6 Boreal Submerged Black Sea Landscapes
75
period during roughly the interval 9,000 to 5,000 years which consisted of increases
of up to 4
◦ C near the North Pole (Davis et al. 2003). This change is well established
in a number of sediments and corresponds to the boundary between the Younger
Dryas/Preboreal, and also the Late Glacial/Postglacial. The Holocene in contrast is
distinguished by being the Age in which human activities have had a marked, and
for the most part extremely detrimental, effect on the rest of the biosphere. Yet at
the same time this age has witnessed the rise of civilization and the exponential
development of human activities.
As consequences of such fundamental climatic changes were modifications of
landscapes and ecosystems including into the Carpatian-Danubian-Pontian space.
Human population was compelled to adapt to these new conditions. This period
known as the Epipalaeolithic was followed by the Neolithic period, beginning with
the rise of farming, which produced the “Neolithic Revolution”. The Neolithic is
not a specific chronological period, but rather a suite of behavioural and cultural
characteristics, including the use of wild and domestic crops and the use of domesticated animals. This is thought to have started in the Middle East and in Egypt around
11,000 years BP. Then the “Neolithic Revolution” appeared around 10,000 years BP
in Anatolia and the Southern part of the Black Sea linked probably to successive
migration of population from Anatolia (Ivanov and Avramova 2000).
The North-Western Black Sea shelf has been as well as the European shelves
exposed during sea level low-stands This now submerged Black Sea shelf provided
a crucial arena for the survival and dispersal of Europe’s earliest inhabitants during
the Stone Age, the early development of prehistoric societies, the initial spread of
agriculture from the Near East, and the foundations for the earliest civilizations.
The key evidence relating to these early developments now lies buried on the sea
floor. But, the water level fluctuations of the Black Sea had behaved independently
from the global sea level during its period of disconnection from the Global Ocean.
In the aftermath of the Ice Age, water levels in the Black Sea and the Aegean Sea
rose independently until they were high enough to exchange water. The exact timeline of this development is still subject to debate. One possibility is that the Black
Sea filled first, with excess fresh water flowing over the Bosporus sill and eventually into the Mediterranean Sea. There are also catastrophic scenarios, such as
the “deluge theory” put forward by William Ryan and Walter Pitman in their book:
“Noah’s flood: The new scientific discoveries about the event that changed history”
(Ryan and Pitman 1999).
Actually, Long decades of work carried out by scientists from Russia and other
eastern European countries (Andrusov 1893; Arslanov et al. 1978; Balabanov 1984;
Fedorov 1963; Kvasov 1968; Muratov et al. 1974; Nevesskiy 1961; Ostrovskiy
et al. 1977; Shimkus et al. 1980; Yaranov 1938) led to the publication of different
hypotheses and curves for the Holocene sea level changes of the Black Sea. Using
these different works a first synthesis effort was realised by Pirazzoli (1991). But,
Ryan et al. (1997) published a hypothesis according to which a massive flood through
the Bosporus occurred in ancient times. They claim that the Black Sea was a vast
freshwater lake, but then about 7,500 years BP later corrected to 8,400 years BP
(Ryan 2007; Ryan et al. 2003), the Mediterranean spilled over a sill at the Bosporus,
creating the current communication between the Black and Mediterranean Seas.
75
period during roughly the interval 9,000 to 5,000 years which consisted of increases
of up to 4
◦ C near the North Pole (Davis et al. 2003). This change is well established
in a number of sediments and corresponds to the boundary between the Younger
Dryas/Preboreal, and also the Late Glacial/Postglacial. The Holocene in contrast is
distinguished by being the Age in which human activities have had a marked, and
for the most part extremely detrimental, effect on the rest of the biosphere. Yet at
the same time this age has witnessed the rise of civilization and the exponential
development of human activities.
As consequences of such fundamental climatic changes were modifications of
landscapes and ecosystems including into the Carpatian-Danubian-Pontian space.
Human population was compelled to adapt to these new conditions. This period
known as the Epipalaeolithic was followed by the Neolithic period, beginning with
the rise of farming, which produced the “Neolithic Revolution”. The Neolithic is
not a specific chronological period, but rather a suite of behavioural and cultural
characteristics, including the use of wild and domestic crops and the use of domesticated animals. This is thought to have started in the Middle East and in Egypt around
11,000 years BP. Then the “Neolithic Revolution” appeared around 10,000 years BP
in Anatolia and the Southern part of the Black Sea linked probably to successive
migration of population from Anatolia (Ivanov and Avramova 2000).
The North-Western Black Sea shelf has been as well as the European shelves
exposed during sea level low-stands This now submerged Black Sea shelf provided
a crucial arena for the survival and dispersal of Europe’s earliest inhabitants during
the Stone Age, the early development of prehistoric societies, the initial spread of
agriculture from the Near East, and the foundations for the earliest civilizations.
The key evidence relating to these early developments now lies buried on the sea
floor. But, the water level fluctuations of the Black Sea had behaved independently
from the global sea level during its period of disconnection from the Global Ocean.
In the aftermath of the Ice Age, water levels in the Black Sea and the Aegean Sea
rose independently until they were high enough to exchange water. The exact timeline of this development is still subject to debate. One possibility is that the Black
Sea filled first, with excess fresh water flowing over the Bosporus sill and eventually into the Mediterranean Sea. There are also catastrophic scenarios, such as
the “deluge theory” put forward by William Ryan and Walter Pitman in their book:
“Noah’s flood: The new scientific discoveries about the event that changed history”
(Ryan and Pitman 1999).
Actually, Long decades of work carried out by scientists from Russia and other
eastern European countries (Andrusov 1893; Arslanov et al. 1978; Balabanov 1984;
Fedorov 1963; Kvasov 1968; Muratov et al. 1974; Nevesskiy 1961; Ostrovskiy
et al. 1977; Shimkus et al. 1980; Yaranov 1938) led to the publication of different
hypotheses and curves for the Holocene sea level changes of the Black Sea. Using
these different works a first synthesis effort was realised by Pirazzoli (1991). But,
Ryan et al. (1997) published a hypothesis according to which a massive flood through
the Bosporus occurred in ancient times. They claim that the Black Sea was a vast
freshwater lake, but then about 7,500 years BP later corrected to 8,400 years BP
(Ryan 2007; Ryan et al. 2003), the Mediterranean spilled over a sill at the Bosporus,
creating the current communication between the Black and Mediterranean Seas.