Late Holocene palaeogeographical evolution of Paroikia Bay (Paros Island, Greece)

Although there is rich evidence for human occupation of Paros’ coastline, there is a dearth of data with regards to the evolution of the island's seaboard palaeoenvironments. In this paper, we use sedimentological and palaeontological proxies of late Holocene coastal deposits from lagoonal environment to reconstruct the evolution of coastal landscapes in Paroikia Bay (Paros Island, Greece). A semi-enclosed lagoon existed in the northeastern part of Paroikia from at least 2915–2551 BC, which was gradually infilled after around 780–436 BC. Although it was not possible to chronologically constrain the timing of the infill, it is most likely relatively young, indicating anthropogenic effects. A correlation of our chronostratigraphic data with archaeological remains and tidal notches in the study area suggests that the subsidence observed on Paros Island is linked to long-term subsidence in combination with vertical seismic displacements.