Late Pleistocene-Holocene shoreline reconstruction and human exploitation of molluscan resources in northern Pieria, Macedonia, Greece

Abstract

This study presents new stratigraphic, sedimentological, pedological dating and macro- and micro-fauna data, in order to reconstruct late Pleistocene and Holocene landscapes and shorelines of northern Pieria, northern Greece, and to discuss human exploitation of coastal environments. At the end of the Pleistocene, coastal Pieria formed part of the broad coastal plain that extended from northern Anatolia to Thessaly. Holocene marine transgression flooded the Pleistocene terrain and by the Early-Middle Neolithic (5870/5690-5720/5610BCE) brackish water reached the Korinos area. A relatively shallow marine embayment was eventually established and the shoreline was at least 3.5km west of its present position. Massive Final Neolithic alluviation (4339/3999–4039/3775BCE) resulted in marine regression and the building up of a sand barrier. An open, brackish lagoon occupied a large part of the study area at least since the Early Bronze Age (3090–2880/2870BCE). By the Late Bronze Age (1740/1505–1520/1254BCE) renewed alluviation resulted in a second phase of sea regression and the creation of marshes at the edges of the lagoon. Alluvial sediments and intercalated palaeosols cap the marine/lagoon/marsh sequence and indicate a significant increase in sediment supply that started ca. 2000years ago and culminated during the Early Christian period (4th–6th century CE). Rapid shore progradation resulted in the creation of the modern coastal plain of Korinos. Archaeomalacological data indicate that prehistoric communities exploited intensively shallow aquatic environments for food and artefact manufacture. Specialisation in the gathering of the brackish mollusc Cerastoderma glaucum (the common cockle) persisted for at least 6000years (from the Early Neolithic to the Early Iron Age), thus becoming a regional culinary tradition. Although attitudes towards molluscs were originally (7th-6th mil. BCE) shaped by natural availability and proximity to shell sources, substantial residual variability from the Late Neolithic (late 6th–early 5th mil. BCE) onwards, suggesting local preferences in food and material culture, can be attributed to cultural choices and highlights the complexity of human/environment interactions.