Late Quaternary sea-level changes and early human societies in the central and eastern Mediterranean Basin: An interdisciplinary review

Abstract

This article reviews key data and debates focused on relative sea-level changes since the Last Interglacial\ud (approximately the last 132,000 years) in the Mediterranean Basin, and their implications for past human\ud populations. Geological and geomorphological landscape studies are critical to archaeology. Coastal regions\ud provide a wide range of resources to the populations that inhabit them. Coastal landscapes are\ud increasingly the focus of scholarly discussions from the earliest exploitation of littoral resources and early\ud hominin cognition, to the inundation of the earliest permanently settled fishing villages and eventually,\ud formative centres of urbanisation. In the Mediterranean, these would become hubs of maritime transportation\ud that gave rise to the roots of modern seaborne trade. As such, this article represents an original\ud review of both the geo-scientific and archaeological data that specifically relate to sea-level changes and\ud resulting impacts on both physical and cultural landscapes from the Palaeolithic until the emergence of\ud the Classical periods. Our review highlights that the interdisciplinary links between coastal archaeology,\ud geomorphology and sea-level changes are important to explain environmental impacts on coastal human\ud societies and human migration. We review geological indicators of sea level and outline how archaeological\ud features are commonly used as proxies for measuring past sea levels, both gradual changes and\ud catastrophic events. We argue that coastal archaeologists should, as a part of their analyses, incorporate\ud important sea-level concepts, such as indicative meaning. The interpretation of the indicative meaning of\ud Roman fishtanks, for example, plays a critical role in reconstructions of late Holocene Mediterranean sea\ud levels. We identify avenues for future work, which include the consideration of glacial isostatic adjustment\ud (GIA) in addition to coastal tectonics to explain vertical movements of coastlines, more research on\ud Palaeolithic island colonisation, broadening of Palaeolithic studies to include materials from the entire\ud coastal landscape and not just coastal resources, a focus on rescue of archaeological sites under threat by coastal change, and expansion of underwater archaeological explorations in combination with submarine\ud geomorphology. This article presents a collaborative synthesis of data, some of which have been\ud collected and analysed by the authors, as the MEDFLOOD (MEDiterranean sea-level change and projection\ud for future FLOODing) community, and highlights key sites, data, concepts and ongoing debates

Lithic techno-complexes in Italy from 50 to 39 thousand years BP: An overview of lithic technological changes across the Middle-Upper Palaeolithic boundary

“…Location of the Italian key sites with MIS3 human occupations. The Italian Peninsula shows a sea level of 70 m below the present-day coastline, based on the global sea-level curve (Benjamin et al, 2017) but lacking the estimation of post-MIS3 sedimentary thickness and eustatic magnitude (sketch map courtesy by S. Ricci, University of Siena). del Cavallo, Riparo del Broion) ( Fig.…”

Late Holocene sea level change along the coast of Fethiye Gulf in southwestern Turkey

“…Submerged archaeological coastal structures are commonly used as indicators of relative sea level changes (Anzidei et al, ; Flemming, Czartoryska, & Hunter, ; Kolaiti & Mourtzas, ; Lambeck, Anzidei, Antonioli, Benini, & Esposito, ; Morhange et al, ; Pirazzoli, ). Recent studies have confirmed that ancient harbor and coastal structures (e.g., quays and fish tanks) are reliable sea level indicators, as they are directly related to sea level at the time of their construction (Auriemma & Solinas, ; Benjamin et al, ; Evelpidou et al, ; Morhange & Marriner, ; Vacchi et al, ). Rates of local vertical crustal movement can be inferred from the comparison of the current position of the sea level marker, the last usage period or construction time, and the eustatic–isostatic sea level change.…”

Windows out of Africa: A 300,000-year chronology of climatically plausible human contact with Eurasia

“…1C). Some of these windows of climatic amelioration coincided with very high sea level, when the crossing of the strait would have required a considerable sea voyage 24 . Prior to the last interglacial, there were three extended intervals of suitably wet climate and low sea level precipitation, from 275k to 242k years ago, from 230k to 221kya, and from 182k to 145kya.…”