02025nas a2200241   4500000000100000008004100001100001600042700001300058700001800071700001700089700001500106700001300121700001700134700001600151700001400167700001400181245011300195856014700308300000900455490000700464520129800471020001401769       2009                            d1 aB. Weninger1 aL. Clare1 aEelco Rohling1 aO. Bar-Yosef1 aU. Boehner1 aM. Budja1 aM. Bundschuh1 aA. Feurdean1 aH.G. Gebe1 aO. Joeris00aThe impact of rapid climate change on prehistoric societies during the Holocene in the Eastern Mediterranean  uhttp://www.mendeley.com/research/the-impact-of-rapid-climate-change-on-prehistoric-societies-during-the-holocene-in-the-eastern-mediterranean/  a7-590 v363 aIn this paper we explore the impact of Rapid Climate Change (RCC) on prehistoric com- munities in the Eastern Mediterranean during the Early and Middle Holocene. Our focus is on the so- cial implications of the four major climate cold anomalies that have recently been identified as key time-windows for global RCC (Mayewski et al. 2004). These cooling anomalies are well-dated, with Greenland ice-core resolution, due to synchronicity between warm/cold foraminifera ratios in Medi- terranean core LC21 as a proxy for surface water temperature, and Greenland GISP2 non sea-salt (nss) K+ ions as a proxy for the intensification of the Siberian High and for polar air outbreaks in the northeast Mediterranean (Rohling et al. 2002). Building on these synchronisms, the GISP2 age- model supplies the following precise time-intervals for archaeological RCC research: (i) 8.68.0 ka, (ii) 6.05.2 ka, (iii) 4.24.0 ka and (iv) 3.12.9 ka calBP. For each of these RCC time intervals, based on detailed 14C-based chronological studies, we investigate contemporaneous cultural developments. From our studies it follows that RCC-related climatic deterioration is a major factor underlying so- cial change, although always at work within a wide spectrum of social, cultural, economic and reli- gious factors.  a1854-2492