Late Quaternary chronologies of the Northern Sinai/Northwestern Negev dunefield and their Palaeoclimatic and Palaeoenvironmental implications

The northwestern Negev dune field is densely dated With >230 luminescence and radiocarbon ages from calcic and sandy buried soils serving as dune substrates, sand sheets, vegetated linear dunes (VLDs), dune-bordering fluvial deposits; archaeological sites provide additional chronologic constraints. By reassessing the chronologies and detailed stratigraphic, structural and geomorphologic understandings, major episodes of aeolian activity and stability, and general sand transport rates are outlined. Late Pleistocene, late Holocene and modern time’s age clusters indicate that, at least in the Negev, they reliably recording main sand and dune mobilization intervals. Combining these clusters with late Quaternary records assists in generating the palaeoclimate framework for the southern Levant. Sand mobilizations also led to unique relations between prehistoric, historic and modern humans, and the aeolian and fluvial environment.