Ein Pollenprofil aus dem Hafenbecken von Elaia/Pergamon als Schlüssel zur Erforschung des Vegetationswandels in der Nordwesttürkei in den letzten 7500 Jahren
Zusammenfassung der Projektergebnisse
The goal of this research was to reconstruct the human – environment interactions in the Bay of Elaia (W Turkey), with focus on the prime of Elaia (ca. 300 – 133 BC), the former harbour city of the Hellenistic power Pergamon. To reach this goal, a pollen chart based on a sediment core retrieved from the nowadays completely silted-up closed harbour basin of Elaia was established. Altogether 11 radiocarbon age estimates rendered a robust chronostratigraphy for the 9 m long sediment core. The palynological record provides insight into the vegetation dynamics and the long-term human impacts on terrestrial and lagoon ecosystems of the Bay of Elaia since prehistorical times. Around 7500 years ago, the landscape was covered with open oak forests, which later experienced several phases of deforestation, alternating with natural forest recovery phases. Around 850 BC, intensification of land-use is evidenced by the appearance of olive groves, agriculture, arboriculture, increased pasture pressure, and soil erosion. The strongest human impact is documented during the time when Elaia's harbour was in full operation. This phase of very intensive land-use and possibly over-use of the ecosystems lasted for more than 1500 years. It seems to have led to a change in the climax plant communities from open oak forests to an even more open vegetation and pine forest. Humans influenced the lagoon-like ecosystem considerably when the so-called closed harbour was constructed with two prominent breakwaters around 260 BC. This led to a destruction of marine habitats and the local disappearance of Posidonia, while Elaia's harbour experienced eutrophication, changing dinocyst and foraminifer communities. The occurrence of eggs of human intestinal parasites in the sediments hints to the use of the harbour as a sewer for the city. Marine contacts with the Black Sea are attested by the detection of the Black Sea endemic species Peridinium ponticum. Overall, we suggest that humans were the major factor of environmental changes during the last 3000 years in Elaia and especially during the city's flourishing periods in Hellenistic and Roman times.
Projektbezogene Publikationen (Auswahl)
- (2013): Taken from the sea, reclaimed by the sea - The fate of the closed harbour of Elaia, the maritime satellite city of Pergamum (Turkey). – Quaternary International 312, 70-83
Seeliger, M., Bartz, M., Erkul, E., Feuser, S., Kelterbaum, D., Klein, C., Pirson, F., Vött, A., Brückner, H.
(Siehe online unter https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2013.03.004) - (2016). The harbour of Elaia: A palynological archive for human/environmental interactions during the last 7500 years. – Quaternary Science Reviews 149, 167-187
Shumilovskikh, L.S., Seeliger, M., Feuser, S., Novenko, E., Schlütz, F., Pint, A., Pirson, F., Brückner, H.
(Siehe online unter https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2016.07.014)
