A GEOARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION OF SETTLEMENT AND LAND USE FROM A ROMAN SEASIDE VILLA, SVETI KLEMENT ISLAND, CROATIA

The Central Dalmatian island of Sveti Klement is characterized by Late Cretaceous limestones with impressive karst features. The Bay of Soline (BOS) is one of several N-S trending bays on the island and the site of a first to sixth century A.D. Roman villa. Archaeological evidence of Greek and Roman presence extends back to the 3rd century B.C. The ongoing archaeological work and a geophysical survey has established that there was salt production in the shallow bay and wine and olive oil processing at the site. nearby ruins of a lime kiln on the other side of the BOS and a limestone rock quarry at another bay to the east provide further evidence of Roman presence.

With the aim of investigating evidence for the timing of human occupation at this site, we collected sediment cores from BOS and several locations on and near the adjacent archaeological site during summers 2022 and 2024. A radiocarbon age date of charcoal near the base of a 1.1 m long sediment core collected in June 2022 from the BOS gives a 2-sigma age range of 258-530 A.D. which places the start of this record during Roman occupation. Significant changes in Ca, K, Fe, Ti, and other elemental concentrations measured using pXRF indicate downcore variation in erosional inputs of carbonates, loess, and colluvial deposits to BOS. An especially large increase in erosional input at 20 cm depth is likely from land use changes in the last few centuries.

We also report our preliminary findings for 6 cores (0.5 - 1.7 m long) collected in early June 2024 on land within and outside the boundaries of the former Roman villa. Cores within the villa boundaries all show visible evidence of a dark brown, organic-rich soil layer with pottery fragments representing a cultural horizon at approximately 40 cm depth with thicknesses of 10-30 cm. A 1.7 m long soil core collected from a meadow adjacent to the BOS represents a former stream channel into the bay. Once a shoreline wall was erected by the Romans along the north end of the BOS, sediment began to accumulate in the meadow which shows signs of periodic overland flow in storms or through groundwater sources. A charcoal rich layer near the bottom of this core should allow us to determine the timing of sediment accumulation above basal alluvial gravels.