Variability of Radiocarbon reservoir age effects in lakes and rivers of Eastern Anatolia and Lesser Caucasus
Abstract
Multiproxy sedimentary sequence analysis constitutes the basis for reconstructions of past paleoenvironments and climate evolution. These sequences are, for the most part, obtained by coring in lakes (maar or crater) whose waters can record volcanic activity or karstic contributions, especially in Central and Eastern Anatolia, and the Lesser Caucasus. The main consequence of such volcanic and karstic contexts is to generate a reservoir age effect and to bias the radiocarbon dates of sedimentary records from these lakes. In the same way, the halieutic resources bordering these lakes also record this reservoir effect. Ans, as they constitute the food resources of the local populations, this reservoir effect is also reflected in the skeleton of the lake human populations. We present, here, some results obtained from eastern Anatolian lakes (Van and Sevan lakes) and from archaeological sites along the river Kura and its tributaries from Lesser Caucasus.