoenvironmental perspective. For this study, we selected the sites which have well-dated continuous palynological sequences (Fig. 1). From the island of Minorca, we selected the sites of Cala'n Porter (Yll et al., 1997, Carrión et al., 2012), Algendar (Yll et al., 1997, Pérez-Obiol and Sadori, 2007, Carrión et al., 2012), and Es Grau (Burjachs, 2006, Carrión et al., 2012). From Majorca, we chose the site of Albufera d'Alcúdia (Burjachs et

Composition of vegetation during the Holocene

It is remarkable that before humans arrived on these islands, Majorca and Minorca (Gymnesian Islands) had significantly different landscape compositions relative to Ibiza and Formentera (Pityusic Islands) and the nearby Iberian coast. During the first part of the Holocene, the northern island landscapes were basically composed of endemic box (Buxus cf. balearica), Mediterranean junipers (Juniperus cf. phoenicea, J. cf. oxycedrus), some oaks (Quercus deciduous and evergreen type), and a small

Human settlements and associated ecological changes

The Balearic archipelago was the last in the Mediterranean to be colonized by humans. Despite numerous studies focusing on the arrival of the first humans in these Western Mediterranean islands, the dates remain highly uncertain (Ramis et al., 2002, Alcover, 2008). At present, one radiocarbon date for ovicaprid bone associated with Bell-Beaker pottery, dated to 4327 ± 62 cal yr BP (calendric age) or 2470–2270 cal yr BC (95.4% probability) (Aramburu-Zabala and Martínez-Sánchez, 2015), can be accepted

Climate interpretation of vegetation evolution

First, deliberately avoiding deterministic climatic assumption, this study aims to demonstrate the existence of natural changes in vegetation composition on the Balearic Islands before the arrival of the first humans. Indeed, humans were not responsible for the transformation of plant landscapes during the first two-thirds of the Balearic Holocene. Thus, the curves in Fig. 9, Fig. 10 show that environmental moisture (mesic trees) had a tendency to decrease throughout the Holocene, while shrubs

Conclusions

Based on the examination of the available chronological, palaeoenvironmental, and archaeobotanical data, the main findings of this study are as follows:

  • i)

    Substantial differences existed between the palaeovegetation of the Gymnesian Islands (northeast Balearic archipelago) and the Pityusic Islands (southwest Balearic archipelago). Before the arrival of the first humans, the vegetation and fauna in the Gymnesian Islands were in equilibrium with the climate during the first two-thirds of the

Acknowledgements

J. Revelles was a beneficiary of an FPU pre-doctoral contract from the Ministry of Education, Culture, and Sports of the Spanish government. G. Servera-Vives was supported by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of the Spanish government (“Juan de la Cierva” post-doctoral Program). Ll. Picornell-Gelabert was funded by a post-doctoral grant from the Government of the Balearic Islands (Council for Education and University), a grant from the European Social Fund (PD/022/2013), and a

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