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Relative sea-level changes throughout the last 6000 years on the Taman Peninsula (Black Sea, Azov Sea, Russia): a geoarchaeological study Eric FOUACHE 1, Alexei POROTOV 2, Christel MÜLLER 3, Youri GORLOV 4, N. BOLOKHOVSKAYA 22, M. KAITAMBA 2 Key-Words: sea-levels, geoarchaeology, neo-tectonics, Holocene, Black Sea, Russia. The Taman peninsula is geologically attached to the western end of the Caucasus. It was the site of a Greek settle- ment as early as the 6 th century BC. Our geoarchaeological methodology combines geomorphological, archaeo- logical and paleoenvironmental (sedimentology, carbon-datings on sea-shells) data in order to reconstruct the evolution of the coastline. After the peak of the last post-glacial transgression, a main island and four islets were located between Crimea and the Taman peninsula. The alluviation of the Kouban river then filled the space and is the origin of the island’s attachment to the mainland. At the time of the Greek colonisation the process was not over. The present sea level appears regionally to be the highest level ever reached on the peninsula over the last 6000 years. It seems that for the Anapa area and the Tchouchtchka Spit area it is possible to propose a sea-level curve characterised by a slow, continuous rise during the past 6000 years. On the Taman peninsula itself, the se- dimentary record of this slow ascent has been distorted by a heavy tectonic subsidence. On at least two areas on the peninsula, we have identified this neo-tectonic subsidence effect, linked to the effect of the activity of mud volcanoes. In spite of this very active neotectonics, our data confirm the possibility for a period of downturn in seawater during the so-called « Phanagorian Regression » from the end of the 2 nd millenium BP up to the 1 st mil- lenium AD. Introduction The Taman peninsula, situated to the south of frame of the Franco/Russian archaeological Russia, is limited to the west by the Kerch survey of the Taman Peninsula, directed by Strait, called Bosporus Cimmerius in Christel Müller and Youri Gorlov (Fouache et Antiquity, to the north by the Sea of Azov, the al. 2000). Palus Maeotis of Antiquity, to the south by According to the results of studies carried the pontus euxines , the current Black Sea, and out over the last thirty years, it seems that the to the East by the present Kouban delta and Holocene transgression in the Black Sea, the vast marshy deltaic plain of the Pre- which starts later than the global ocean evolu- Kouban (Fig. 1). The geoarchaeological study tion around 7500 BP (Ryan, Pitman 1998), of the Taman peninsula and the Kouban delta was characterised by a succession of rapid sea- is the result of a partnership between the level fluctuations (Pirazzoli, 1991; Ismailov et Russian Academy of Sciences, the Moscow al. 1989). Those fluctuations (Fig. 2) have Archaeological Institute, the Moscow State been related mostly to climatic changes dur- University, the French School of Archaeology ing the Holocene and the possible distortion in Athens, the French CNRS and the French due to the neo-tectonics factor has been neg- Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The results pre- lected. The new data we obtained by drilling sented here have been obtained within the on the Taman peninsula confirm (Fig. 1) the Revista de geomorfologie — Vol. 7, 2005, pp. 7–20 8 Eric FOUACHE et al. N Historical and holocene sand barrier and spit — 10 — 10 Historical and holocene alluvial filling Historical and holocene IT — 11 — 9 P Azov Sea limans S A 60 89 K Historical and holocene H 40 63 C lagoons T 20 — 8 H — 11 C S3 Pliocene rock (mainly sand U O — 0,2 20 and clay) H 40 C — 2 — 7 T — 0,2 70 Miocene rock (mainly sand 113 — 0,8 99 Tyrambe and clay) Kerch 10 12 — 4 5 5,2 3,4 Colluvial glacis and lower 5 2,9 p 50 o slope spreading Gulf — 2 1,9 107 114 Patrasys s — 0,6 t — 5 Kepo 40 Artanizovski — 3 Height spot — 4,6 of 14 1 — 1,8 S8 Phanagoria 76 6,2 liman 8 72 Taman S7 — 5 S9 20 7 — 1,8 0 Actual or former channel — 5,4 — 5,2 29 — 5,4 69 3,6 of the Kouban river Hermonassa — 0,2 15,2 5 5 Temrjuk — 3 20 6,6 1,3 a 20 Active cliff, 40 nte more than 20 m high 5 113 20 1 9,5 164 87 121 40 0 Active cliff, 14 less than 20 m high 14,8 5,2 5,2 S1 Historical and holocene 9,9 10,3 coastal marshes 135 4,2 4,2 14,2 1 20 184 40 130 88 Dead mud volcano 20 Kiziltasch 106 148 lagoon 141 Active mud volcano S2 Flexure SU RG 20 AZ SP Supposed fault UKRAINA IT RUSSIA S4 40 Anticlinal axes Azov Sea 162 CRIMEA 177 K o 2 Longshore drift CA u U b A C N A a A S n Black Sea P U A S6 S S Blak Sea P S5 Archaeological site IT S2 Location of the cores Gorgippia TURKEY (Equidistance : 20 m) 0 10 km Anapa Conception : E.FOUACHE BONNAUD - Paris -Sorbonne 1997 Realisation : F. Fig. 1. Geomorphological map of the Taman peninsula importance of the neo-tectonics effect ed his realm at the expense of the indigenous (Fouache et al. 2004). It is also obvious that tribes of the Asian area, the Sindes and the the Kouban river, by deposit of alluviations, Meotes. The prosperity of Bosporus ended is at the origin of the junction of islands to with the intervention of Mithradates Eupatôr the mainland, but the main object of our at the end of the second and the beginning of study was to propose a paleogeographical the first century BC. In 10 AD, with the reconstruction of the peninsula around 6 th accession of King Aspourgos, the kingdom of century BC. Bosporus became a trading partner with Rome for the following four centuries. The historical importance of the area dur- ing Antiquity The necessity of a geoarchaeological The period we are interested in is that of the approach Greek colonization in the 6 th century BC. It The reconstruction of the paleogeography of amounted to the founding of essentially Mile- the peninsula during the time of the Greek co- sian colonies such as Hermonasa, Phanagoria, lonization could not have been carried out Kepoi and Patrasys to name but the most im- without a close collaboration between portant ones. From 480 BC, these cities came archaeologists and geographers. The mobility under the dominion of the kingdom of the of the landscape was illustrated by ancient Arkheanaktides of which the capital was pro- texts as well as by the existence of submerged bably Panticapaeum, the modern-day Kerch. vestiges under the waters of the Taman Gulf. It is the formation of the kingdom called The archaeologist had three questions for the Bosporus, of which the most famous monarch geographer. was Leukôn 1 st of the Spartocides dynasty The first question concerns the peninsula who kept up dynamic commercial relations itself: was it a peninsula, an island or separate with Athens in the 4 th century BC and expand- islands during the 6 th century BC? We know Relative sea/level changes through the last 6000 years 9 0 B A – 10 – 20 C D Altitude (m) – 30 – 40 CURVE REFERENCE – 50 A Shilik, 1975 3 B Voskobojnikov et al., 9 5 Age (year BP x 10 ) 0 C 1982 D Nevessky, 1970 Nevessky, 1970 E 0 F Nevessky, 1970 G Balabanov et al., 1981 H Ostrovsky et al., 1977 H – 10 – 20 – 30 E Altitude (m) F – 40 – 50 – 60 G AA,, B C E D F, G, H 4400 3300 4400 Fig. 2. Reconstitution of Holocene Sea level fluctuations in Black Sea (adapted from Pirazzoli 1991) that the Greek cities of Asian Bosporus were were built, without being able to describe under the control of a sort of administrator, exactly their perimeter based on these sources described in the document of the High alone. Such is the case with Strabo, Empire and called the “Island Official” (with Pomponius Mela, Denys of Alexandria and the word island in the singular). We can also Ammien Marcellin. find, in other literary texts, many allusions to The second question is closely linked to the this island or to these islands where cities first. Strabo and Pomponius Mela described 10 Eric FOUACHE et al. Azov Sea V . .. .... II . .. IIa .. .. ... .. Taman . .. Peninsula . .. ....... .. Crimea . III . .. .. .... ...... I .. IV Black Sea 1 - The boundary of principale tectonic features I Mega-anticlinoriun of Crimea II Kerch periclinorium IIa Northern Taman Raising Ill Kerch-Taman inter-periclinal zone IV Anapa promonence V Azov-Kuban foredeep zone 2 - Local anticline structures 3 - Location Azov-Kuban foredeep 4 - Present shoreline. Fig. 3. The general features of geological structure of Kerch-Taman region (Andreev et al., 1976). the former river Hypanis or Coracanda or of the peninsula, which goes with the problem even Antikeites in a confused way. Where of the number of islands. should we place the ancient course of this river, which has at least two branches if these Methodology authors are to be believed? For this study we have designed a geomor- The last question concerns the relative vari- phological map and then we have drilled six ations of sea level and therefore the contours boreholes (Fig. 1) on the peninsula down to Relative sea/level changes through the last 6000 years 11 12 meters deep: one in the Kouban delta (S1), essentially clay, sands and very occasionally one on the Burgaz Spit (S2), one on the limestone (Touzla Cape or Aclileion Cape).

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