LANDSCAPE ARCHAEOlOGY. EGYPT AND THE ... - CFEETK - CNRS

Programme and abstracts volume
LESPEZ Laurent 1 , LE DREZEN Yann 1 , LOPEZ-SAEZ Jose Antonio 2 , DAVIDSON Robert 1 ,
TSIRTSONI Zoï 3
Middle to Late Holocene landscape changes and geoarchaeological
implications in the Lower Strymon valley (Greece)
1 Geophen-UMR LETG 6554 CNRS – Université de Caen-Basse Normandie, Esplanade de la Paix, BP 5186,
14032 Caen cedex, France
2 Grupo de Investigación 'Arqueobiología', Instituto de Historia, Centro de Ciencias Humanas y Sociales (CCHS)
Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) c/ Albasanz, 26-28, 28037 Madrid, Spain
3 UMR CNRS 5138-Archéométrie et Archéologie, Maison de l'Orient et de la Méditerranée 7, rue Raulin 69365
Lyon Cedex 07, France
Presenting author: Laurent Lespez
E-mail: laurent.lespez@unicaen.fr
Tel: +33 (0) 231566427
The “Balkans 4000” research program focused on the settlement in Northern Greece and in
the Balkans during the 4 th millennium BC (Dir. Z. Tsirtsoni) and gives support to develop
palaeoenvironmental and geoarcheological investigations in the floodplain and wetland
environments of Northeastern Macedonia, Greece. The Holocene palaeogeographic changes
in the lower Strymon valley, a major river of the Balkan Peninsula, have been investigated
using a combination of facies interpretation from borehole cores, 14 C dating, and pollen and
fire signal analyses.
From the Neolithic, the depositional history reveals a palaeogeographic evolution of the lower
valley that may be divided into five major periods. The changes observed are compared to
other fluvial systems in the Aegean and Balkanic areas and the results are discussed in regards
of the climatic changes testified at a regional scale and archaeological data available. The
discussion on the landscape changes and their geoarchaeological implications is focused on
short and well defined chronological windows: 4 th millennium BC; 2,500-2,000 BC; 500 BC-
150 AD; 750-1,000 AD; 1,500-1,800 AD.
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