Paleoclimate investigation in the Feneos Basin, southern Greece

Following the Late Bronze Age Collapse in ancient Greece around 3200 years BP, a lack of artifacts preserved following the collapse has stumped archeologists. To date, investigations into the cause of the collapse have primarily focused on archeological evidence. Suspicion that the collapse may have been a result of climate change has spurred a scientific partnership between archeologists and paleoclimate researchers. In this investigation, we build on past climate studies on the Peloponnese peninsula in southern Greece. Geochemical proxies and grain size distributions were analyzed for a sediment core taken from Paleolake Feneos in the Northeastern Peloponnese. The results can be correlated to other records in the published literature. We conclude that the microclimate of the Feneos Basin matches the record from the Asea Valley and does not closely match the record from the Lake Stymphalia core. One exception is a warm dry event which may have occurred between 3500 and 3000 years BP in both Lake Stymphalia and the Feneos Basin, around the time of the Late Bronze Age Collapse.