Speleothem evidence for late Holocene climate variability and floods in Southern Greece Martin Finné a,b,c , Miryam Bar-Matthews d , Karin Holmgren a,b,c , Hanna S. Sundqvist a,b,c , Ilias Liakopoulos e , Qiong Zhang a,c a Department of Physical Geography and Quaternary Geology, Stockholm University, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden b Navarino Environmental Observatory (NEO), Messinia, Greece c Bolin Centre for Climate Research, Stockholm University, Sweden d Geological Survey of Israel, 30 Malchei Israel Street, Jerusalem 95501, Israel e Ephorate of Palaeoanthropology and Speleology of Southern Greece, Greece abstract article info Article history: Received 9 September 2013 Available online xxxx Keywords: Mediterranean Southern Greece late Holocene Stalagmite Stable isotopes Climate variability Flooding history Hellenistic period We present stable isotope data (δ 18 O, δ 13 C) from a detrital rich stalagmite from Kapsia Cave, the Peloponnese, Greece. The cave is rich in archeological remains and there are reasons to believe that flooding of the cave has di- rectly affected humans using the cave. Using a combination of U–Th and 14 C dating to constrain a site-specific cor- rection factor for ( 232 Th/ 238 U) detrital molar ratio, a linear age model was constructed. The age model shows that the stalagmite grew during the period from ca. 950 BC to ca. AD 830. The stable oxygen record from Kapsia indi- cates cyclical changes of close to 500 yr in precipitation amount, with rapid shifts towards wetter conditions followed by slowly developing aridity. Superimposed on this signal, wetter conditions are inferred around 850, 700, 500 and 400–100 BC, and around AD 160–300 and AD 770; and driest conditions are inferred to have oc- curred around 450 BC, AD 100–150 and AD 650. Detrital horizons in the stalagmite indicate that three major floods took place in the cave at 500 BC, 70 BC and AD 450. The stable carbon isotope record reflects changes in biological activity being a result of both climate and human activities. © 2014 University of Washington. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Introduction Paleoclimate data from the Peloponnese peninsula in southern Greece is scarce (Finné et al., 2011). The peninsula represents an archeologically rich and relatively well explored area that could act as an important area for investigations on the past impact of climate changes on societal development. Available paleoclimate work is main- ly based on palynological studies (e.g., Kraft et al., 1980; Atherden et al., 1993; Jahns, 1993; Zangger et al., 1997; Kontopoulos and Avramidis, 2003; Urban and Fuchs, 2005; Triantaphyllou et al., 2010; Kouli, 2011). However, climate interpretation from palynological data is complex in this region due to its long history of humans altering the environment (e.g., Eastwood et al., 2007; Di Rita and Magri, 2009; Roberts et al., 2011). Limestone caves are frequently abundant and well-studied from an archeological perspective. Caves, with their well-sheltered environment, can preserve material useful, not only for archeological studies but also for paleoclimatic investigations. Provided suitable formation and preservation conditions, speleothems in caves can be precisely dated and yield high-resolution records of past variations in regional temperature, precipitation and vegetation (e.g., McDermott, 2004; Fairchild et al., 2006; Lachniet, 2009). Previous studies, incorporating paleoclimatic data from caves with archeological data, show the potential of working with this type of methods for an interdisciplinary analysis of climate–environment–society interactions (Gopher et al., 2010; Bar-Matthews and Ayalon, 2011). We initiated a study of speleothems from Kapsia Cave in the Pelo- ponnese, with the aim to reconstruct past climate variability and flooding history in a region that is well-studied regarding human histo- ry, and at the same site where archeological remains are abundant. Detrital horizons in the stalagmites from Kapsia Cave show signs of hav- ing been repeatedly flooded. While this may complicate the possibility of obtaining precise age information from the speleothems, improved dating techniques and the prospect of obtaining a record of past flooding events (Dorale et al., 2004), of which one might have caused the death of humans (Merdenisianos, 2005), motivated our research approach. Here, we present U–Th and 14 C dating results from a detrital-rich sta- lagmite from the cave. Dating results are used to construct an age model that is applied to stable oxygen and carbon isotopes (δ 18 O, δ 13 C) data to yield an interpretation of climate variability during a period from ca. 950 BC to ca. AD 830. This is a period that overlaps the period when the cave is believed to have been occupied, or in use, by humans. Setting Kapsia Cave is situated close to the village Kapsia in Arcadia prefec- ture in central Peloponnese (37°37′24″N, 22°21′14″E) (Fig. 1). The Quaternary Research xxx (2014) xxx–xxx YQRES-03518; No. of pages: 15; 4C: 0033-5894/$ – see front matter © 2014 University of Washington. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.yqres.2013.12.009 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Quaternary Research journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/yqres Please cite this article as: Finné, M., et al., Speleothem evidence for late Holocene climate variability and floods in Southern Greece, Quaternary Research (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.yqres.2013.12.009