@misc{10481/108936,
year = {2025},
month = {12},
url = {https://hdl.handle.net/10481/108936},
abstract = {Atmospheric moisture is a key hydroclimatic parameter that influenced ancient societies, agriculture, and ecosystems. However, quantitative constraints on pre‐industrial atmospheric humidity values are rarely available. Here, the triple oxygen ( 17O/16O and 18O/16O) and hydrogen ( 2 H/1 H) isotope compositions of lacustrine gypsum are used to quantify changes in summer atmospheric relative humidity (RHs) in the southern Iberian Peninsula from 650 BCE to 500 CE. RHs was 59 ± 4‰ from 450 to 350 BCE, approximately 10% higher than at present, and decreased to 50% ± 2% before the Roman conquest of the Iberian Peninsula in 218 BCE. Drier conditions (49% ± 3%) prevailed from 300 to 500 CE, coinciding with the decline and fall of the western Roman Empire in 476 CE. Long‐term RHs values correlated inversely with the strength of the North Atlantic Oscillation, suggesting that hemispheric climate patterns influenced atmospheric moisture in the western Mediterranean during the Iron Age and Roman times.},
organization = {Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad of Spain and UE FEDER, PID2021‐123980OA‐I00 (GYPCLIMATE), PID2021‐125619OB‐ C21, and PID2021‐125619OB‐C22},
organization = {Spanish AEI, RYC2020‐029811‐I, Grant PPIT‐UAL, JdA‐FEDER 2022‐2026 (RyC‐PPI2021‐01)},
organization = {Ministerio de Educación y Formación Profesional of Spain},
organization = {European Commission (101063961), FPU21/06924},
publisher = {Wiley},
keywords = {Atmospheric Humidity},
keywords = {Western Mediterranean},
keywords = {Iron age},
title = {Quantifying Atmospheric Humidity in the Western Mediterranean During the Iron Age and the Roman Era},
doi = {10.1029/2025GL120424},
author = {Gázquez, Fernando and Voigt, Claudia and Castillo-Baquera, Aurora and García-Alix Daroca, Antonio and Jiménez Moreno, Gonzalo and Jiménez-Espejo, Francisco and Martegani, Lucía and Rodrigo Gámiz, Marta and Jiménez Bonilla, Alejandro and Rodríguez-Rodríguez, Miguel},
}