Prehistoric Coastal Environments in Greece
The Vanished Landscapes of Dimini Bay and Lake Lerna
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11074348 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Eberhard Zangger (0000-0002-0059-6188, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1991 |
| Volume | 18 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 1-15 |
| Publication date | 1991-01-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Field Archaeology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0093-4690 • E-ISSN: 2042-4582 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1179/009346991791548799 |
| OpenAlex | W2044067397 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 24 |
| References cited | 16 |
Two completely vanished environments in Greece, a shallow coastal bay at Dimini near Volos and a large freshwater lake near Lerna south of Argos, were found and reconstructed with over 200 auger and drill cores. Similarities between the coastal landscapes of modern Volos and Argos with respect to topography and settlement history are attributable to comparable geological settings and Holocene environmental histories; for example, at both places, active faulting has played a significant role and shoreline shifts have determined site location. Near Volos, the sea extended 3 km farther inland during the middle Holocene, reaching the base of Dimini Magoula (tell). After the Neolithic, the shore gradually receded, resulting in a seaward shift of settlements, thus explaining the presence of several single component sites in the area. Near Argos, the former presence of a large freshwater lagoon, named Lake Lerna, has been deduced from subsurface deposits. The lake was separated from the open sea by a beach barrier. It originated when the postglacial sea level rise reached its culmination point and extended over a diameter of 4.7 km in the Early Bronze Age. Increased soil erosion then caused a rapid silting, but remnants of Lake Lerna persisted until the 19th century. Anthropological studies have shown how the inhabitants of this coastal marsh have suffered from malaria in the past. It may be that the story of the legendary fight between Herakles and the Lernaean Hydra reflects the struggle of the Lernaean people as they tried to change the inhospitable environment by draining the lake
Archaeology · Bay · Coastal erosion · Geography · Holocene · Human settlement · Prehistory · Rift valley · Sea level · Shore · Ancient Mediterranean Archaeology and History · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Geology · Maritime and Coastal Archaeology · Oceanography · Paleontology
Labor II
Exploring alternative trajectories of social change in European prehistory. Anarchist theory and the Aegean Bronze Age
Mycenaean Dimini in Context
Ecology in the Long View
The Evolution of an Ancient Coastal Lake (Lerna, Peloponnese, Greece)
Socialising the Landscape in the Early Neolithic of Thessaly, Greece
The First Neolithic Open Air Shore and Shell Midden Site of Chert Explorers of the Hvar-Lisičicí Culture on the Island of Hvar, Croatia
Landscapes through Time
Multispectral and synthetic aperture radar remote-sensing-based models for holocene coastline development in the Ambracian Gulf, Epirus, Greece
European Regional Studies
Ancient Greece
Ancient DNA in human bones from Neolithic and Bronze Age sites in Greece and Crete
Isotopic dietary reconstruction of humans from Middle Bronze Age Lerna, Argolid, Greece
Plato's Atlantis Account ‐ a Distorted Recollection of the Trojan War
Water, Animals and Agricultural Technology
The Bronze Age birds in Greece. A zooarchaeological perspective
Palaeoseismic studies in Greece
The Greek Neolithic
Kinship in Aegean Prehistory? Ancient DNA in Human Bones from Mainland Greece and Crete
Dimini and the ‘DMP’
The Panayia Field Excavations at Corinth
Interaction and the end of the Late Bronze Age as displayed through neutron activation analysis of Late Helladic sherds
Mind or Matter? People-Environment Interactions and the Demise of Early Helladic II Society in the Northeastern Peloponnese
Spondylus shell ornaments from late Neolithic Dimini, Greece
A Classical and Topographical Tour through Greece
A 17,000-year glacio-eustatic sea level record
Porotic Hyperostosis, Anemias, Malarias, and Marshes in the Prehistoric Eastern Mediterranean
Archaeology as Human Ecology
Trade and the Origins of Agriculture in the Eastern Mediterranean
Late Paleolithic and Mesolithic Coastlines of Greece and the Aegean
The Early Helladic Period in the Argolid
The Bronze-Age Flaked-Stone Industries from Lerna
A Prehistoric Survey of Thessaly
An essay on the 'emergence of civilization' in the Aegean world
| Citations per year | 0.71 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 1992 - 2026 (35) |
| Highly cited | No |