Lake Ganau in the Rania Plain in Iraqi Kurdistan. A new limnic archive for palaeoenvironmental studies and the investigation of man-environment interaction
Prehistory and World Archaeology
Final Report Abstract
The preliminary archaeobotanical investigations at Lake Ganau show that the sediments are stratified and provide rich study material to investigate the climatic developments of the late Pleistocene, its transition to the Holocene and the entire Holocene itself. Furthermore, a further study of the material would also promise an important contribution to human-environment interaction in eastern Mesopotamia and on the western edge of the Zagros. The sampe cores retrieved from the lake sediments cover 18.6 m of sedimentary history covering about 20,000-25,000 years from today estimated from four AMS dates and the occurrence of Zea mays as a chronological marker of ca. 1500 CE (date of its introduction to agriculture in Iraq) or later. In regional means this will be revealing information about the so-called "broad spectrum revolution" of the regional Epipaleolithic cultures (Baradostian, Zarzian, M'lefaatian cultures at the archaeological cave sites Palegawra, Shanidar and Zarzi, which lie only at a few kilometers distance from the lake in Iraqi Kurdistan). Earlier assumptions based on observed developments in the regional lithic industry, on the broad specter of hunted prey, argued for an arid steppe and grassland vegetation prevailing during the Epipaleolithic, which is paralleled at least during the early Natufian in the Levant. Throughout the counted pollen samples from the core this picture remains unchanged. Open landscape without forest and with few arboreals. The 16 samples distributed in 18.6 core meters show no significant or major changes. Therefore, even a preliminary division of the data in zones or reconstructing chronological segmented patterns is not possible from the results of the pollen analysis only. Only the introduction of neophytes, such as Zea mays, of which one grain was found in 3200 cm depth, can serve as terminus post quem. The preliminary analysis of four luminescence samples showed that the sediments qualify for further tests and can produce luminescence datings. Anyhow, more tests and analyses are required to understand changes of the sediments with increasing sediment load over the investigated historical/geological time scale. Given the financial limits of the project, further analyses were not possible. Still, the first results are promising and encourage future collaborations in various fields. The core samples retrieved from the sediments at the bottom of Lake Ganau yield archival material that deserves further investigations, to which the collaborators within this project invite interested researchers and specialists.
Publications
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2018, “Irrigation in the Shahrizor Plain. The potential of archaeological and geoarchaeological archives to reconstruct ancient water management”, in: H. Kühne (Hrsg.), “Water for Assyria”, Studia Chaburensia 7, Harrassowitz: Wiesbaden, pp. 117-136
Mühl, S./Rösch, M./ Muhammed, D. A./Kadereit, A./Aziz, B. Q.
