PALYNOLOGIC EVIDENCE FOR PRE-PTOLEMAIC SETTLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA, EGYPT

Alexander the Great is conventionally thought to have settled the coastal region west of the Nile Delta around 332 BC. However, recent multi-disciplinary geoarchaeological studies give support to the writings of Homer (The Odyssey) and Strabo (The Geography) that imply that the Alexandrian sector was settled well before Alexander's arrival. In this study, pollen and microscopic charcoal from sediments collected in the Eastern Harbor of Alexandria are used to document and date changes in the vegetational landscape associated with the settling of the Alexandria coastline and subsequent human land use activities. Pollen assemblages record not only the long human history of land use in this sector but also the effects of natural climate variability on the local environment. We identify three transitions in the pollen-microscopic charcoal record. The earliest transition, ~6000 yrs BP, during Egypt’s Predynastic period, indicates a change from a wet to an increasingly drier climate. The striking change in pollen and microscopic charcoal associated with human land use occurred 3600-2900 yrs BP, a period of continued aridity with no lithologic variation at this core interval. Pollen (cereal taxa, agricultural weeds, grape) and a sharp increase in microscopic charcoal indicate that human activity became prevalent at least 700 years before Alexander the Great’s arrival in this region, highlighting the transition from a largely natural climate-controlled environment to one influenced by both climate and anthropogenic activity. A third shift in pollen assemblages is dated at ~2300 yrs BP, at the boundary between a sand and mud unit. The transition coincides with construction by the Ptolemies of the Heptastadion, a causeway between Alexandria and Pharos Island.