Changes in carbon isotope discrimination in grain cereals from different regions of the western Mediterranean Basin during the past seven millennia. Palaeoenvironmental evidence of a differential change in aridity during the late Holocene

Carbon isotope discrimination (Δ) was determined for kernels of six‐row barley and durum wheat cultivated in the western Mediterranean basin during the last seven millennia. Samples came from different archaeological sites in Catalonia (north‐east Spain) and in the south‐east of Spain (mainly eastern Andalusia). Samples from the present were also analysed. Mean values of Δ for barley and durum wheat grains decreased slightly from Neolithic (7000–5000 BP) to Chalcolithic‐Bronze (5000–3000 BP) and Iron ages (3000–2200 BP) both in Catalonia and in south‐east (SE) Spain. Values were consistently lower in SE Spain than in Catalonia throughout these five millennia, which suggests that Catalonia was less arid than SE Spain in this period. Within a given region, current discrimination values for kernels of the same cereal species cultivated under rainfed conditions were lower than those of archaeological grains, which implies more arid conditions at present. Furthermore, an empirical relationship between Δ of mature kernels and total precipitation (plus irrigation where applicable) during grain filling (r2 = 0.73, N = 25) was established for barley, currently cultivated at different locations in the western Mediterranean basin in Spain. The resulting relationship was applied to the Δ data for barley kernels from 10 archaeological sites in Catalonia and 10 sites in SE Spain, to estimate the precipitation during grain filling at the time the kernels were produced. For both regions, current climatic conditions are consistently more arid than those inferred for the Neolithic, Bronze and Iron ages. In addition, although Catalonia was estimated to have had consistently wetter conditions (about 20% more precipitation) than SE Spain throughout these millennia, differences in precipitation between these two regions have recently increased, with 79% more precipitation in Catalonia. Results indicate a more rapid increase in aridity in SE Spain than in Catalonia, probably produced during the last few centuries, and due to anthropogenic causes.