Palaeogeography of the Aegean Coastal Area (Anatolia) in the Neolithic and Bronze Age

Coastline changes have been most important environmental-geomorphological occurence on the Aegean coast of Anatolia during the post-glacial period, that is through the last 15,000 - 10,000 years. Sea level was about 100 m below the present in the last glacial stage, although the region was far from the glaciers. The rising sea during the post-glacial period reached its present level about 6,000 years ago, but in the period between 5,000 to 3,500 years B.P. it fell by about 2 m. Then it rose again to its present level around the time of Christ. All geomorphological, sedimentological, and archaeological evidence shows that this sea-level change is almost uniform in scale and order along the Aegean coastal strip of Anatolia.

Coastal indentations were longer during the first sea-level maximum 6000 years ago because the present volume of alluvium had not yet been accumulated at that time. The coasts were convenient places to settle for the Neolithic people, and the shallow waters of bays and lagoons were rich sea-food reservoirs. The small scale of sea-level fall during the Bronze Age accelerated deltaic progradation and fascilitated agricultural development. However, the last sea-level rise has not given rise to any coastal encroachment on the alluvial plains, because the vertical scale and the speed of this change has been small and alluvial deposition has balanced the ingression.