Late Quaternary Climate Change in Western Eurasia

The main purpose of this research project was to develop a comprehensive description of climate change in Western Eurasia during Holocene, using the method of literature review, including reports of palynological, lacustrine, pedological and archaeological site contexts. An inventory of all assembled and collated proxies used for the area between the Vistula River/Poland, the Carpathian Mountains, the Urals Mountains and the Caspian Sea was established (20-60E, 42-70N). The northernmost border corresponds to the Barents Sea and White Sea, and the southernmost border is located close to the Black Sea and the Caucasian Mountains. Over the last decades palaeoenvironmental events have increasingly been put forth by archaeologists as representing at least one important cause of changes in cultures in the East European Steppe over the last 8000 years. Thus, a comprehensive study on the issue "Late quaternary spatial-temporal analysis of palaeoenvironments in Western Eurasia based on climate proxies" can provide a reliable basis in this discussion. Methods used to acquire proxy data for palaeoenvironmental reconstruction vary.