Paleoenvironmental history of submerged ruins on the Northern Euboean gulf coastal plain,central Greece |
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| Authors: | Tina M Niemi |
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| Abstract: | Hewn blocks from submerged ruins associated with the name Thronion are exposed during low, low tide along the northeastern shoreline of the fan delta which separates the Gulf of Euboea from the Maliakos Gulf, central Greece. Although the date of these ruins is not known, their submergence indicates that they predate the most recent marine transgression. Late Holocene sediments of the coastal plain adjacent to the ruins were studied using 34 auger cores drilled along two 1.3 and 1.1 km shore-normal sections. Cores were described in the field and sampled for sedimentologic and microfossil analyses. These analyses show that late Holocene transgressive marine and strandline units interfinger inland with deposits of a brackish water embayment. Subsequent progradation of the shoreline is marked by overlying slightly brackish to freshwater marsh sediments. A soil horizon developed on these marsh sediments defines a period of aerial exposure and land stability. Late Roman to Byzantine sherds (ca. 4th-13th Century A.D.) within the buried soil and a high phosphate content suggest that this soil developed in association with human habitation. the buried soil may be the surface on which the now-submerged ruins were built. the deposits below the buried soil indicate that prior to the period of soil formation, most of this area was under water and the paleoshoreline was landward of its present position. the ruins were later covered by lake or marsh deposits radiocarbon dated as 1400 A.D. the depth of the dated wood samples, 2.5–3.0 meters below the surface, indicates rapid sediment accumulation (ca. 40–55 cm/100 yrs) over the past 550 years. A small exposure of the ca. 1400 A.D. marsh silt and overlying post-1950 land fill near the ruins is the result of post-1400 A.D. erosion and recession of the shoreline. the lower pre-occupational and post-1400 A.D. transgressions were caused by a combination of eustatic sea level rise, tectonic subsidence, and fluctuations of sediment supply to this portion of the Kenourion fan delta. |
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