Atlantic (period)

The Atlantic in palaeoclimatology was the warmest and moistest Blytt–Sernander period, pollen zone and chronozone of Holocene northern Europe.

[1] It is a question of definition and the criteria: Beginning with the temperatures, as derivable from Greenland ice core data, it is possible to define an 'Early' or 'Pre-Atlantic' period at around 8040 BC, where the 18O isotope line remains above 33 ppm in the combined curve after Rasmussen et al. (2006),[2] which then would end at the well-known 6.2 ka BC (8.2 ka calBP)-cold-event.

According to the ice-core criterion it is extremely difficult to find a clear boundary, because the measurements still differ too much and alignments are still under construction.

Across middle Europe, the boreal forests were replaced by climax or "old growth" deciduous ones, which, though providing a denser canopy, were more open at the base.

Vera hypothesizes that the lowlands were more open and that the low frequency of grass pollen was caused by the browsing of large herbivores, such as aurochs and wild horses, a thesis referred to as the wood-pasture hypothesis.

Mistletoe, Water Chestnut (Trapa natans) and Ivy (Hedera helix) were present in Denmark.

Along the line of the Danube and the Rhine, extending northward in tributary drainage systems, a new factor entered the forest country: the Linear Pottery culture, clearing the arable land by slash and burn methods.

By the end of the Atlantic, agricultural and pasture lands extended over much of Europe and the once virgin forests were contained within refugia.

Humans lived on the shorelines, exploiting waters rich in marine life, marshes teeming with birds, and forests where deer and boars as well as numerous small species were plentiful.

It contained fish now rare there, such as the anchovy, Engraulis encrasicolus, and the three-spined stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus.

In the lofty canopy could be found a continuous zone of smaller animals, such as the ubiquitous squirrel (Sciuris vulgaris).

In and around the big trees hunted the wildcat, pine marten, polecat (Mustela putorius), and wolf.

When the Mesolithic Sertuan Culture appeared there in the Middle Atlantic, around 7000 BP, it already had pottery and was more sedentary than earlier hunter-gatherers, depending on the great abundance of wildlife.

Further to the south, the Linear Pottery culture had already spread into the riverlands of Central Europe and was working a great transformation of the land.

On the steppe to the east, the Samara culture was deeply involved with large numbers of horses, but it is not yet clear in what capacity.