The Yeropotamos alluvial-coastal plain (Southern Crete, Greece) lies on the E-W oriented graben of the Messara, which is mainly constituted by Late Pleistocene and Holocene alluvial, fluvial-marshy, slope and coastal deposits. All the Messara basin is characterized by important seismicity, which caused damages and destructions on several archaeological settlements of Minoan, Hellenistic and Roman age. Within the PHAISTOS project and the DIKIDA program, in order to reconstruct the Holocene paleogeographical and paleoenvironmental evolution, in relation to the settling history of the Messara, new archeo-stratigraphical and geomorphological studies were carried out. The geomorphological approach, based on 1:5.000 and 1:10.000 cartography, photo-aerial remote sensing and field-survey allowed to identify the main landscape units and helped to better understand the ancient and the present-day morphodynamics, mainly induced by climatic changes, tectonic, and man. This approach distinguished the areas under aggradation and erosion processes during the Holocene times, in order to provide useful data about presence/absence of archaeological remains and traces. The archaeo-stratigraphical approach was based on field-survey and new drilled cores, supported by facies analyses and age-constrained by 14C and archeological datings. Preliminary data from the cores drilled in the Grya Saita area, a large fluvial-marshy depression located near the Festos archaeological site, identified the main palaeoenvironmental changes occurred during the Holocene. For the Holocene coastal evolution the available data allow to suppose that the Minoan shoreline was very close to the Festos and Agia Triada settlements, forming a ria into the Yeropotamos alluvial-coastal plain. Then the shoreline rapidly shifted westwards, forming prograding barrier-lagoon systems, that existed until very recent times. The main causes of the shoreline progradation can be related to the decrease of the sea level rise rate together with the increase of the sediment load by the rivers, connected to the more intense land use by Minoans, Greeks and Romans, and to the vertical land movements connected to the seismicity.

Holocene palaeogeographical and palaeoenvironmental reconstructions of the Messara alluvial-coastal plain (Southern Crete, Greece): the Phaistos project and the Dikida program, in Abstract Volume , Pisa, 15-17 February 2012, 60

AMATO, VINCENZO;LONGO, Fausto;
2012-01-01

Abstract

The Yeropotamos alluvial-coastal plain (Southern Crete, Greece) lies on the E-W oriented graben of the Messara, which is mainly constituted by Late Pleistocene and Holocene alluvial, fluvial-marshy, slope and coastal deposits. All the Messara basin is characterized by important seismicity, which caused damages and destructions on several archaeological settlements of Minoan, Hellenistic and Roman age. Within the PHAISTOS project and the DIKIDA program, in order to reconstruct the Holocene paleogeographical and paleoenvironmental evolution, in relation to the settling history of the Messara, new archeo-stratigraphical and geomorphological studies were carried out. The geomorphological approach, based on 1:5.000 and 1:10.000 cartography, photo-aerial remote sensing and field-survey allowed to identify the main landscape units and helped to better understand the ancient and the present-day morphodynamics, mainly induced by climatic changes, tectonic, and man. This approach distinguished the areas under aggradation and erosion processes during the Holocene times, in order to provide useful data about presence/absence of archaeological remains and traces. The archaeo-stratigraphical approach was based on field-survey and new drilled cores, supported by facies analyses and age-constrained by 14C and archeological datings. Preliminary data from the cores drilled in the Grya Saita area, a large fluvial-marshy depression located near the Festos archaeological site, identified the main palaeoenvironmental changes occurred during the Holocene. For the Holocene coastal evolution the available data allow to suppose that the Minoan shoreline was very close to the Festos and Agia Triada settlements, forming a ria into the Yeropotamos alluvial-coastal plain. Then the shoreline rapidly shifted westwards, forming prograding barrier-lagoon systems, that existed until very recent times. The main causes of the shoreline progradation can be related to the decrease of the sea level rise rate together with the increase of the sediment load by the rivers, connected to the more intense land use by Minoans, Greeks and Romans, and to the vertical land movements connected to the seismicity.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11386/3878374
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