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Authors requiring further information regarding Elsevier’s archiving and manuscript policies are encouraged to visit: http://www.elsevier.com/authorsrights Author's personal copy Geomorphology 208 (2014) 225–237 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Geomorphology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/geomorph Mid- to Late Holocene shoreline reconstruction and human occupation in Ancient Eretria (South Central Euboea, Greece) Matthieu Ghilardi a,⁎, David Psomiadis a,b,KosmasPavlopoulosc, Sylvie Müller Çelka d,e, Sylvian Fachard d,f, Thierry Theurillat d,g, Samuel Verdan d,g,AlexR.Knodellf, Tatiana Theodoropoulou h, Andrew Bicket i, Amandine Bonneau a, Doriane Delanghe-Sabatier a a CEREGE (UMR 7330 CNRS), Europôle de l'Arbois BP 80, 13545 Aix-en-Provence CEDEX 04, France b Imprint Analytics GmbH, Technologiezentrum Mittelburgenland, Werner von Siemens Straße 1, 7343 Neutal, Austria c Harokopeio University of Athens, Department of Geography, Eleftheros Venizelou Street 70, 176-71 Kallithea-Athens, Greece d Swiss School of Archaeology in Greece, Skaramanga Str., Athens, Greece e Archéorient (UMR 5133 CNRS), Maison de l'Orient et de la Méditerranée Jean Pouilloux, 7 rue Raulin, 69365 Lyon CEDEX 7, France f Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World, Brown University, Box 1837/60 George Street, Providence, RI 02912, USA g University of Lausanne, Institut d'archéologie et des sciences de l'Antiquité, Lausanne, Switzerland h The American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 54 Souidias Street, GR-106 76 Athens, Greece i Wessex Archaeology, Coastal and Marine, 7-9 North Saint David St., Edinburgh EH2 1AW, Scotland, UK article info abstract Article history: Few studies have aimed to reconstruct landscape change in the area of Eretria (South Central Euboea, Greece) Received 21 June 2013 during the last 6000 years. The aim of this paper is to partially fill in this gap by examining the interaction be- Received in revised form 3 December 2013 tween Mid- to Late Holocene shoreline evolution and human occupation, which is documented in the area Accepted 8 December 2013 from the Late Neolithic to the Late Roman period (with discontinuities). Evidence of shoreline displacements is Available online 14 December 2013 derived from the study of five boreholes (maximum depth of 5.25 m below the surface) drilled in the lowlands of Eretria. Based on sedimentological analyses and micro/macrofaunal identifications, different facies have been Keywords: fi fl Eretria identi ed in the cores and which reveal typical features of deltaic progradation with marine, lagoonal, uvio- 14 Greece deltaic and fluvial environments. In addition, a chronostratigraphy has been obtained based on 20 AMS C radio- Coastal stratigraphy carbon dates performed on samples of plant remains and marine/lagoonal shells found in situ. The main Mid- to Late Holocene sequences of landscape reconstruction in the plain of Eretria can be summarized as follows: a marine environ- Shoreline reconstruction ment predominated from ca. 4000 to 3200 cal. BC and a gradual transition to shallow marine conditions is ob- served ca. 3200–3000 cal. BC due to the general context of deltaic progradation west of the ancient city. Subsequently, from ca. 3000 to 2000 cal. BC, a lagoon occupied the area in the vicinity of the Temple of Apollo and the settlement's development was restricted to several fluvio-deltaic levees, thus severely limiting human activities in the plain. From ca. 2000 to 800 cal. BC, a phase of shallow marine presence prevailed and constrained settlement on higher ground, forcing abandonment of the major part of the plain. Finally, since the eighth century BC, the sea has regressed southward and created the modern landscape. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction reconstruction of coastal evolution and sea-level rise during the Late Holocene (Pavlopoulos et al., 2006; Vött, 2007; Pavlopoulos, 2010; Much geoarcheological work in Greece has focused on the interac- Pavlopoulos et al., 2010, 2012) as well as to the study of human settle- tion between Holocene landscape changes and human occupation ment patterns in a given region (Mourtzas and Marinos, 1994; Baika, (e.g. Fouache et al., 2010; Ghilardi and Tristant; 2012; Tourloukis and 2008). In Euboea, several attempts have been made to reconstruct the Karkanas, 2012). Reconstructing shoreline evolution in areas of post-Glacial maximum sea-level rise and to estimate the local influence archeological interest is a well-developed topic on both the Ionian of tectonics (Philip, 1974; Stiros et al., 1992; Pirazzoli et al., 1999; (Vött, 2007) and Aegean coasts (Kraft et al., 1977; Ghilardi et al., Gaki-Papanastassiou et al., 2001; Evelpidou et al., 2012). However, 2008; Pavlopoulos et al., 2012; Tourloukis and Karkanas, 2012). relatively little geoarcheological research has been conducted along Facies identification and chronostratigraphies both contribute to the the island's coastline. To date, work has concentrated in Amarynthos (situated 10 km eastward of Eretria) where deltaic progradation is attested and well described for the last 4500 years (Ghilardi et al., ⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: +33 4 42 97 17 78. 2013a). The consequences of these major landscape changes on the E-mail address: [email protected] (M. Ghilardi). human occupation have been also studied. At Eretria (Fig. 1), the 0169-555X/$ – see front matter © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.geomorph.2013.12.006 Author's personal copy 226 M. Ghilardi et al. / Geomorphology 208 (2014) 225–237 Fig. 1. Location and geological maps of the study area. microfaunal identification of sediments from boreholes revealed the Roman times (fifth millennium BC to the fifth century AD) remain presence of marine environments in the subsoil of the modern city unanswered. The present study aims to fill this gap. (Pavlopoulos et al., 1985; Kambouroglou et al., 1988;Kambouroglou, 1989). Unfortunately, the lack of radiocarbon dating precluded the 2. Geological and geomorphological settings development of a robust chronostratigraphy. At the same time, archeologists have also tried to decipher changes of the coastal land- Euboea is the second largest island of Greece (ca. 3685 km2), located scape, relying on archeological remains (Krause, 1985). However, due just off the east coast of the mainland (Fig. 1). Rocky coasts prevail along to the lack of paleoenvironmental evidence, several questions related the Euboean shoreline and the largest deltaic areas are only located in to landscape and shoreline evolution from the Neolithic to Late the north and central parts of the island: the Kalas and Lilas estuaries, Fig. 2. Location map of the boreholes drilled in the easternmost part of the modern town of Eretria. Aerial photography dated from July 4th, 2005 was superimposed on a Digital Elevation Model where elevation information is derived from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission data (SRTM version 3). Author's personal copy M. Ghilardi et al. / Geomorphology 208 (2014) 225–237 227 respectively (Genre, 1989; Ghilardi et al., 2013b). The ancient city of (Tsimplis and Blackman, 1997), though Tsimplis (1997) records a dis- Eretria is located on the northern shore of the southern Euboean Gulf; tinction between North Chalkis, where daily tide is around 0.5 m, and the latter is representative of the early stages of the Quaternary tecto- South Chalkis where values are closer to 0.2 m. nism that formed the marginal Aegean basins. The ancient site is situat- ed within the drainage basins of two ephemeral streams which cover an 3. Regional and local relative sea-level contexts area of ca. 4.9 km2 and 3.5 km2, respectively (Fig. 1). The wider region consists of geological formations of the Pelagonian zone, mainly Holocene sea-level changes in the Aegean Sea have been studied and Mesozoic limestones and some clayey sandstones with basic eruptive illustrated in several sea-level curves (Van Andel, 1989; Pirazzoli, 1991, rock beds (Fig. 1). The carbonate layers are partly or totally composed 1997, 2005; Vouvalidis et al., 2005; Desruelles et al., 2007; Goodman of dolomites or dolomitic limestones. Lacustrine deposits of conglomer- et al., 2009; Poulos et al., 2009; Syrides et al., 2009; Pavlopoulos et al., ates, breccia and marls of Upper Miocene age cover the western lowlands 2012). They reflect global eustatic changes, regional glacio-hydro- (Malakonta area). Paleozoic bedrock emerges north of the acropolis isostatic adjustments, vertical displacements and sedimentary process- (a limestone outcrop 107 m asl, also called Kastelli, Figs. 1, 2) in the es (Pavlopoulos et al., 2011). The local effect of tectonism prevents the foothills of Mt. Olympus as a clastic series (shales, schists, phyllites, establishment of a unique sea-level curve for the Aegean Sea and, there- graywackes) with carbonate intercalations (Middle Carboniferous– fore, only regional curves have been published up to this point. The Permian).