AN OVERVIEW OF IGCP 521 “BLACK SEA-MEDITERRANEAN CORRIDOR DURING THE LAST 30 KY: SEA-LEVEL CHANGE AND HUMAN ADAPTATION”

The five-year IGCP 521 project began in April, 2005, to correlate scientific data obtained by diverse research projects dealing with climate change, sea-level fluctuations, coastline migration, and human adaptation within the Black Sea-Mediterranean Corridor. Lately, this region has been the focus of international controversy as the proposed origin of the biblical flood story; this has encouraged new research into the hydrological regime of connecting straits, the transition from lacustrine to marine environment, the influence of Black Sea outflow on the deposition of Eastern Mediterranean sapropels, as well as past/present/future adaptation of humans to environmental change.

The main goal of this project is to provide cross-disciplinary and cross-regional correlation of geological, geochemical, geophysical, paleontological, archaeological, and historical records for the entire “Corridor” in order to evaluate the influence of sea-level change and coastline migration on human adaptation during the last 30 ky. IGCP 521 will investigate the evolution of the coastal zone, where a rich sedimentary and archaeological archive provides a superb opportunity to study spatial and temporal interactions between human adaptation and environmental change. The project incorporates four dimensions: 1. The geological dimension examines sedimentary fingerprints of vertical sea-level fluctuations and lateral coastline change caused by external (climate change, active tectonics) and internal (mainly coastal sedimentary budget) forces. 2. The paleoenvironmental dimension integrates paleontology, palynology, and sedimentology in order to add new features to the portrait of past landscapes. 3. The archaeological dimension investigates cultural remains. 4. The mathematical dimension deals with GIS-based mathematical modeling of human dynamics underlying past/future sea-level change in the “Corridor” that can be meaningfully compared with global sea-level fluctuations. All dimensions are addressed through the integration of existing data and the testing of hypotheses. This presentation will outline some achievements and limitations of the project in assessing the relationships between environmental changes, landscape dynamics, and human adaptive strategies in semi-isolated basins.