ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGES OF THE NORTHEASTERN BLACK SEA'S COASTAL REGION DURING THE MIDDLE AND LATE HOLOCENE

摘要

This paper deals with questions of paleogeography of the Black sea's coast in the late Holocene on the basis of new data that include the lithology, palynology and geochronology of coastal marine, lagoon and deltaic sediments. The palynological results have shown that the warmest and dry conditions prevailed in the intervals 4100-3950, 3500-3300/3200, 2800-2400, 1650-1300 and 1000-900/800 yrs BP. The maxima of humidity for the studied period correspond with the chronological intervals 4500-4300 and 3950-3500 yrs BP, coinciding with the spread of forest communities. During an interval from 2500 up to 1500 BP (V centuries BC - V centuries AD) the dominance of the steppes formation was interrupted by phases of wetter climate which caused at first expansion of the wood-steppe vegetation, and then wide circulation of broad-leaved woods in the landscape. The palynological data have revealed a peculiarity that is connected to the economic activity of the local population. The study of the coastal morphology and sediment structure have revealed traces of two transgressive phases in relative sea level change for the time under consideration the first relates to the interval 4.2-3.7 ka BP, the second - covers last 1.5 ka. Complex litho-facial, archaeological and geochronological data testify to the existence of a period of downturn in sea level, which covers an interval from the end of the 2nd millenium BP up to the middle of the 1st millenium AD.