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Human-environmental interaction studies typically focus on large-scale landscape modifications of vegetation or soils and rarely address smaller-scale human alterations to site settings. This approach is based on a broad concept of environment as "set" having spatially dispersed and regionally defined attributes, as opposed to something that is mutable at the scale of individual groups of humans living at a specific location. This paper examines how two prehistoric groups, the Final Neolithic to Early Bronze Age 2 occupants on the island of Kos, Greece and the Late Formative Period occupants in the Upper Basin, northern Arizona, selected and modified habitation locations involving exposed bedrock. Although chronologically separated by thousands of years and occupying different continents, these two groups share similarities in population size, socio-political complexity, and environmental challenges. In facing these challenges, both groups apply practical, but different, approaches that utilized one of the most prevalent globally available resources -- limestone bedrock. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The PaGE Project survey of the Megalopolis Basin (Arcadia, Greece), conducted in 2012–2013 over a period of two field seasons, was an intensive, target-oriented surface survey of Pleistocene sediments. Implementing a modified version of field methods applied in our survey of cave systems and Pleistocene cave sediments, the main goal of this systematic research focused on the identification of intact stratified remains from either stratigraphic sections or on remnants of exposed ancient surfaces. The project area consisted of the active open-cast lignite mine of Megalopolis, where access to recently exposed sections were abundant, and of the alluvial fans in the surrounding uplands, where hominins exploited the commanding views of the ancient lake. This paper presents the survey results and applied field methods for conducting archaeological research within the remnants of an Early to Middle Pleistocene ancient lake system. The project succeeded in identifying at least five surface and stratified sites, the latter including the Lower Paleolithic remains of Marathousa-1. This site is currently under investigation, but has already yielded the oldest chronometrically dated archaeological remains in Greece. Therefore, PaGE has not only managed to place mainland Greece on the Lower Paleolithic map of Europe, but has also successfully tested a methodological corpus for survey research targeting the earliest phases of the Paleolithic period in a Mediterranean landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Resinous and tarry materials have been valuable commodities since prehistory as their widespread use for numerous purposes indicates, but remain largely neglected by archaeological research, in part due to their poor preservation and the need for chemical analyses to identify them. This paper explores the use of these plant exudates in northern Greece and the Balkans during the Early and Middle Holocene with the aim of documenting the production and use of tarry materials and the exploitation of woodland resources. To this end tarry material found on pottery from 10 neolithic settlements located in North Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia, spanning the Early to Late Neolithic periods (7th to 5th millennia BC), were analysed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and identified using the biomarker approach. Data from analysis of wood charcoal found at Neolithic sites together with the pollen record have also been considered in order to assess the availability of raw materials to local populations. The results of biomolecular analysis show that birch-bark tar was almost exclusively used by Neolithic communities located in the Balkan hinterland, while a more complex picture arises for the northern Aegean area. Here, in addition to the predominant birch-bark tar, pine resin and pitch have also been identified as well as beeswax. The pollen and anthracological record suggest that birch existed in northern Greece and the Balkans hinterland during the Early Holocene, but must have been restricted to the uplands. Procurement of raw material may have taken place, therefore, at some distances from the settlements, involving the movement of people and raw materials or final products within the wider region. Chemical analysis provides evidence for variability in the production of tarry materials between settlements in northern Greece, while in the Balkan interior tar-making appears to have followed a more standardised recipe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper aims to reveal the depositional environment of Istron and its sedimentological response to Holocene climatic events. The results of a multi-disciplinary geoarchaeological research undertaken in the coastal area of Istron, northeastern Crete, provided information on the depositional environment and the palaeoenvironmental evolution of the area during the Holocene. Detailed fieldwork and sampling by drilling cores in the coastal area provided samples for further analytical studies. The identification of the stratigraphy and the distinction of sedimentological units provided evidence for landscape evolution of the coastal area. Changes of sedimentation rates determined by optical dating and sedimentological analysis were also correlated with Holocene climatic phases. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper presents evidence of multiple tsunami impact on the Bay of Palairos-Pogonia, NW Greece, during the Holocene based on detailed geo-scientific studies. Altogether, 41 vibracores were drilled to detect high-energy influence in the stratigraphical record. Layers of coarse-grained allochthonous marine deposits were found intersecting autochthonous fine-grained back beach sediments in the Palairos coastal plain, on top of beach or marly bedrock units at Pogonia beach and along the Pogonia cliff section. High-energy deposits are associated with specific sedimentary structures such as fining upward sequences, rip up-clasts, basal erosional contact, bi- to multimodal grain size distribution, lamination, and co-existence of both well rounded and angular, sharply edged components, all of them typical of tsunami impact. Macro- and microfaunal analyses revealed tsunami-related input of numerous ex situ marine species and mostly angular shell debris into quiescent fresh- to brackish water environments by high-energy and long-distance transport. Geophysical methods helped to find subsurface structures and to seize the lateral extent of tsunami layers. Ca–Fe ratios derived from XRF measurements were used to trace tsunami influence inland. Most important is the widespread spatial distribution of the tsunamites with a lateral extent between 70m at the Pogonia cliff section, 200m at Pogonia beach, and 1km in the central Palairos plain, and overall tendencies of fining and thinning towards inland. Highest elevations of tsunamites were found around Pogonia village at ca. 7.5ma.s.l. Vibracore data give evidence that the overall coastal evolution has been strongly affected, locally even controlled by multiple high-energy impact. A conspicuous geoarchaeological tsunamite, up to 1.5m thick, was found at Pogonia cliff consisting of mixed marine (sand, pebbles, bio-erosively altered stones, shell debris, foraminifers) and terrigenous material (abundant ceramic fragments, bones, building material). It is directly associated with the submerged remains of an ancient mole which was destroyed and its building material partly dislocated by the same event. Dating of tsunamites was accomplished by archaeological age determination of diagnostic sherds and by radiocarbon and luminescence dating techniques. Strong tsunami events were dated to the beginning of the 6th, the mid-5th, the 4th/3rd and the late 2nd millennia BC as well as to the 4th/3rd century BC. On a regional scale, the recurrence interval for large events is ca. 500–1000 years. At least twice during the late Holocene, the Palairos coastal plain was flooded quasi-contemporaneously from both the northern and southern side. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]