Abstract EN:

The Danube delta is the second largest delta in Europe, after the Volga delta. It is a unique ecological hotspot, being Europe’s largest wetland and reed bed. It has been introduced in the UNESCO World Heritage List since 1991. The Danube’s delta aquatic environment is characterised by various ecosystems, such as freshwater bodies and numerous brackish-water ecosystems. The mosaic-like morphology that we see today, defined in the western part of the delta by a flat area of fluvial and lagoonal origin, with a series of levees and in the south-eastern part by the presence of marine sand bars and coastal dunes, reflects a complex long-term evolutionary process. Tracking the evolution of the Danube delta is crucial in the context in which this landform was constantly inhabited since the Neolithic period. At a regional scale, the questions of Where, When and How have ancient societies transformed their deltaic environment are at the base of our research, and how,conversely, this environment restrained or favoured the evolution of these societies. In this respect, we long for distinguishing the spatial extent and the frequency of these changes by investigating archaeological sites located in key-positions. These sites held insights that could explain how the history and geomorphological environment of coastal civilisations were interconnected during the Holocene, in the context of deltaic zones. Six key-sites were studied: Noviodunum, Babadag, Enisala, Orgame, Caraburun and Istros. They are definitory for the fluvial domain (Noviodunum), fluvio-lagoonal (Babadag, Enisala), fluvio-maritime (Orgame), lagoonal (Caraburun) and maritime (Istros).