Geology and Archaeology: Submerged Landscapes of the Continental Shelf
Sea-level change has influenced human population globally since prehistoric times. Even in early phases of cultural development human populations were faced with marine regression and transgression as a result of changing climate and corresponding glacio-isostatic adjustment. Global marine regression during the last glaciation changed the palaeogeography of the continental shelf, converting former marine environments to attractive terrestrial habitats for prehistoric humans. These areas of the shelf were used as hunting and gathering areas, as migration routes between continents, and most probably witnessed the earliest developments in seafaring and marine exploitation, until the postglacial transgression re-submerged these palaeo-landscapes. Based on modern marine research technologies and the integration of large databases, proxy data are increasingly available for the reconstruction of Quaternary submerged landscapes. Also, prehistoric archaeological remains from the recent sea bottom are shedding new light on human prehistoric development driven by rapidly changing climate and environment. This publication contributes to the exchange of ideas and new results in this young and challenging field of underwater palaeoenvironmental investigation.
Stone Age archaeological sites and environmental changes during the Holocene in the NW region of Russia
-
Published:January 01, 2016
-
CiteCitation
Marianna Kulkova, Andrey Mazurkevich, Dmitry Gerasimov, 2016. "Stone Age archaeological sites and environmental changes during the Holocene in the NW region of Russia", Geology and Archaeology: Submerged Landscapes of the Continental Shelf, J. Harff, G. Bailey, F. Lüth
Download citation file:
- Share
Abstract
The region of NW Russia connecting with the Baltic Sea presents a dynamic ecological system that was sensitive to environmental changes during the Holocene. Certain factors affected environmental changes in the region during the Holocene: deglaciation processes, that finally terminated about 9 cal ka BP; eustatic sea-level changes; and tectonic movements, which are basically considered in the region as isostatic uplift processes. Contextual remains of ancient human occupation sites can be the only evidence of surface stabilization in monotonous sediments, such as aquatic and subaquatic deposits. Prehistoric settlements also mark ancient shorelines. The latter is of great importance for studying the history of water oscillations and coastal-line displacements on the territory of NW Russia. The transgressive–regressive stages of the Baltic Sea (at c. 10.15 cal ka BP, the Ancylus transgression; at c. 7.6–7.0 cal ka BP, the Littorina transgression) have an impact on the positions of prehistorical sites. The complex investigations of the Stone Age archaeological settlements on the Karelian Isthmus and in the Dvina–Lovat’ basin, and their altitudes below sea level, allowed us to reconstruct palaeoenvironmental changes during the Holocene, the chronology of cultural–historical processes and the adaptation strategy of ancient people to environmental conditions in this territory.
- adaptation
- Ancylus Lake
- archaeological sites
- archaeology
- artifacts
- Atlantic Ocean
- Baltic Sea
- Bronze Age
- Cenozoic
- climate change
- Commonwealth of Independent States
- deglaciation
- Dvina River
- Europe
- Gulf of Finland
- Holocene
- human activity
- human ecology
- Iron Age
- isostasy
- Karelia
- Karelia Russian Federation
- Lake Ladoga region
- lake-level changes
- landform evolution
- Litorina Sea
- lower Holocene
- Mesolithic
- migration
- Neolithic
- North Atlantic
- paleoecology
- paleoenvironment
- paleogeography
- populations
- Quaternary
- regression
- Russian Federation
- sea-level changes
- shorelines
- Stone Age
- tectonics
- transgression
- vertical movements
- Lovat River
- Dvina-Lovat Basin
- Gulf of Narva