{"title":"Relationships between channelization, sedimentation and sea level in the deltaic environment of the ancient harbor of Lattara, southern France","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/j.margeo.2024.107384","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The impacts of coastal changes and human land use on depositional processes, ecological conditions, geomorphic evolution and harbor works at the archaeological site of Lattara, one of the oldest cities of the northwestern Mediterranean built in a deltaic environment, were investigated from a multi-proxy approach based on sedimentological, biological and geochronological analyses. A distributary channel connected to the ancient harbor of Lattara was deepened and channelized around 200 cal BCE. The drastic increase in water depth caused by channelization was associated with increased flow competence and bedload transport, and could have improved navigation in the harbor area. By contrast, high accumulations of anthropogenic deposits in the channelized stream from the second century CE seem to have negatively affected sediment transport conditions by reducing bedload flux. The construction of a cobble pavement on the western bank of this channelized stream in the fourth century CE was contemporaneous with a sharp decrease in bedload transport showing an abrupt transition to a low energy environment such as in abandoned channels. A drainage ditch was then dug in the deposits of the channelized stream during the Medieval Warm Period, in a context of land use intensification and increased river flooding that led to the deposition of coarser sediments.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":18229,"journal":{"name":"Marine Geology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.6000,"publicationDate":"2024-08-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Marine Geology","FirstCategoryId":"89","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0025322724001683","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"GEOSCIENCES, MULTIDISCIPLINARY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The impacts of coastal changes and human land use on depositional processes, ecological conditions, geomorphic evolution and harbor works at the archaeological site of Lattara, one of the oldest cities of the northwestern Mediterranean built in a deltaic environment, were investigated from a multi-proxy approach based on sedimentological, biological and geochronological analyses. A distributary channel connected to the ancient harbor of Lattara was deepened and channelized around 200 cal BCE. The drastic increase in water depth caused by channelization was associated with increased flow competence and bedload transport, and could have improved navigation in the harbor area. By contrast, high accumulations of anthropogenic deposits in the channelized stream from the second century CE seem to have negatively affected sediment transport conditions by reducing bedload flux. The construction of a cobble pavement on the western bank of this channelized stream in the fourth century CE was contemporaneous with a sharp decrease in bedload transport showing an abrupt transition to a low energy environment such as in abandoned channels. A drainage ditch was then dug in the deposits of the channelized stream during the Medieval Warm Period, in a context of land use intensification and increased river flooding that led to the deposition of coarser sediments.
期刊介绍:
Marine Geology is the premier international journal on marine geological processes in the broadest sense. We seek papers that are comprehensive, interdisciplinary and synthetic that will be lasting contributions to the field. Although most papers are based on regional studies, they must demonstrate new findings of international significance. We accept papers on subjects as diverse as seafloor hydrothermal systems, beach dynamics, early diagenesis, microbiological studies in sediments, palaeoclimate studies and geophysical studies of the seabed. We encourage papers that address emerging new fields, for example the influence of anthropogenic processes on coastal/marine geology and coastal/marine geoarchaeology. We insist that the papers are concerned with the marine realm and that they deal with geology: with rocks, sediments, and physical and chemical processes affecting them. Papers should address scientific hypotheses: highly descriptive data compilations or papers that deal only with marine management and risk assessment should be submitted to other journals. Papers on laboratory or modelling studies must demonstrate direct relevance to marine processes or deposits. The primary criteria for acceptance of papers is that the science is of high quality, novel, significant, and of broad international interest.