engleski

Reconstructing Mid-Holocene paleoenvironments in the vicinity of the submerged pile-dwelling in Zambratija Bay (Istria, Croatia)

A unique characteristic of post-LGM marine transgression reconstructions is the use of submerged archaeological RSL indicators, such as shell middens, coastal buildings, or traces of human occupation. In the rare cases when underwater archaeological research takes place on those sites, it involves diving and excavation, both of which represent a stressful risk for the archaeologists and the investors. The high likelihood of a negative archaeological result, regardless of the promising preliminary surveys, most often means that archaeological research is considered unreliable or unnecessary. This can change by applying interdisciplinary research methods, where environmental data can also answer archaeological research questions. A geoarchaeological submerged case study in Zambratija Bay, Croatia, demonstrates alternative ways to use seabed core environmental data, by using multiproxy analysis of a nearby sediment core (sedimentological, mineralogical, geochemical and palinological analyses). Preliminary archaeological, geophysical investigations and analysis of dated cores revealed that the site, today submerged three metres under the Adriatic Sea, is a 6, 000- year-old freshwater pile-dwelling built on the outer edges of a karstic sinkhole. Seven cores taken on site revealed that the submerged sinkhole contains marine, brackish, organic and lacustrine sedimentary sequences. Holocene marine transgression is evident by marine carbonate sediments containing marine shells, covering terrestrial grey and brown clay sediments. These clayey sediments show succession from highly magnetic sediments containing pyrhotite minerals, formed under marine influence through karstic underground. One-meter thick organic sediments are composed of peaty sediments with high TOC (15-30 %) and N (1.1-2.8 %) and compact fine-grained peat with high P, Fe and Mo, as well as significant amounts of vivianite. These organic sediments are characterised by lower values of δ13C and δ15N implying freshwater environment. Occurrences of vivianite are still visible in underlying brown clay freshwater pond sediments, containing much more siliciclastic material compared to above organic sediments. Vivianite is a mineral that occurs on various Quaternary, postglacial and modern aquatic systems worldwide, which includes marine, freshwater and terrestrial waterlogged soils. It is known to appear on archaeological sites in teeth and bones on waterlogged bodies, and anthropologically influenced muddy wastewater layers settings with higher P levels, which implies that its occurrence might indirectly mirror a human impact on aquatic environments.

Adriatic, pile dwelling, Mid-Holocene ; paleoenvironment, Zambratija

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