Late Holocene environmental history of Dojran, Macedonia: Investigating the interplay of imperial dynamics and climatic change

Abstract

This study presents a high‐resolution, multi‐proxy reconstruction of environmental and land‐use change from Lake Dojran over historical times (last 2500 years), combining pollen, biomarkers, radiocarbon dating, Ottoman taxation records and other historical data. Our results show that vegetation dynamics were persistently shaped by human activity, with climatic variability acting as a secondary driver. Agricultural expansion, arboriculture, pastoralism and woodland clearance correspond to the differing political and economic regimes of the Macedonian, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman periods. Phases of stability—such as the (Roman) Augustan era and the 16th‐century Pax Ottomana —coincide with strong agricultural intensification, while climatic anomalies, conflict and epidemics are reflected in declines in cultivation. The integration of palaeoecological data with spatially resolved Ottoman records allows the identification of distinct socio‐ecological zones within the catchment, including cereal‐oriented lowlands and pastoral uplands, explaining divergent land‐use trajectories. These combined data sets demonstrate the value of a consilient approach, revealing how environmental, economic and administrative factors interacted to shape long‐term landscape transformation and local resilience.

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