Extremes and Cultures: Investigating the Decline of the Chalcolithic Age in the Tehran Plain with the Environmental Archaeology Approach

Natural hazards in ancient times were among the factors central to the decline of human cultures and civilizations.Climate change periods are associated with increased extreme weather events such as torrential rains and prolongeddroughts, thus posing severe challenges to human societies. In the fourth millennium BCE, variable climaticconditions in the Tehran plain caused cultural dynamics to be disrupted. Through an environmental archaeologicalapproach, the present study discusses the possible causes of cultural decline and collapse in this plain in two stagesof climate change during the fourth millennium BCE. The data derives from the archaeological site of MafinAbad, where occurs a situation similar to a series of sites in North Central and Southwest Iran. High-resolutionpaleoclimate research has been used to reconstruct the climatic conditions of the fourth millennium BCE. Thisresearch reflects the importance of environmental sedimentology studies in archaeological sites to identify possibleenvironmental reasons for cultural prosperity and disintegration of prehistoric rural communities