Shallow subsurface geophysical investigation of a chalcolithic site within the Danube delta

Résumé En

Particularly on the western Black Sea coast, the embayment of the Danube Estuary, around 5.4 ky. BC, at a past sea level close to the present one (Lericolais et al., 2009), triggered the formation of the delta, whose entire evolution (delta lobs and coastline) was heavily influenced by the combined effects of the regional subsidence (-2 to-4 mm/y today), eustasy (+0.5-1.0 mm/y rise today) and the huge Danube's sedimentary discharge (over 50 mil. t/y in past). Thus, any prospective archaeo-cultural layer corresponding to Late Prehistory, located in past not too high above the sea level, could now be placed at a burial depth that exceed 4-5 m (Dimitriu, 2010) in this subsiding region, abundantly alluvia fed. ConclusionsThe first results of the study stress the good applicability of magnetometry in this environment, based on the clear contrasts of petrophysical properties existing below the surface. The importance of planning future, non-destructive geophysical mappings, also including other geophysical methods, i.e. GPR, electrometrics, etc., prior to any further archaeological work is also obvious.