Coastal societies hold a vital place in Mediterranean history; many of their earliest trajectories, however, are archaeologically obscure due to a rise in sea levels since the last Ice Age. BEFOREtheFLOOD is based on an observation that before it was inundated, the Mediterranean littoral was extremely dynamic (e.g. formation/retreat of marshes, increased soil salinity, rapidly rising sea levels), necessitating constant reactions by its inhabitants. This project study how Neolithic coastal societies in the Eastern Mediterranean pioneered cultural responses to environmental changes, and how these enabled the development of Mediterranean complex societies. The earliest known Mediterranean coastal settlements and their paleo-landscapes, now situated offshore along the Carmel Coast, Israel, are studied by drilling sediment cores and through underwater excavations, followed by microscopic and chemical analysis in the laboratory that integrate geoarchaeology, bioarchaeology and paleoenvironmental reconstructions. The project's novelty lies in its approach to generate a high-resolution diachronic model of how hyper-localized environmental dynamics are directly related to archaeological evidence of adaptive solutions. The project tests how Neolithic coastal communities constantly re-adapted to dynamic environmental processes over time by modifying their environment, and developing new technologies and social interactions that fostered the establishment of a unique Mediterranean coastal society. BEFOREtheFLOOD elucidates an important and as-yet unread chapter of a world now lost beneath the sea; one that will help to rewrite the early story of the Eastern Mediterranean coast as the springboard for innovation, adaptation, and connectivity that set the scene for the development of later Mediterranean complex societies.
