Exploring the myth of Lake Saveh on the Iranian Plateau: The effects of climate change and civilizational evolution

This study presents a multidisciplinary reconstruction of a paleolake’s Holocene evolution in Iran’s Central Plateau, synthesizing sedimentological, geochronological, archeological, and historical evidence. Our findings confirm the existence of a large paleolake (~16–14 ka) in the northern plateau, with episodic desiccation and recharge. Lake levels declined by 250 m between 11.5 and 8.2 ka, stabilizing at ~850 m elevation. The 8.2 ka climatic cooling event triggered regional aridification, prompting human migration to warmer lowlands. We propose that the Masileh Basin, hydrologically active until the Sassanid era, represents the residual footprint of the mythologized Lake Saveh. By correlating Late Pleistocene–Holocene hydrological dynamics with settlement patterns, this work establishes a direct linkage between climatic forcing, tectonic controls, and anthropogenic responses. The integration of geological archives with archeological and historiographical data resolves long-standing ambiguities surrounding the lake’s existence while demonstrating how environmental transitions became encoded in cultural memory.