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

This article reviews key data and debates focused on relative sea-level changes since the Last Interglacial (approximately the last 132,000 years) in the Mediterranean Basin, and their implications for past human populations. Geological and geomorphological landscape studies are critical to archaeology. Coastal regions provide a wide range of resources to the populations that inhabit them. Coastal landscapes are increasingly the focus of scholarly discussions from the earliest exploitation of littoral resources and early hominin cognition, to the inundation of the earliest permanently settled fishing villages and eventually, formative centres of urbanisation. In the Mediterranean, these would become hubs of maritime transportation that gave rise to the roots of modern seaborne trade. As such, this article represents an original review of both the geo-scientific and archaeological data that specifically relate to sea-level changes and resulting impacts on both physical and cultural landscapes from the Palaeolithic until the emergence of the Classical periods. Our review highlights that the interdisciplinary links between coastal archaeology, geomorphology and sea-level changes are important to explain environmental impacts on coastal human societies and human migration. We review geological indicators of sea level and outline how archaeological features are commonly used as proxies for measuring past sea levels, both gradual changes and catastrophic events. We argue that coastal archaeologists should, as a part of their analyses, incorporate important sea-level concepts, such as indicative meaning. The interpretation of the indicative meaning of Roman fishtanks, for example, plays a critical role in reconstructions of late Holocene Mediterranean sea levels. We identify avenues for future work, which include the consideration of glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA) in addition to coastal tectonics to explain vertical movements of coastlines, more research on Palaeolithic island colonisation, broadening of Palaeolithic studies to include materials from the entire 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 geomorphology. This article presents a collaborative synthesis of data, some of which have been collected and analysed by the authors, as the MEDFLOOD (MEDiterranean sea-level change and projection for future FLOODing) community, and highlights key sites, data, concepts and ongoing debates

Interaction morphodynamique d’une plage sableuse dans une conjoncture d’élévation du niveau marin ; exemple du littoral de Trab el Makhadha dans le golfe de Gabes-Tunisie

Le littoral de Trab el Makhadha (golfe de Gabès) est caractérisé par une évolution morphologique rapide et réversible à l’échelle saisonnière et évènementielle. Un suivi quotidien de l’évolution du profil transversal durant deux années (septembre 2007-novembre 2009) a mis en évidence les facteurs hydrodynamiques à l’origine du transport sédimentaire ainsi que le temps d’ajustement morphologique. Le changement morphologique du littoral de Trab el Makhadha, à l’échelle événementielle, est contrôlé par l’action du vent et des courants locaux ayant le temps d’ajustement morphologique le plus court. La cyclicité saisonnière entre accrétion estival et érosion hivernale du profil transversal de la plage est dictée par l’action de la houle. Le bilan sédimentaire, au cours des trente années précédentes, est excédentaire. La progradation du littoral est matérialisée par la mise en place, depuis les années 1980, d’un cordon sableux de 2 m de hauteur. La genèse du cordon côtier est contemporaine à l’accélération de l’élévation récente du niveau marin

Sedimentary and microfaunal evolution in the Quaternary deposits in El Akarit river mouth (Gulf of Gabes, Tunisia): Paleo-environments and extreme events

International audienceThe quantitative study of ostracod and benthic foraminifera assemblages coupled with sedimentary facies, of the AK1 core (6 m-long) retrieved from the El Akarit prodelta (Gulf of Gabes, SE Tunisia) at an elevation of 0 m, enabled us to better understand the dynamics of depositional environments and to identify different stages of the Akarit river mouth evolution. Two major steps were identified: the first (>40,000 yr BP) possibly coincides with the Marine Isotope Stage 5e, onlapping continental Pleistocene deposits. It allowed the settlement of an open lagoon rich in marine microfauna that has become progressively more confined. The second one, late Holocene in age (last 3000 yr BP) is the succession of three extreme events episodes, characterized by very high-energy hydrodynamics and possibly linked to the occurrence of major storms and/or floods