Exploring a vanished coastal landscape in Holocene Southern Calabria

这项研究调查了过去10，000年来海岸线的损失，以及它对我们理解史前社会的意义。随着极地冰盖在更新世末期融化，全球海平面上升，淹没了沿海环境。考古学家认为，海平面大约在公元前6000年达到现代水平，这是地中海中部新石器时代的开始。然而，越来越多的地质证据表明这是错误的，特别是在构造活跃地区，水下景观可能会升高到海平面以上，或者沿海地区可能会下沉到海平面以下。对于调查史前世界的考古学家来说，沉降和水下景观是一个关键问题。人类生活的结构是由线条构成的：它们提供了获取海洋资源的途径，允许旅行和区域间接触，集中了人口，并提供了文化景观的参照点。在地中海中部的史前史中，失去海岸线严重影响了我们对中心理论问题的看法，包括中石器时代觅食者的存在，新石器时代的传播以及整个史前时期的区域间交流。虽然这个问题已经被概括地描述出来，但它从来没有在特定的史前景观中成为详细研究的主题。我们不知道它实际上如何影响我们对地中海史前史的看法。2005年，在意大利卡拉布里亚的Bova Marina考古项目的研究中，这种情况得到了戏剧性的证明。在水下地质勘察期间，在水下27米和离岸400米处发现了一个水下泥炭存款，其中有陆地木材、植物遗骸和木炭。从它的木材样本被辐射测定日期为约。4000 BCcal /最后的新石器时代在这里。这一惊人的发现有两个关键意义：（a）在冰后期海平面上升之后，由于当地的构造，这里的海岸线一直在以每年约0.7毫米的速度下沉。不仅旧石器时代和中石器时代的海岸线被淹没了，新石器时代的海岸线也被淹没了，这种影响可能会延续到史前时代后期。 (b)更积极的是，构造破坏可能使海岸景观在波浪破坏之下迅速消失，有可能形成保存完好的水下自然环境或具有丰富有机物保存的史前遗址。这项研究的目标是追溯历史的海岸线在这一地区，圣帕斯夸莱河谷口（博瓦码头，卡拉布里亚）比以往任何时候都试图为地中海中部更详细。研究小组包括J. Robb（剑桥），一位研究地中海中部史前史的专家，以及E.莱因哈特（麦克马斯特大学），水下环境重建专家。详细的测深测量和海底次表层CHIRP勘探将详细勾勒海底形态，以确定地质特征，并跟踪随着海平面相对于陆地上升而不断变化的沿海环境/泻湖、沼泽、河道。地质取样和取芯将为沉积学、孢粉学和地球化学分析提供材料，以重建过去的环境，并为古海岸线的放射性测年提供样品。将特别注意潜在的人为环境、地貌特征和人工制品。所有的信息将被整合使用地理信息系统，以产生详细的环境重建这一部分的意大利南部海岸线之间的6000和0 BCcal。由此产生的海岸演变的图片将与BMAP发掘和实地调查中已知的当地史前史相结合，以了解海岸线的损失和潜在恢复如何改变我们对社会现象的理解，如当地中石器时代的存在，中石器时代-新石器时代的过渡，新石器时代的沿海黑曜石贸易和青铜时代的区域互动（例如，迈锡尼贸易）。

This research investigates the loss of coastline over the last 10,000 years, and its significance for our understanding of prehistoric societies. As polar ice caps melted at the end of the Pleistocene, global sea levels rose, drowning coastal environments. Archaeologists have assumed that sea levels reached approximately their modern levels by about 6000 BC -- the beginning of the Neolithic in the Central Mediterranean. However, mounting geological evidence shows this to be false, particularly in tectonically active areas where submerged landscapes may be lifted above sea level or coastal zones may sink below it. For archaeologists investigating prehistoric worlds, subsidence and submerged landscapes are a critical problem. Coastlines structure human life: they afford access to marine resources, allow travel and inter-regional contact, concentrate population, and furnish points of reference in cultural landscapes. In Central Mediterranean prehistory, losing a coastline seriously affects our view of central theoretical issues, including Mesolithic forager presence, the spread of the Neolithic, and inter-regional exchange throughout prehistory. Although the problem has been outlined in general terms, it has never been the subject of detailed research in a particular prehistoric landscape. We have little idea how it actually affects our view of Mediterranean prehistory. This situation was demonstrated dramatically in 2005, during research by the Bova Marina Archaeological Project in Calabria, Italy. During underwater geological reconnaissance, a submerged peat deposit with terrestrial wood, plant remains and charcoal was found at 27 metres underwater and 400 metres offshore. A wood sample from it was dated radiometrically to ca. 4000 BCcal / the Final Neolithic here. This striking finding has two key implications: (a) well after post-glacial sea level rise, the coastline here has been sinking below the sea due to local tectonics at about .7 mm/year. Not only have the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic coastlines been submerged, but the Neolithic one has too, and this effect may extend well into the later prehistory. (b) more positively, tectonic failure may have removed coastal landscapes rapidly below wave destruction, and there is potential for well-preserved, underwater natural settings or prehistoric sites with rich organic preservation. The goals of this research are to trace the history of the coastline in this area, the San Pasquale river valley mouth (Bova Marina, Calabria) in more detail than has ever been attempted for the Central Mediterranean. The research team includes J. Robb (Cambridge), a specialist in the later prehistory of the Central Mediterranean, and E. Reinhardt (McMaster University), a specialist in underwater environmental reconstruction. A detailed bathymetric survey and sub-bottom CHIRP prospection will outline the sea floor's morphology in detail to identify geological features and to track evolving coastal environments / lagoons, marshes, river channels -- as sea levels rose relative to land. Geological sampling and coring will provide material for sedimentological, palynological, and geochemical analysis for reconstructing past environments, as well as samples for radiometric dating of ancient coastlines. Special attention will be paid to potential anthropogenic environments, landscape features and artefacts. All information will be integrated using GIS to produce detailed environmental reconstructions for this section of the Southern Italian coastline between 6000 and 0 BCcal. The resulting picture of coastal evolution will be integrated with local prehistory known from BMAP excavations and field survey to understand how the loss, and potential recovery, of the coastline alters our understanding of social phenomena such as local Mesolithic presence, the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition, the Neolithic coastal obsidian trade, and Bronze Age regional interaction (for instance, in Mycenaean trade).