Integrating Geomorphological Data, Geochronology, and Archaeological Evidence for Coastal Landscape Reconstruction. The Case of Ammoudara Beach, Crete

Understanding the processes that govern the transformation of the landscape through time is essential for exploring the evolution of a coastal area. Coastal landscapes are dynamic sites, with their evolution strongly linked with waves and sea-level variations. Geomorphological features in the coastal area, such as beachrock formations and dune fields, can function as indicators of the coastal landscape evolution through time. However, our knowledge of the chronological framework of coastal deposits on the Aegean coasts is limited. Optically stimulated luminescence dating techniques are deemed to be very promising indirect dating of the coastal sediments, especially when they are linked with archaeological evidence. The dating of the sediments from different sediment core depths, as they are determined by the method of luminosity, allows us to calculate the rate of sediment deposition over time. Additionally, the coastal evolution and stability were studied from 1945 until today, with the use of aerial photographs and satellite images. This paper presents the 6000 ka years evolution of a coastal landscape based on geomorphological, archaeological, and radio-chronological data. Based on the results, the early stages of the Ammoudara beach dune field appear to be formed ~9.0 – 9.6 ka BP, while the OSL ages from 6 m depth represented the timing of its stabilization (OSL ages ~5–6 ka). This indicates that the dune field appears to already have been formed long before the Bronze Age (5-10 ka BP) and became stabilized with only localized episodes of dune reactivation occurring, while high coastal erosion rates are found in modern times.

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Integrating Geomorphological Data, Geochronology and Archaeological Evidence for Coastal Landscape Reconstruction, the Case of Ammoudara Beach, Crete

Water ◽

10.3390/w13091269 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (9) ◽

pp. 1269

Author(s):

George Alexandrakis ◽

Stelios Petrakis ◽

Nikolaos A. Kampanis

Keyword(s):

Bronze Age ◽

Coastal Area ◽

Luminescence Dating ◽

Coastal Sediments ◽

Aerial Photographs ◽

Coastal Landscape ◽

Archaeological Evidence ◽

Dune Field ◽

Coastal Landscapes ◽

Coastal Deposits

Understanding the processes that govern the transformation of the landscape through time is essential for exploring the evolution of a coastal area. Coastal landscapes are dynamic sites, with their evolution strongly linked with waves and sea level variations. Geomorphological features in the coastal area, such as beachrock formations and dune fields, can function as indicators of the coastal landscape evolution through time. However, our knowledge of the chronological framework of coastal deposits in the Aegean coasts is limited. Optically Stimulated Luminescence dating techniques are deemed to be very promising in direct dating of the coastal sediments, especially when they are linked with archaeological evidence. The dating of the sediments from different sediment core depths, determined by the method of luminosity, allowed us to calculate the rate of sediment deposition over time. More recent coastal evolution and stability were examined from 1945 to 2020 with the use of aerial photographs and satellite images. This paper presents the 6000 ka evolution of a coastal landscape based on geomorphological, archaeological, and radio-chronological data. Based on the results, the early stages of the Ammoudara beach dune field appears to have been formed ~9.0–9.6 ka BP, while the OSL ages from 6 m depth represented the timing of its stabilization (OSL ages ~5–6 ka). This indicates that the dune field appears to already have been formed long before the Bronze Age (5–10 ka BP). It became stabilized with only localized episodes of dune reactivation occurring. In contrast, while high coastal erosion rates were calculated for modern times.

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Optically stimulated luminescence dating of coastal sediments at Funing Bay, Southeastern China

Geochronometria ◽

10.1515/geochr-2015-0103 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 46 (1) ◽

pp. 15-24

Author(s):

Jianhui Jin ◽

Yunming Huang ◽

Zhizhong Li ◽

Xuechun Fan ◽

Zhiyong Ling ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Sea Level ◽

Coastal Area ◽

Sea Level Change ◽

Optically Stimulated Luminescence ◽

Luminescence Dating ◽

Coastal Sediments ◽

Level Change ◽

And Migration ◽

Estuarine Coastal ◽

Cultural Types

Abstract The possible role of environmental change, especially sea level change, as a stimulus for the development of human residence and migration is poorly understood. We investigate this problem by showing a record of sea-level change and coastal transformation based on a sediment core (FN1 core) and a Neolithic site (Pingfengshan site) obtained from the Funing bay on the northeast coast of Fujian, China. The Funing bay coastal area represents a unique feature in China’s Neolithic cultures, comprising a silty beach dominated by quartz-rich sand and several important sites of Huangguashan cultural period. Samples from FN1 core and Pingfengshan site were taken for grain size ananlyses and for optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating. The blue-light stimulated OSL signals were measured by the single aliquot regenerative dose (SAR) protocol to determine the ages of of the samples. Samples from FN1 core yield OSL ages ranging from 49.9 ka to 0.8 ka, providing the systematic geochronological evidence for the sea level change of Funing bay. The comparison of sea level change and Neolithic cultural periods presents a good relationship in coastal area of Fujian, China since about 7 ka before present. In detail, the cultural types of Keqiutou culture and Huangguashan culture all belong to coastal mountainous culture, of which flourishing periods corresponds to the higher sea level periods of mid-late Holocene. Tanshishan culture belongs to estuarine coastal culture, and most sites of this period correspond to a lower sea level located at lower altitudes.

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Luminescence dating of young coastal deposits from New Zealand using feldspar

Geochronometria ◽

10.2478/s13386-011-0042-5 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 38 (4) ◽

pp. 379-390 ◽

Cited By ~ 45

Author(s):

Anni Madsen ◽

Jan-Pieter Buylaert ◽

Andrew Murray

Keyword(s):

New Zealand ◽

Sea Level ◽

Sediment Accumulation ◽

Luminescence Dating ◽

Coastal Sediments ◽

Relative Sea Level ◽

Infrared Stimulated Luminescence ◽

Measurement Protocol ◽

Coastal Deposits ◽

Fading Rate

Abstract A new measurement protocol has been tested on K-feldspars from Whanganui Inlet and Parengarenga Harbour, New Zealand. A Single Aliquot Regenerative (SAR) dose protocol, using two successive infrared (IR) stimulations (post-IR IR SAR protocol) is setup for these young (<1000 years) coastal sediments. Significant anomalous fading (g2days=7 %/decade) is observed using the conventional IR signal measured at 50°C. In contrast, the fading rate of the IR signal measured at elevated temperature (150°C) after the IR stimulation at 50°C (a post-IR IR signal) is not significant (g2days≤ 1 %/decade). Surprisingly low residual infrared stimulated luminescence (IRSL) signals were observed for a surface sample, suggesting that accurate ages as young as ∼50 years can be obtained for these recent deposits. IRSL ages ranging between 48±6 years and 1050±50 years are obtained from six samples, indicating that sediment accumulation has occurred at the two sites during the last millennia, despite a falling trend in relative sea-level in Whanganui Inlet and a stable relative sea-level at Parengarenga Harbour.

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Investigating Burnt Mounds in Clydesdale during Motorway Construction

Glasgow Archaeological Journal ◽

10.3366/gas.1998.21.21.1 ◽

1998 ◽

Vol 21 (1) ◽

pp. 1-28

Author(s):

John A Atkinson ◽

Camilla Dickson ◽

Jane Downes ◽

Paul Robins ◽

David Sanderson

Keyword(s):

Bronze Age ◽

Research Strategy ◽

Archaeological Evidence ◽

Radiocarbon Dates ◽

Short Account ◽

And Function ◽

The Impact ◽

The Bronze Age

Summary Two small burnt mounds were excavated as part of the programme to mitigate the impact of motorway construction in the Crawford area. The excavations followed a research strategy designed to address questions of date and function. This paper surveys the various competing theories about burnt mounds and how the archaeological evidence was evaluated against those theories. Both sites produced radiocarbon dates from the Bronze Age and evidence to suggest that they were cooking places. In addition, a short account is presented of two further burnt mounds discovered during the construction of the motorway in Annandale.

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Lake and inland dunes as interconnected Systems: The story of Lake Tresssee and an adjacent dune field (Schleswig-Holstein, North Germany)

The Holocene ◽

10.1177/0959683620981684 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 095968362098168

Author(s):

Christian Stolz ◽

Magdalena Suchora ◽

Irena A Pidek ◽

Alexander Fülling

Keyword(s):

Water Level ◽

Bronze Age ◽

Environmental Changes ◽

High Water ◽

Alluvial Fan ◽

Water Levels ◽

Lake Area ◽

Dune Field ◽

The North ◽

Sand Drift

The specific aim of the study was to investigate how four adjacent geomorphological systems – a lake, a dune field, a small alluvial fan and a slope system – responded to the same impacts. Lake Tresssee is a shallow lake in the North of Germany (Schleswig-Holstein). During the Holocene, the lake’s water surface declined drastically, predominately as a consequence of human impact. The adjacent inland dune field shows several traces of former sand drift events. Using 30 new radiocarbon ages and the results of 16 OSL samples, this study aims to create a new timeline tracing the interaction between lake and dunes, as well, as how both the lake and the dunes reacted to environmental changes. The water level of the lake is presumed to have peaked during the period before the Younger Dryas (YD; start at 10.73 ka BC). After the Boreal period (OSL age 8050 ± 690 BC) the level must have undergone fluctuations triggered by climatic events and the first human influences. The last demonstrable high water level was during the Late Bronze Age (1003–844 cal. BC). The first to the 9th century AD saw slightly shrinking water levels, and more significant ones thereafter. In the 19th century, the lake area was artificially reduced to a minimum by the human population. In the dunes, a total of seven different phases of sand drift were demonstrated for the last 13,000 years. It is one of the most precisely dated inland-dune chronologies of Central Europe. The small alluvial fan took shape mainly between the 13th and 17th centuries AD. After 1700 cal. BC (Middle Bronze Age), and again during the sixth and seventh centuries AD, we find enhanced slope activity with the formation of Holocene colluvia.

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The excavation of pit circles at Romancamp Gate, Fochabers, Moray, 1990

Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland ◽

10.9750/psas.123.255.268 ◽

1994 ◽

Vol 123 ◽

pp. 255-268

Author(s):

Gordon J Barclay

Keyword(s):

Bronze Age ◽

Iron Age ◽

Aerial Photographs ◽

Structural Elements ◽

Radiocarbon Dates ◽

Regional Council ◽

First Millennium ◽

First Millennium Bc ◽

Mesolithic Period

The excavation was undertaken with the funding and support of Grampian Regional Council to test hypotheses relating to the interpretation of cropmark pit circles: were they Neolithic or Bronze Age ceremonial or funerary structures, or were they Iron Age houses, and to what extent could the two classifications be differentiated on aerial photographs? The excavation revealed the remains of four circles (between 8.5 m and 11.5 m in diameter) of large post- holes, fence lines (one with a gate), and many other pits and post-holes. Radiocarbon dates place the post circles late in the first millennium BC uncal. The pit circles may be interpreted as the main structural elements of four substantial round houses, two of which burned down. Flint tools of the Mesolithic period were recovered.

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Redefining the role of metal production during the Bronze Age of south-eastern Iberia. The mines of eastern Sierra Morena

Documenta Praehistorica ◽

10.4312/dp.45-11 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 45 ◽

pp. 138-153

Author(s):

Luis Arboledas-Martínez ◽

Eva Alarcón-García

Keyword(s):

Iberian Peninsula ◽

Bronze Age ◽

New Mineral ◽

Metal Production ◽

Archaeological Evidence ◽

South Eastern ◽

Sierra Morena ◽

The Bronze Age ◽

Metallurgical Activities

Researchers have traditionally paid little attention to mining by Bronze Age communities in the south-east of the Iberian Peninsula. This has changed recently due to the identification of new mineral exploitations from this period during the archaeo-mining surveys carried out in the Rumblar and Jándula valleys in the Sierra Morena Mountains between 2009-2014, as well as the excavation of the José Martín Palacios mine (Baños de la Encina, Jaén). The analysis of the archaeological evidence and the archaeometric results reveal the importance of mining and metallurgical activities undertaken by the communities that inhabited the region between 2200 and 900 cal. BC, when it became one of the most important copper and silver production centers during the Late Prehistory of south-eastern Iberia.

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THE FINDS FROM THE PREHISTORIC SITE OF AYIOS NIKOLAOS MYLON, SOUTHERN EUBOEA, GREECE

The Annual of the British School at Athens ◽

10.1017/s0068245411000025 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 106 ◽

pp. 99-140

Author(s):

Žarko Tankosić ◽

Iro Mathioudaki

Keyword(s):

Bronze Age ◽

Archaeological Evidence ◽

Sequence Of Events ◽

Chronological Sequence ◽

Middle Bronze Age

In this paper we present the unpublished finds from the survey of Ayios Nikolaos Mylon. The site is located on one of the foothills of Mount Ochi, on a strategic defensive position overlooking the Bay of Karystos. The site, although unexcavated, is important for establishing the chronological sequence of events in southern Euboean prehistory, as it is the only locality in the area that has produced evidence for habitation which can be dated to the Middle Bronze Age. In the paper we analyse the material and offer some tentative interpretations not only of the archaeological evidence but also of the place of Ayios Nikolaos Mylon in the wider prehistoric world of the Aegean.

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