Anca Dan

In the midlatitudes of the planet, we are facing the imminent disappearance of one of our best high-resolution (pre)historic climate and anthropogenic pollution archives, namely the loss of glacial ice, through accelerated global warming. To capture these records and interpret these vanishing archives, it is imperative that we extract ice-cores from midlatitude regions where glaciers still survive and analyse them within frameworks of inter-disciplinary research. In this paper, we focus on Georgia, part of the Greater Caucasus. Results of ice-core analyses from the region have never, to date, been integrated with its other abundant palaeo-environmental, archaeological and historical sources. We review the results of international projects on palaeo-environmental/geoarchaeological sediment archives, the archaeology of metal economies and preliminary ice-core data in Georgia. Collectively, we show that the different strands need to be integrated to fully explore relationships between climate/landscape change and human societal transformations. We then introduce an inclusive interdisciplinary framework for ongoing research on these themes, with an ultimate future goal of using data from the past to inform societal resilience strategies in the present.

This study reconstructs the paleoecological settings of Chilia/Licostomo, the most important Genoese colony in the Danube delta. Our paleoenvironmental data (i.e., sedimentology, pollen, charcoal, radiocarbon ages) corroborate historical and archaeological information over the last seven centuries to document the habitation at Chilia and its military and socioeconomic activity during ca. 14th–19th centuries A.D. Palynological data show the continuous presence of humans, with anthropogenic pollen index calculation (API) values between 2% and 16% during the last five centuries. The variability of API, corroborated with the major peaks of the charcoal concentration, matches the documented military conflicts and population changes in the area: the Ottoman conquest of Dobrugea (15th century A.D.), the Zaporozhians Cossaks raids (17th century A.D.), and the Russian–Ottoman wars (18th–19th centuries A.D.). The presence of coprophilous fungi fits the Ottoman tradition of animal husbandry, whereas their appearance after the Zaporozhians Cossacks raids and their good correlation with open land vegetation suggest that the Chilia loess island was temporally used as a refuge from multiple menaces (e.g., wars, administrative crisis). These paleoecological data, together with the rare archaeological findings, exclude human habitation of the Chilia Plain earlier than the documented arrival of the Lipovans during the late 18th century A.D. The critical assessment of the correspondences between the paleoecological and historical data shows the relevance of the approach in deltaic environments, when applied to lagoon/lacustrine sediments, yet often limited to chronologically disparate, decennial‐ to multicentennial‐scale temporal frameworks.

Archaeological survey and combined geophysical measurements of magnetics were conducted. Geoelectrics and ground penetrating radar support the interpretation of a Roman station controlling a branch of the Via Egnatia leading to Ainos (modern Enez in Turkey). The site could be the first archaeological example of a road station in Thrace, constructed between the 1st and the 2nd century CE.

This study confronts local environmental proxies (i.e., pollen, charcoal, paleofauna) with ancient sources documenting Kilia/Lycostomo Byzantine-Genoese settlement at the mouth of the northern Danube's distributary to reconstruct environmental changes which render difficult the localization of the Middle Age settlement. Historical data seem contradictory, while systematic archaeological research has been extremely difficult on the Chilia branch, the modern border between Romania and Ukraine. Yet, after the complete reevaluation of all the sources in relationship with their reconstructed paleoenvironments, we propose to locate the major Byzantine and Early Modern trading centre Lykostomion/Licostomo as well as Chilia at Kilija/New Chilia (now in Ukraine), on the Bugeac plateau, on the left bank of the Danube’s northern branch (itself called Chilia, former Lykostoma). Old Chilia (now in Romania), whose name was always taken as proof of the location of the famous historical city of Chilia, lacks archaeological traces of urban occupation before the 19th-20th century. In fact, this loess island in the delta, on the southern shore of the Chilia branch, has been used only for subsistence activities (fisheries, agriculture, husbandry) and for supporting the storage capacities of the main harbour of Lykostomion/Licostomo-Chilia, situated under the modern harbour of New Chilia. Besides texts and some scarce archaeological reports, this localisation is now supported by two sedimentary cores (PAR 1 and KIL 1) which allow the reconstruction of the Chilia branch progradation, with an absolute chronology based on 14C dates. Vegetation, charcoal and microfauna occurrence in the KIL 1 sediments of the last ca. 700 yrs are excellent proxies for the high-resolution study of the local deltaic dynamics under natural and human pressure. For the first time, they reveal information about the maritime and riverine milieux developing at the place where this trading hub was founded, the living conditions (food, housing, heating) of its inhabitants and the ecological changes related to their demographic fluctuations. Most interestingly, they show the environmental impact of the military conflicts and urban re-foundations, which occurred in the 13th, 15th and 18th centuries at this major gate of SE Europe.    

We combined biostratigraphical analyses, archaeological surveys, and Glacial Isostatic Adjustment (GIA) models to provide new insights into the relative sea-level evolution in the northeastern Aegean Sea (eastern Mediterranean). In this area, characterized by a very complex tectonic pattern, we produced a new typology of sea-level index point, based on the foraminiferal associations found in transgressive marine facies. Our results agree with the sea-level history previously produced in this region, therefore confirming the validity of this new type of index point. The expanded dataset presented in this paper further demonstrates a continuous Holocene RSL rise in this portion of the Aegean Sea. Comparing the new RSL record with the available geophysical predictions of sea-level evolution indicates that the crustal subsidence of the Samothraki Plateau and the North Aegean Trough played a major role in controlling millennial-scale sea-level evolution in the area. This major subsidence rate needs to be taken into account in the preparation of local future scenarios of sea-level rise in the coming decades.

This paper documents the Late-Holocene environmental changes and human presence in the northern Danube delta using a multidisciplinary approach that combines geoscientific data with archaeological findings, historical texts, and maps. It follows the formation and progression of the Chilia distributary and the reconfiguration of socioeconomic activities. Sedimentary facies identified on five new cores by changes in texture properties, magnetic susceptibility, geochemistry, and macro- and microfauna composition together with the newly obtained chronology constrain the complex evolution of the Chilia branch as filling in a long-lasting bay and then of a giant lagoon (Thiagola) which covered most of the northern delta since the Old Danube lobe inception (ca. 7500 yrs BP) till modern Chilia development. It initiated during the Greek Antiquity (ca. 2500 yrs ar BP) at the delta apex, while in Roman times (ca. 1800 yrs BP) it pursued its slow flowing into the vast Thiagola Lagoon. The most dramatic transformations occurred in the last 800 years when the river passed east of the Chilia promontory, rapidly went through the present-day Matița-Merhei basin (several decades), and created its first open-sea outlet. Solid discharge increased in two distinct periods, once in the Middle Ages (ca. 750 yrs BP) and then in the Modern Period (ca. 150 yrs BP) due to human-induced land-use changes in the Danube watershed. The chronology of the cultural remains on the pre-deltaic Chilia promontory and the multiproxy analysis of a sediment core retrieved nearby downstream suggest the terrestrial connection of the island with the mainland in ancient times. The hitherto contended issue of the old Thiagola Lagoon and its location are redefined here, as are the original identifications of ancient and medieval toponyms and hydronyms, especially for Chilia-Licostomo, Byzantine, Genoese, Moldavian, Ottoman, and Russian trading point of great importance in the political and economic history of the Black Sea and neighboring regions.