Neolithic and Bronze Age coastal landscapes in Crete : a geoarchaeological approach

This PhD thesis demonstrates that Neolithic and Bronze Age inhabitants of Crete operated under different climatic conditions. During the Neolithic (ca. 7000-ca. 3000 BC), coastal lowlands appear to have been significantly wetter relative to present. The geological evidence suggests a progressive drying-out of coastal marshes in the course of the Bronze Age. Well-watered arable soils became increasingly scarce and this probably imposed an adjustment of subsistence strategies. The emergence of the modern Mediterranean climate on Crete may have represented an important mechanism behind social transformations at the turn of the Neolithic and Bronze Age. This doctoral research illustrates how such large-scale transformations could have been experienced by coastal communities.(ARKE 3) -- UCL, 201