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Lowland coasts, accounting for ca. 30% of the global coastline, are significantly threatened by the climate change, related sea-level rise and enhanced storminess. However, the role of key factors controlling the frequency and extent of extreme storm surges of inundation regime are not yet fully understood. In the present research we seek for the answer what are factors governing the susceptibility of the coast to storm surge flooding: is it coastal landforms development, storminess or rising sea-level? The southern Baltic Sea coast presents an ideal target for the research on the frequency and intensity of catastrophic storm surge flooding as it is nontidal/microtidal sea, where major water level fluctuations are related to well-documented past sea-level changes and storm surge floodings. Moreover, it is located in the area highly sensitive to latitudinal shifts in North Atlantic Oscillation and changes of the westerly storm tracks. Furthermore, the southern Baltic coast has recently been identified as the region where the storm surge flooding overtopping coastal barriers is one of the highest in the world and is expected to increase in the near future together with the climate change. We documented the longest to date, high-resolution sedimentary succession from the Polish coastal wetland located at Mechelinki, Puck Bay within the Gulf of Gdańsk at the southern Baltic sea coast. There, high-resolution records of extreme storm surge flooding of inundation regime within two periods: 3.6-2.9 ka BP and from ca. 0.7 ka BP until present, are preserved. The studied wetland succession, including sedimentary archive of storm surges, has been analyzed by sedimentological (grain size, loss-on-ignition, micromorphology), geochronological (14C, 210Pb, 137Cs), geochemical (XRF), mineralogical (heavy minerals) and micropaleontological (diatoms) methods. The results indicated that both periods were characterized by high-frequency storm surge flooding in order of 1.3 – 4.2 events per century. They are correlated to widely recognized enhanced storminess periods in NW Europe and took place during both rising and fluctuating sea levels. Our results show that the storm surge driven coastal inundation frequency and extent largely depend on the development of coastal barriers (e.g., beach ridges). Thus, in the context of the future coastal storm surge hazard, the protection of existing coastal barriers should be the prime concern.The research project CatFlood is funded by National Science Centre, Poland, OPUS grant nr: 2018/29/B/ST10/00042

This paper presents results from the initial stage of an ongoing project exploring changes in pottery production at the Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age transition in the south-western part of the Iberian Peninsula. For the chosen study area this period is of particular interest because of the introduction of new pottery types, manufacuring techniques, and possibly also different organisational models in the wake of the Phoenician expansion into the western Mediterranean. The initial stage of our project focused on samples from the key site of Setefilla, with a methodology based on both non-destructive and destructive analysis of ceramic samples: 1) non-destructive X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (XRF), 2) very precise optical emission spectrometry (OES) and 3) petrography of pottery samples. The results of this research show a significant correlation between manufacturing techniques, type of clay paste used and elemental composition. Alongside this approach we also conducted a radiocarbon dating programme on cremated human remains from the site, to provide a chronological context for any changes observed in the pottery assemblage over time. Our results demonstrate that through systematic spectrographic and petrographic analysis we can overcome some of the basic problems relating to the chemical and petrographic identification of different pottery groups, with a view to establishing the provenance of so-called “imports”.

The aim of this paper is to present the first results of organic residue analysis of pottery from two Lebanese archaeological sites, Jiyeh and Chhîm. The standard approach in investigations of this type consists of mass spectrometry and gas chromatography technique, which enabled the detection of organic fractions absorbed by pores of the pottery. In the present paper, new method of liquid chromatography and tandem mass spectrometry has been used in order to identify organic fractions. Sixteen fragments of vessels from different forms, periods and archaeological contexts have been analysed. The selected samples came from three vessel categories, kitchen vessels for cooking and store liquids, transport amphorae and storage pithoi, dated from Persian to Byzantine period. The procedure of sample extraction and HPLC-MS/MS analysis allowed to find vessels with the potential traces of the use for food product preparation and/or storage and separate it from different vessels (without traces of organic residues). Organic substances have been detected in the majority of the investigated samples.