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13,000 Years Ago: How Bad Was the Younger Dryas in the Fertile Crescent? [19:50]
YouTube ^ | February 23, 2023 | Ancient Architects

Posted on 07/21/2025 8:12:45 PM PDT by SunkenCiv

The Pleistocene-Holocene transition is a very significant period of time, because it marks what I believe is the true foundartions for the origins of civilisation, when we see the first permanent settlements in the Fertile Crescent followed by the onset of agriculture, and from then on humanity has developed exponentially.

From an archaeological point of view, it’s truly a fascinating time period, with so many incredible sites discovered in the past century, from Ancient Jericho in the West Bank, to Mureybet and Tell Qaramel in Syria, and Kortik Tepe, Gobekli Tepe and Karahan Tepe in Turkey.

The foundations of these sites were laid either just before, during or just after the Younger Dryas cold snap, which, according to platinum spike in the Greenland Ice Core data, began around 12,822 years ago and many parts of the world returned to glacial or near-glacial conditions, a change in climate that lasted around 1,000 or so years... 
13,000 Years Ago: How Bad Was the Younger Dryas in the Fertile Crescent? | 19:50 
Ancient Architects | 588K subscribers | 76,224 views | February 23, 2023
13,000 Years Ago: How Bad Was the Younger Dryas in the Fertile Crescent? | 19:50 | Ancient Architects | 588K subscribers | 76,224 views | February 23, 2023

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TOPICS: History; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: 300manyearsoflabor; fauxiantroll; fauxiantrolls; fertilecrescent; godsgravesglyphs; noahsmalarkey; youngearthdelusion; youngearthdelusions; youngerdryas

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...Not every part of the planet was affected in the same way. In Western Europe and Greenland, the Younger Dryas is a well-defined and synchronous cold period. South America had a less well-defined initiation but a sharp termination. Australia and New Zealand were seemingly unaffected but interestingly, around 100 years or so before the onset of the Younger Dryas as recorded in the Greenland data, Antarctica showed the opposite trend and started to rapidly warm up.

With this in mind, with my personal interest in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic, I really wanted to know what was happening in the Fertile Crescent. How did the Younger Dryas affect the climate from Anatolia down to the Levant, the area which really is the true cradle of civilisation? In this video we'll find out!

All images are taken from Google Images, Google Earth and the below sources for educational purposes only.

1 posted on 07/21/2025 8:12:45 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
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(This guy's voice absolutely sucks.)
--> YouTube-Generated Transcript <--
0:05·Hello everybody and welcome to Ancient Architects.
0:12·Please subscribe now to get the latest ancient history news and independent research from
0:16·around the world.
0:19·In the human story, the Pleistocene-Holocene transition is a very significant period, because
0:25·it marks what I believe is the origins of civilisation, when we see the first permanent
0:32·settlements in the Fertile Crescent followed by the onset of agriculture, and from then
0:38·on humanity has developed exponentially.
0:42·From an archaeological point of view, it s truly a fascinating time period, with so many
0:48·incredible sites discovered in the past century, from Ancient Jericho in the West Bank, to
0:54·Mureybet and Tell Qaramel in Syria, and Kortik Tepe, Gobekli Tepe and Karahan Tepe in Turkey.
1:02·The foundations of these sites were laid either just before, during or just after the Younger
1:08·Dryas cold snap, which, according to platinum spike in the Greenland Ice Core data, began
1:16·around 12,822 years ago and many parts of the world returned to glacial or near-glacial
1:23·conditions, a change in climate that lasted around 1,000 years.
1:30·Before the Younger Dryas, between 14,670 and 12,890 years ago, Greenland Ice Core data
1:38·shows that the Northern Hemisphere was experiencing the Bolling-Allerod Late Glacial Interstadial.
1:45·This period began with a sharp rise in temperature, but over the two thousand years that followed,
1:51·although temperatures remained comparatively warm, the general climatic trend was decline.
1:57·And this all came to a head with the onset of the Younger Dryas, where various data sets
2:03·show there was a somewhat drastic drop in temperature, by 4 to 10 degrees Celsius depending
2:09·on where you lived.
2:11·And that is an important point, because not every part of the planet was affected in the
2:16·same way. In Western Europe and Greenland, the Younger Dryas is a well-defined and synchronous
2:23·cold period. South America had a less well-defined initiation but a sharp termination. Australia
2:32·and New Zealand were seemingly unaffected but interestingly, around 100 years or so
2:38·before the onset of the Younger Dryas as recorded in the Greenland data, Antarctica showed the
2:46·opposite trend and started to rapidly warm up.
2:52·With this in mind, with my personal interest in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic, I really wanted
2:57·to know what was happening in the Fertile Crescent. How did the Younger Dryas affect
3:02·the climate from Anatolia down to the Levant, the area which really is the true cradle of
3:09·civilisation?
3:10·Well, for obvious reasons we can't obtain Ice Core Data from Turkey, Israel or Syria,
3:17·and so we learn about the Younger Dryas in a number of different ways. Firstly, we can
3:24·analyse the types of pollen, which gives us a good idea of what was growing in the region.
3:30·The types of plants and trees give us a good indication of the climate.
3:36·We also have animal bones in the sedimentary record, so we know which animals were present,
3:41·dominant, dwindling or absent across the Palaeolithic-Holocene transition. Again, this is a good indication
3:50·for the climate, environmental conditions and habitats.
3:56·We can also analyse marine records as well as paleolake levels, to see how charged the
4:03·natural lakes and reservoirs were, to give us an idea of how wet or dry the region was
4:10·and if and when things changed.
4:13·We can also study the sedimentary deposits themselves, as well as speleothems. These
4:20·are mineral deposits formed from groundwater within underground caverns, such as stalagmites
4:26·and stalactites.
4:29·So, with all that in mind, what was it like in the Fertile Crescent during the Younger
4:34·Dryas? What have we learned? Well actually a huge amount and the analysis has turned
4:42·what I thought I knew about the Younger Dryas on its head.
4:47·Of course, this is the time when many researchers propose there was a global cataclysm. A number
4:53·of high-profile scientists, authors, podcasters and YouTubers believe there is enough evidence
4:59·to suggest that a series of cosmic impacts or airbursts struck the Earth, others believe
5:05·there was a major plasma discharge from the sun and many speculate there was a corresponding
5:11·global Great Flood.
5:13·But does the evidence and the data fit with a catastrophic model? What can we learn about
5:18·the onset of the Younger Dryas in the Fertile Crescent?
5:24·In 2013, Donald O. Henry wrote a fantastic summary called The Natufian and the Younger
5:30·Dryas, where he collates all of the data from decades of work and it helps us to see the
5:35·bigger picture.
5:38·There have been many excavations of Epi-Palaeolithic and Pre-Pottery Neolithic sites in the Levant,
5:45·as well as numerous paleoclimatic studies, and we do have a large amount of data to work
5:52·with.
5:53·For a start, and to clear up the age-old misconceptions and outlandish claims, there is absolutely
5:59·no evidence of any kind for a great flood or megatsunami that covered the Fertile Crescent,
6:05·at the beginning or end of the Younger Dryas. We do have a very good understanding of what
6:12·the environment was like.
6:15·The best place to start is speleothems - cave deposits. There are a number of cave sites
6:21·that have been analysed in Lebanon and Israel, and we can measure oxygen and carbon ratios
6:28·in deposits; they are dateable and that give us a good indication of what the climate was
6:34·like.
6:39·From analysing speleothems from sites such as the Soreq Cave in Israel, several caves
6:44·in Galilee and the Jeita Cave in Lebanon, the regional timing of the Younger Dryas has
6:50·been carefully documented and averaged. Interestingly, we see the climate becoming colder and dryer
6:58·from 14,000 years ago, but, using isotopes in speleothems, the true onset of the Younger
7:04·Dryas in this part of the world has been dated to between 13,000 and 13,200 years ago, which
7:12·is earlier than expected, and ending between 11,200 and 11,400 years ago, which is later
7:21·than expected. The Younger Dryas climate in the Fertile Crescent therefore differs considerably
7:28·from what we see in the Greenland Ice Core data, both in terms of dating and duration.
7:35·Speleothem dating therefore calls into question a cataclysmic origin for the Younger Dryas,
7:40·which, if it did happen, would have let to a coherent cooling signature in deposits around
7:46·the world. They should be staggered. We also see a similar thing with Antarctic Ice Core
7:53·data, which also shows a drastic change in temperature a few hundred years before Greenland.
7:59·I ll discuss this more in a future video.
8:03·In the Levant, the Younger Dryas lasted for 1,800 to 2,000 years, in contrast to the 1,200
8:11·to 1,300 years in Greenland. The beginning was probably more gradual compared to Greenland
8:19·and speleothem evidence suggests termination of the Younger Dryas in the Levant was also
8:25·a much slower process, taking some 500 years to move out of the cold and dry conditions.
8:34·The same is seen in the Dongge cave records in China. It s not abrupt like we see in the
8:42·Greenland Ice Cores.
8:45·The pollen studies in Lake Ghab in Syria and Lake Huleh in Israel don't give us specific
8:51·dates like speleothems do, but it does give us an indication of the changing landscape.
8:57·For example, during the Younger Dryas, the forests of Syria sharply declined and were
9:04·replaced by arid, tolerant shrubs. In the Southern Levant, the forests were replaced,
9:11·but by open grassland interspersed with patches of oak-pistachia woodland.
9:17·The dry conditions are confirmed by studying the levels of the ancient Lisan Lake in the
9:22·Jordan Rift Valley. Scientists have noted it doesn't dramatically drop at the start
9:27·of the Younger Dryas like many of us would expect, but we see a gradual fall.
9:32·For example, 25,000 years ago, the lake level was at its highest at 164 metres below sea
9:40·level. 15,000 years ago it s level had fallen to 300 metres below sea level and at the beginning
9:48·of the younger Dryas, around 13,200 years ago, the lake level was 426 metres below sea
9:55·level. The Bolling Allerod may have been a wetter and warmer period, but it was certainly
10:02·a period of decline, and we do see this in the Greenland data as well.
10:09·So it looks like the Younger Dryas had a somewhat gradual beginning, as opposed to being cataclysmic,
10:16·and this is confirmed with geomorphic evidence as well. Between 17,500 and 15,000 years ago
10:24·we find that the wet conditions and high-water table led to the cutting of new channels across
10:29·the landscape, leaving substantial alluvial deposits in the sedimentary record.
10:35·But by 14,000 years, 1,000 years before the Younger Dryas was in full swing, this had
10:42·already stopped. There was no overbank flooding and channels were instead narrower. The environment
10:51·was already becoming dryer and again we see that the lowering of the water table was gradual
10:58·and not sudden.
11:00·So, although this is a brief overview, the evidence suggests that the Younger Dryas began
11:05·between 13,200 and 13,000 years ago and ended between 11,200 and 11,400 years ago, and that
11:15·s from multiple studies across numerous sites in the Levant. It was a cold and dry period,
11:23·with low lake levels and a change in vegetation cover.
11:27·The regional Levantine expression of the Younger Dryas differs in terms of duration, strength
11:33·and tempo of termination compared to the North Atlantic. It started earlier and ended later
11:40·than what we see in Greenland Ice Cores, and the changing climate was slower and more gradual,
11:48·with the termination stretching over hundreds of years.
11:53·The changes to the landscape were not as drastic as we are led to believe and humans certainly
11:58·would not have viewed it as cataclysmic. Further paleoclimatic work has showed that the change
12:05·in climate was even less drastic in the Southern Levant compared to the north.
12:11·As far as we know, the beginning of the Younger Dryas also didn't lead to any drastic cultural
12:17·shifts either. The Late Natufian cultural phase is dated from 13,700 to 11,000 years
12:26·ago, so beginning hundreds of years before the Younger Dryas and running right up to
12:31·the start of the Holocene.
12:34·The culture s demise was not driven by the Younger Dryas. They would have experienced
12:40·the climate changes gradually, and they would have adapted accordingly over many generations.
12:49·There is evidence to say that some population groups did go mobile when the climate got
12:53·worse, but a number of permanent settlements remained throughout the cold and dry period,
12:58·and some new ones even emerged like Abu Hureyra and Mureybet.
13:03·The climate was likely a driving force for many to move to sedentism and then onto the
13:09·development of agricultural practices. Vegetation was changing, rainfall was becoming less frequent,
13:17·and so people banded together. As key wild plant staples were diminishing, the cultivation
13:25·of wild crops was probably a way to plan ahead, to create a surplus for local food stores
13:31·to guarantee enough sustenance for the cold winters.
13:33·There are indications that the levels of precipitation never fell below critical in the Younger Dryas,
13:44·so cultivation was possible. The main problem was the cold temperatures and so storing food
13:51·was probably a necessity.
13:55·A huge amount of work has been done at the now-submerged site of Abu Hureyra, which pretty
14:00·much shows continuous occupation from around 13,200 to 11,400 years ago, spanning the long-drawn-out
14:10·Levantine Younger Dryas period as dated via speleothem deposits. This site shows some
14:16·of the earliest evidence of agriculture in the Fertile Crescent.
14:22·Away from the Levant and into SE Anatolia, a great deal of paleoclimate work has been
14:28·done at the Younger Dryas Early Holocene Boundary site of Kortik Tepe, which had continuous
14:35·occupation from around 12,400 to 11,250 BC, another site with origins in the Younger Dryas.
14:46·By all accounts, the people of Kortik Tepe didn't struggle as much as we d think. We
14:52·know from the animal and plant remains that they exploited many types of local ecozones
14:58·- wetlands, grasslands, mountainous habitats and so on. Red Deer and wild sheep were in
15:05·abundance and were a common source of food during the Younger Dryas and throughout the
15:11·transition into the Holocene.
15:14·The animal remains at Kortik Tepe also tell us about the climate. In the early and Mid-life
15:21·of the settlement, there are a lack of aurochs, wild boar and waterbirds. Being animals attracted
15:29·to wetlands, their absence indicates dry conditions. But, in time, when the climate became wetter
15:37·in the transition to the early Holocene, such animals would arrive and be hunted, and this
15:43·marries up with what we know was an increase in marshland around lakes, streams and rivers.
15:53·So that s a brief overview of life in the Younger Dryas in the Fertile Crescent but
15:59·there is one specific topic I need to mention, because it made the news back in 2020, and
16:05·it concerns the Natufian site of Abu Hureyra in Syria.
16:10·In 2020, Scientific Reports ran the article Evidence of Cosmic Impact at Abu Hureyra,
16:17·Syria at the Younger Dryas Onset (~12.8 ka): High-temperature melting at >2200? C .
16:29·Due to the complexity of the study and the importance of the conclusions, and because
16:34·I have a number of questions that I m struggling to find answers for, I m going to discuss
16:39·this in a separate forthcoming video.
16:42·For example, Speleothem data places the origins of the Younger Dryas 2-400 years earlier than
16:50·the date given for the proposed Abu Hureyra cosmic impact. Furthermore, in a new 2022
16:58·paper, co-written by Andrew Moore, who also co-wrote the 2020 paper for evidence of a
17:04·cosmic impact and high temperature melting, he states that there are three sub-phases
17:09·in the first settlement of Abu Hureyra. One from 13,300 to 12,800 years ago, one from
17:18·12,800 to 12,300 years ago and one from 12,300 to 11,400 years ago.
17:27·So, if the area was hit by a cosmic impact or airburst, that generated temperatures of
17:34·up to 2200 degrees, would Phase 1B really have started pretty much straight away, 12,800
17:41·years ago? Wouldn't there be a substantial settlement gap?
17:45·Wouldn't the people, animals and vegetation all have been fried? Would it not have become
17:51·an uninhabitable wasteland for decades? Would people build a new settlement directly over
17:59·one that had been destroyed by 2200-degrees-celsius temperatures?
18:03·Calibration of all the radiocarbon dates from the first settlement show pretty much continuous
18:08·occupation, so I do wonder if the evidence for a cosmic event has another, possible terrestrial
18:19·interpretation, or whether the study really needs to be independently verified.
18:24·The first phase of the first settlement of Abu Hureyra dates to the beginning of the
18:32·Younger Dryas in this region as shown by Speleothem data, which for me makes sense. It explains
18:40·the sudden move to sedentism between roughly 13,000 and 13,300 years ago, and so a 12,800-year-old
18:50·settlement-destroying impact event, followed by a somewhat immediate resettlement
19:02·seems bizarre.
19:07·There is a large gap in occupation at Abu Hureyra but it was between 11,400 and 10,600
19:15·years ago, which separates the end of the first major settlement and the beginning of
19:21·the second. As you can see, I have a lot of questions and I still have a lot of reading
19:28·to do, but hopefully it ll all become clear very soon.
19:35·Thank you very much for watching this episode of Ancient Architects. If you enjoyed the
19:40·video, please subscribe to the channel, please like the video, and please leave a comment
19:45·below. Thank you very much.

2 posted on 07/21/2025 8:13:44 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (The moron troll Ted Holden believes that humans originated on Ganymede.)
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To: StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; 1ofmanyfree; 21twelve; 24Karet; 2ndDivisionVet; 31R1O; ...
In the "On Deck" folder I finally took a look in a file "Youtube Detritus" and found this along with a bunch of others. What a lucky break. 😎

3 posted on 07/21/2025 8:15:12 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (The moron troll Ted Holden believes that humans originated on Ganymede.)
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Fertile Crescent

4 posted on 07/21/2025 8:17:54 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (The moron troll Ted Holden believes that humans originated on Ganymede.)
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To: SunkenCiv

I suspect a whiff of political bs with Palestine existing 9000bc.


5 posted on 07/21/2025 8:30:34 PM PDT by sevlex
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To: SunkenCiv

This looks like great content, but the robot reader is horrible. Odd accents, strange syllabic stresses, weird pronunciations. It’s awful. I just don’t understand why producers of good content use robot readers.

Can you listen to this?


6 posted on 07/21/2025 8:34:47 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom (“Diversity is our Strength” just doesn’t carry the same message as “Death from Above”s)
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To: SunkenCiv

The Babylonian Bikini Drill team was recruited from the Persian Tittite tribe, a little known historical factoid.


7 posted on 07/21/2025 9:07:38 PM PDT by tumblindice (America's founding fathers: all armed conservatives)
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To: SunkenCiv

Bookmark.


8 posted on 07/21/2025 9:30:41 PM PDT by Inyo-Mono
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To: SunkenCiv

Not impressed with this scientific house of cards. Dating based on cave deposits? Except, those limestone caves themselves are a result of the global flood (after which came the one and only ice age). The Septuagint dating for the flood event is ~3183 BC.


9 posted on 07/22/2025 3:11:08 AM PDT by toddmoore
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To: SunkenCiv

I always find the name Younger Dryas confusing.

Was there an Older Dryas?

Or did earlier folks not care if their As was dry or not... :]


10 posted on 07/22/2025 3:18:38 AM PDT by Adder (End fascism...defeat all Democrats.)
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To: SunkenCiv

p


11 posted on 07/22/2025 4:04:00 AM PDT by wintertime ( )
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To: Adder

“Was there an Older Dryas?”

Yes. Older Dryas was before Younger Dryas. Plenty on the internet machine.

Named for: The Dryas octopetala, a cold-tolerant Arctic flower whose pollen became more prevalent in sediment cores during this cooler period—just like during the Younger Dryas


12 posted on 07/22/2025 4:43:11 AM PDT by KingLudd
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To: SunkenCiv

There was no “Palestine” back then. You must have linked this map from a woke site.


13 posted on 07/22/2025 4:58:36 AM PDT by Hootowl
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To: SunkenCiv

If you like—You can copy and paste the text into any AI and ask it to summarize.


14 posted on 07/22/2025 5:50:09 AM PDT by ckilmer
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To: SunkenCiv

here is a free youtube summarizer.

you drop the link to the youtube in the summarizer and it spits out a summary.

https://notegpt.io/


15 posted on 07/22/2025 5:53:29 AM PDT by ckilmer
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To: sevlex

Yes, a more appropriate name would be Canaan.


16 posted on 07/22/2025 5:56:07 AM PDT by magooey (The Mandate of Heaven resides in the hearts of men.)
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To: Hootowl

Neither Palestine nor Israel was the name of the place during the Younger Dryas. The Encyclopedia Brittanica is the source. Palestine has been the geographical name for a couple of thousand years, and has only been politicized since about 1960.


17 posted on 07/22/2025 7:06:08 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (The moron troll Ted Holden believes that humans originated on Ganymede.)
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To: tumblindice

LOL!


18 posted on 07/22/2025 7:06:36 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (The moron troll Ted Holden believes that humans originated on Ganymede.)
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To: sevlex

The map isn’t from the same site. I have seen people complain about the use of the old and quite commonplace term “The Levant” as well.


19 posted on 07/22/2025 7:07:44 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (The moron troll Ted Holden believes that humans originated on Ganymede.)
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To: toddmoore

Not impressed with your feeble effort at trolling.


20 posted on 07/22/2025 7:08:55 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (The moron troll Ted Holden believes that humans originated on Ganymede.)
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