Landscape changes and human activities in the Histrian region (southern Danube delta) in the first millennium BC

Iulian Bîrzescu1, Diana Hanganu2, Luminiţa Preoteasa3, Alfred Vespremeanu-Stroe3, Tony Brown4, Phillip Toms5

1 Institute of Archaeology „Vasile Pârvan“, Romanian Academy, Bucharest, Romania; 2 National Research and Developement Institute for Soil Science, Agrochemistry and Environment protection, Bucharest, Romania; 3 Faculty of Geography, University of Bucharest, Romania; 4 School of Geography, University of Southampton, University Road, Southampton, United Kingdom; 5 Geochronology Laboratories, School of Environment, University of Gloucestershire, Swindon Road, Cheltenham, United Kingdom.

B. General framecontext

1.90 50m e In the archaic period, Miletus was one of the most active poleis involved in the Greek colonization, founding a great number a k a L . c r b of colonies around the Black Sea. The first colonies were established in the 7th c. BC not far from the mouths of major i o e i l Z m p 100m u rivers: Danube, Dnieper, Don and Kizilirmark. The city of Histria, situated south to the Danube, belongs to this first period L of colonization together with Borysthenes, Taganrog and Sinope.

Since its foundation the landscape surrounding the city of Histria changed dramatically and part of the city is now

1.70 e submerged within the Sinoe Lake and harbours and other structures were lost, making difficult the research with traditional a k L e archaeological methods . Today the citys ruins are located at aprox. 8 km distance from the present Black Sea shoreline, in o i n S the Razelm-Sinoe lagoon system. 50m 75m 25m 1.40

- 1.5m The acropolis of the city was situated on a rocky promontory and to the west starting from the end 7th c. BC several houses Istria L. 1.30 were built directly on sand. A century later a defensive wall was built around this settlement covering 35-40 ha. To the north- 3.05 0.89 west a tumular necropolis functioned between the 7th and the first century BC. The main ancient roads, identified since the 3.33 0.99 2.85 60's on aerial photographs, cross the necropolis towards the northen and western hinterlands. Short after the city's

Nuntasi L. R P foundation, the first settlements appear close by, which in the first half of the 6th c. BC formed the city’s chora. In this c B P i t u R C h context a major role played two rivers in the vicinity of the city: Nuntași and Derea (Istria). Close to these rivers several 25m e B l e settlements were identified: Tariverde, Nuntași, Istria Sat, Histria Pod. a S 0.77 - 2m

B L A C K S E A In spite of a long history of research, the landscape evolution of this important Milesian colony has remained unknown and - 5m large scale geoarchaeological studies dealing with original morphology reconstruction are missing. Most palaeogeographic 75m - 10m studies in the region of Histria link the coastal changes (Bleahu, 1963; Coteţ, 1966; Ştefan, 1987; Canarache, 1956;

0.64 Pippiddi, 1983; Alexandrescu, 1978 etc.) to the Phanagorian regression and the following transgression. However, recent 50m research in the Danube Delta (Giosan et al., 2006) and the geoarheological studies in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea (Brückner et al., 2010; Fouache et al. 2004, 2011) do not support high amplitudes fluctuations for the Late Holocene Black Sea level.

0.12 Our study aims to provide insights into the palaeogeographic evolution of the ancient city of Histria and its vicinities during Cape Midia the Late Holocene and to assess the impact of the coastal changes upon the human settlements, using a geoarchaeological Fig. 1 A. Location of the Histria coastal area (marked with black contour and detailed in inset B) within the Danube Delta. approach that combines geomorphological, geochronological and sedimentological analysis with the archaeological and B. Morphology of the modern Histria region. The beach ridge orientation (black lines) and the absolute ages are shown. historical data available. Methods

The research methodology involved geomorphological and archaeological surveys, topographic profiles across the main sedimentary units and core drilling. The core database consists of: i) 14 cores of 4 to 7 m depth, within the ancient city area and surrounding marshy flats, ii) 6 cores of 1-3 m depth in the Istria, Nuntaşi and Sinoe Lakes, and iii) 35 boreholes up to 3 m depth distributed across a transect on Saele beach ridge plain.The profiles were described in the field for structure, texture, colour, macrofaunal and archaeological remains. In the laboratory mineralogical and grain size analysis were performed on two of the cores. The chronology was achieved using optical stimulated luminescence (as main technique) and radiocarbon dating methods. The assembling of the data and the testing of the scenarios was made using a geographical information system (GIS).

Greek colonies Archaic settlements

Fig. 2. Archaic settlements near Histria Fig. 3. The location of the coring sites. H4 Results m 1.2 _ H5 _ 1 _ 1 This study proposes a new model for the coastal evolution of the Histria region from the marine embayment to the present lagoon system answering the archaeologists' main questions concerning the ancient landscape and bringing new H6 H7 H8 _ _ perspective on the evolution of the most southern part of the Danube Delta. _ 0.4 0.4 H1 H2 0.36 M.S.L 0 _ _ The chronology, stratigraphy and sedimentology obtained together with the archaeological evidence shows the existence of -0.1 a tombolo by the time of the Greek arrival, 2650 years ago, developed as a result of the sea level stand still and the following deltaic expansion.

H 3 The OSL dates from the relatively stable beach ridge plains spanning the lifetime of the ancient city of Histria, suggest that _ _ -1 -1 the relative sea-level had a relative stable position around –0.7 m during 3 –1 ka BP.

This landscape configuration offered good coastal conditions for navigation, which led to a prosperous commercial activity in the Archaic period. It is the time when Histria has founded numerous settlements, especially with acces to the sea. Some -2 _ of them were situated in the former bay of South Danube (now Razelm-Sinoe lagoon system), other like Nikonion or Istrianon Limen were far away in the North, near the Dniester river mouth. This network of settlements (Fig. 2) and the easy _ -2.44 acces by sea have made Histria a prosperous city.

-2.8 _ -3 _ -3.1_

-3.20 _ Legend

_ -3.8 _ -4 coarse sand sandy silt medium sand peat fine sand soil

-5 _ -5 _ shelly sand bedrock

shelly deposit shell fragments silt ceramic -5.7 _ -6_ clay stone

Fig.6. Morphodynamic evolution of the Histria tombolo. mud anthropic deposit -6.54 _ sandy clay sediment loss archaic level -7_ post archaic level Fig. 4. Stratigraphy of the marshy flats and lakes (H - H3), acropolis (H4 – H7) and of the beach ridges (H8) green schist Early roman wall II c. AD sand Classical wall Late roman wall Archaic houses Hellenistic wall References VII-VI c. BC Alexandrescu P., 1978. Notes de topographie histrienne, Dacia N. S., 22, 331-342. Bleahu M.,1962. Observaţii asupra evoluţiei zonei Histria în ultimele trei milenii, Probleme de Geografie 9, 45-56. Canarache V., 1956. Observaţii noi cu privire la topografia Histriei, 7, (2-3), 289-315. Brückner H., Kelterbaum D., Marunchak O., Porotov A., Vött A., 2010. The Holocene sea level history since 7500 BP- lessons from the eastern A A’ Mediterranean, the Black and Azov seas. Quaternary International 225 (2), 160-179 Fig.5. Cross-section showing the wall succesion and the archaic and post-archaic archeo-deposits. Coteţ P. V., 1966.Ţărmul Mării Negre şi evoluţia lui în timpuri istorice (cu privire specială asupra regiunii Histria), Histria 2, 337-352. Fouache E., Porotov A., Muller C., Gorlov Y., 2004. The role of neo-tectonics in the variaton of the relative mean sea level throughout the last 6000 years on theTaman Peninsula (Black Sea, Azov Sea, Russia). In: Colloque Rapid Transgressions into Semi-enclosed Basins. PICG 464. Polish Geological Institute, Special Papers, vol. 11. Polish Geological Institute, Gdansk, pp. 47–58. 8–9–10 Mai 2003. Fouache E., Kelterbaum D., Brückner H., Lericolais G, Porotov A., Dikarev V., 2011. The Late- Holocene evolution of the Black Sea – a critical review on the so-called Phanagorian regression, Quaternary International. Giosan L., Donnelly J.P., Constantinescu Şt., Filip F., Ovejanu, I., Vespremeanu - Stroe A., Vespremeanu E., Duller, G.A.T., 2006. Young Danube delta documents stable Black Sea level since the middle Holocene: Morphodynamic, paleogeographic, and archaeological implications. Geology.v.34, 9,

This work was supported by CNCSIS – UEFISCDI, project number PNII – Resurse Umane 74/2010 and partly from PNII – Idei 1038/2008