Abstract. Lake Maryut (northwestern Nile Delta, Egypt) was a key feature of
Alexandria's hinterland and economy during Greco-Roman times. Its shores
accommodated major economic centers, and the lake acted as a gateway between
the Nile valley and the Mediterranean. It is suggested that lake-level
changes, connections with the Nile and the sea, and possible high-energy
events considerably shaped the human occupation history of the Maryut. To
reconstruct Lake Maryut hydrology in historical times, we used faunal
remains, geochemistry (Sr isotopic signature of ostracods) and
geoarcheological indicators of relative lake-level changes. The data show
both a rise in Nile inputs to the basin during the first millennia BCE and CE
and a lake-level rise of ca. 1.5 m during the Roman period. A high-energy
deposit, inferred from reworked radiocarbon dates, may explain an enigmatic
sedimentary hiatus previously attested to in Maryut's chronostratigraphy.
Lake-level changes in central Patagonia (Argentina): crossing environmental thresholds for Lateglacial and Holocene human occupation