The Black Sea Flood Question: Changes in Coastline, Climate, and Human Settlement

This paper reconstructs sea-level fluctuations and coastline migration in the northwestern part of the Black Sea for the last 18 ky using high-resolution lithological-genetic analysis of shelf sediments. The analysis includes study of geomechanical and geochemical properties (textures, grain size, Corg, CaCO3, pore water salinity and chemical composition, density, bulk density, water content, liquid limit, void ratio, and shear strength). The author's tech- nique allows the rhythmic variations of geomechanical and geochemical properties to be used as a basis for reconstructing oscillating sea-level changes and coastline migration, which is demonstrated in three exemplary cores recovered in Karkinitsky Bay and th e Dnieper Paleovalley, both on the Black Sea's northwestern shelf. Sedimentary episodes attributable to Shnitnikov's climatic (humidity) cycles have been revealed during the intervals between calendar years 1415, 551, 336, 286, 214, 169, and 136. Based on the length of these cycles, the mean sedimentation rate in Karkinitsky Bay is estimated as 0.34-0.51 mm/y, and in the Dniepe r Paleovalley, 0.29-0.36 mm/y. The coastline migrated from ~ -90 m (ca. 18 ky BP) to ~ -30 m (ca. 12 ky BP), and then to ~ -20 m (9.5-9.2 ky BP), when the first penetration of Mediter- ranean water and its biota occurred. The Holocene transgression occurred in an oscillating manner with 'centennial' regression-transgression cycles, each lasting 1600-2000 years. The suggested technique of lithological-genetic analysis and the model of sedimentogenesis provide a basis for forecasting future sea-level changes, coastline migration, and sedimentogenesis on the northwestern shelf.

Paleogeographic reconstructions of sea-level change and coastline migration on the northwestern Black Sea shelf over the past 18 kyr

There are two porpoise stocks in the northern Black Sea: the north-western (Odessa Gulf) and northeastern (Crimean and Caucasian waters); in addition, another stock is in the Sea of Azov. The Azov porpoises are distinct in their body size and biology. This research was conducted on the skulls of stranded sexually mature porpoises from the north-eastern Black Sea, north-western Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. In the north-eastern Black Sea samples, both present-day and old-time, the sexual dimorphism of the skull size was not significant, whereas in the Sea of Azov the females were significantly larger than males. The Azov skulls were strongly different from those from the Black Sea: they were larger, proportionally wider and had the wider rostra; also, there was no significant chronological variation within the Black Sea. The Azov and Black Sea samples were classified with the 100 % success with four variables. The northwestern Black Sea skulls were somewhat intermediate in their characteristics between the Azov and northeastern Black Sea samples, but they were classify ed together with other Black Sea specimens. The difference between the Azov and Black Sea skulls was greater than between many North Atlantic populations, despite the extreme geographical proximity of the two stocks. The low variation within the Black Sea supports the earlier conclusions on the lack of genetic variation: all the Black Sea stocks are expected to be genetically similar sub-populations, whereas the Azov and Marmara stocks possibly represent the genetically distant populations. The porpoises from the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov equally show the traits which characterize the subspecies Phocoena phocoena relicta, but the Black Sea porpoises appear to be more paedomorphic in terms of ontogenetic trajectories.

From Mare Clausum to Mare LiberumBlack Sea Diplomacy in the Era of Russo-Ottoman Duopoly Kahraman Şakul (bio) The central thesis of this article is that conventional historiography misrepresents the transformation of the Black Sea as an internationalization of a closed sea through great-power diplomacy (i.e., the "Eastern Question paradigm") and the incorporation of an isolated space through the conquest of European capitalism. The Black Sea has also not received due attention from global historians, who tend to reduce changes in the Black Sea region to the perennial question of the Straits as part of the Eastern Question and their inevitable incorporation into the world economy through Russian grain exports.1 Since the 1970s, historians have tended to avoid using the term "Eastern Question," considering it a Eurocentric reduction of the Ottoman Empire and its peoples to passive recipients of power politics conducted by the great powers. A glance at the list of potential catalysts of the Eastern Question—ranging from the Turks' penetration of the Balkan Peninsula to the French expedition to Egypt—reveals that the term has been stretched to its limits in an attempt to explain the entire history of the relations between Europe and the Turks. By the centenary of World War I, however, there is an increasing interest in the legacies of the Eastern Question paradigm.2 These legacies are [End Page 701] becoming ever more perceptible in recent Russian interventions in Georgia and Crimea, recurrent ethnic conflict, and occasional debates over the status of the Straits. Such legacies prompt historians to reevaluate the problem as one originating in the Russian-Ottoman borderlands.3 The emergence of Russia as a great power in the 1770s after it stripped the northern shores of the Black Sea from the Ottoman Empire and initiated the partitions of Poland-Lithuania accounted for much of the Eastern Question as understood over time. Writing in 1897, Max Choublier "found the root of the problem in the eighteenth-century 'decline' of the Ottoman Empire in the Black Sea," and explained other "questions" in the Ottoman Balkans, Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt as spiraling outward from this core; he warned his readers to expect a potential Muslim reaction in the near future.4 This article attempts to understand Black Sea history in its own terms as a zone of human interaction and explains its place in the global rivalries of the age. The focus is on Russia's importance in the erosion of Ottoman domination of the Black Sea and Ottoman control of the so-called capitulations. The article thus challenges the view that the capitulatory regime of the Ottomans lasted without interruption until 1914 because of the introduction of the principle of irrevocability in the Franco-Ottoman 1740 capitulations. The Ottomans followed Byzantine precedence in the capitulation agreements regarding foreign navigation in the Black Sea, but the relevant clause remained effectively defunct for most of the early modern era. Gradual elimination of foreign navigation made the Black Sea an Ottoman preserve for centuries, although it is misleading to view it as a "Turkish lake." The idea of mare clausum (closed sea), however, denoted a policy (effective control of a space) rather than a physical reality (physical isolation of a space). Following Brătianu's Braudelian approach to the Black Sea, discussed below, one may claim that "the Russians play the role of the Mongols (a strong political entity established on the northern shore of the Black Sea and its hinterland); the Ottomans play the role of the Byzantines (a stable empire established on the straits of the Bosporus and Dardanelles); and the British, French, and Austrians play the role of the Italian city-states (European states engaged, [End Page 702] politically and economically, in the Black Sea region)," as succinctly observed by Robarts.5 The relations between Russia and the Ottoman Empire on the northern tier after 1774 resulted in the creation of "a 60-year Ottoman-Russian duopoly" shaped by as much cooperation as competition across the Black Sea.6 The Black Sea trade was a top priority for the riparian powers. By contrast, the capitulatory powers' quest for rights of navigation in the Black Sea aimed at...

In 1997, two marine geologists proposed geologic evidence for a catastrophic Black Sea flood 8400 years ago inspiring the biblical story of Noah9s flood. Now, a torrent of new research is coming down hard on any Black Sea flood.

It is sometimes claimed that the Black Sea is the most degraded sea in the world (see e.g. Griffin 1993). Whatever the merits and grounds for such statements, it is clear that the Black Sea has undergone dramatic and probably irreversible environmental change since the 1960s. The years around 1990 saw important turning points both in environment and governance. Hypoxia events were at their most extreme, and new species and overfishing brought dramatic changes to the ecosystem, together resulting in overall ecosystem regime change. At the same time the USSR and the Warsaw Pact disintegrated and a series of new Black Sea states emerged, opening the way for regional cooperation on the Black Sea environment. Yet, the geopolitical situation around the Black Sea remains diffuse and tense, constraining regional cooperation on environmental issues. Recent enlargement of the EU to the shores of the Black Sea has further changed the context for management of Black Sea environmental issues.1 What is now the character of Black Sea marine governance? To what extent is the current governance structure of the Black Sea able to tackle environmental issues of the sea? What role does the EU play in Black Sea marine governance and can the EU and other supra-national bodies contribute to strengthened environmental management of the Black Sea? To what extent has Black Sea regionalization around environmental issues been successful? A relevant policy related issue is whether a strategic choice to focus on Black Sea regional cooperation on environmental issues, being ‘soft’, fosters or stimulates regional integration. Or is successful cooperation on marine environmental issues difficult to achieve without the existence of deeper political cooperation and integration, without a lessening of geopolitical tension and the emergence of ‘bottom up’ regionalization?

The "Black Sea region", widely defined as the area covered by the eleven states participating in the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Area BSEC and the main states around the Caspian Sea, Kazakhstan and Türkmenistan, became one of the new scopes rediscovered within the realities of the post-Cold War period. In the Black Sea and Caspian regions, the strategic interests of the global actors form a complex picture vvith the economic interests of multinational companies, the national interests of regional powers as well as traditional international security alignments and domestic politics. Active participation in the contemporary "Great Game" around the Caspian oil is an important challenge for each state of this region in search of developing its own foreign and security policy priorities. This article aims to analyse the different points of view on the concept of the "Black Sea Security Zone

Quantitative paleotemperature reconstructions of the Holocene are crucial for understanding the evolution of the climate system in response to various natural and anthropogenic forcings and shed further light on the so-called “Holocene temperature conundrum” (Liu et al., 2014). In the eastern Mediterranean – Black Sea (EMBS) region, records of Holocene temperature variations in continental interiors are predominately based on palynological reconstructions, specifically, pollen records from lake and peat sediments (e.g., Davis et al., 2003). However, vegetation was severely compromised by human activities since the mid-Holocene period and possibly even earlier (e.g., Fyfe et al., 2018) causing uncertainties regarding the general temperature development over the course of the Holocene. In contrast to these biological paleoclimate archives, quantitative paleotemperature reconstructions can be provided by speleothem fluid inclusions (e.g., Affolter et al., 2019; Bernal-Wormull et al., 2025). Speleothems from Sofular Cave in northern Türkiye are known to be highly sensitive to climatic shifts on orbital to decadal timescales (Fleitmann et al., 2009; Held et al., 2024, 2025), making them an excellent archive for recording Holocene low-amplitude climate change.Temperature estimates based on fluid inclusion isotope analysis average 11.7 ± 2.6°C for the mid- to late-Holocene period, which is almost identical with the modern cave air temperature of 11.8 ± 0.2°C. Overall, temperatures decrease by approximately 1.5°C from the mid- to late-Holocene (~7 ka – 3 ka BP), most likely related to orbital forcing and altering atmospheric circulation patterns in the EMBS region. The Sofular speleothem record also captures distinct temperature minima associated with the 4.2 ka event and the Little Ice Age. Both time intervals are characterized by a cooling of around 1-3°C within decades, although they differ in hydrological conditions, exhibiting wetter conditions during the 4.2 ka event and a dry period during the Little Ice Age in the Black Sea region. ReferencesAffolter et al., 2019: Central Europe temperature constrained by speleothem fluid inclusion water isotopes over the past 14,000 years, Science Advances, 5.Bernal-Wormull et al., 2025: Temperature variability in southern Europe over the past 16,500 years constrained by speleothem fluid inclusion water isotopes, Climate of the Past, 21, 1235-1261.Davis et al., 2003: The temperature of Europe during the Holocene reconstructed from pollen data, Quaternary Science Reviews, 22, 1701-1716.Fleitmann et al., 2009: Timing and climatic impact of Greenland interstadials recorded in stalagmites from northern Turkey, Geophysical Research Letters, 36 (19), L19707.Fyfe et al., 2018: Trajectories of change in Mediterranean Holocene vegetation through classification of pollen data, Vegetation History and Archaeobotany, 27, 351-364.Held et al., 2025: Hydrological variability in the Black Sea region during the last 670,000 years recorded in multi-proxy speleothem records from northern Türkiye, Quaternary Science Reviews, 367, 109534.Held et al., 2024: Dansgaard-Oeschger cycles of the penultimate and last glacial period recorded in stalagmites from Türkiye, Nature communications, 15(1), 1183.Liu et al., 2014: The Holocene temperature conundrum, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111(34), E3501-E3505.

In the last few years, attention of world think tanks to the development of the Black Sea region has increased significantly, which is mirrored in the materials of the American, European and Turkish expert and analytical communities. The authors of the research aim to identify and explore the main approaches to the formation of various geopolitical configurations of the Black Sea region in the discourse of Western and Turkish think tanks as well as the policies of the powers. The methodological basis of the study comprises the systemic, geopolitical and discursive approaches. The methods of discourse analysis are used to interpret the materials of foreign analytical centers devoted to the study of the problems in the region. The analysis of expert and analytical reports revealed the key recommendations of foreign think tanks that can be considered as possible further steps by the United States and its allies in the Black Sea region: (1) strengthening the military presence of the United States and NATO in the region; (2) building effective communication with Türkiye in order to dilute the existing regime of the Black Sea Straits; (3) achieving active cooperation of the Black Sea states with Washington, Brussels, Berlin, London and Paris in order to draw attention to the Black Sea region and its strategic importance; (4) strengthening the position of the West in the Black Sea region through influencing minds and hearts of the population through the dissemination of universal values; (5) expulsion of Russia from the Black Sea region through the reduction of the Russian naval presence in the Black Sea.

Preface Dimitrios Triantaphyllou 1. The Security Paradoxes of the Black Sea Region Dimitrios Triantaphyllou 2. Geopolitics, (sub)Regionalism, Discourse and a Troubled 'Power Triangle' in the Black Sea Yannis Tsantoulis 3. Towards a Comprehensive Regional Security Framework in the Black Sea Region after the Russia-Georgia War Oksana Antonenko 4. Geographical Blessing versus Geopolitical Curse: Great Power Security Agendas for the Black Sea Region and a Turkish Alternative Mustafa Aydin 5. The Impact of the Caucasus Crisis on Regional and European Security Nadia Alexandrova-Arbatova 6. The United States and Security in the Black Sea Region Stephen F. Larrabee 7. Russian and European Neighbourhood Policies Compared Andrew Wilson and Nicu Popescu 8. The European Union and Security in the Black Sea Region after the Georgia Crisis Sabine Fischer 9. Black Sea Security as a Regional Concern for the Black Sea States and the Global Powers Sergiy Glebov 10. Ukraine Needs to Decide its Strategic Alignment Jeffrey Simon

Anaximander of Miletus, Hecataeus of Miletus and Scylax of Caryanda, representatives of the Archaic Ionian scholarship, were the earliest Greek geographers (6th century B.C.). The philosopher Anaximander drew the first map (still very schematic one); the historian Hecataeus improved this map towards more detailed elaboration and also wrote the first periegesis (“Description of the Earth”); the seafarer Scylax was the author of the first periplus (although at such an early stage of development of Greek prose literature the genres of periegesis and periplus still had little difference between each other). The article deals with extant data of these writers on the Black Sea and adjacent regions. To be true, there is no such information in Anaximander’s fragments, and rather little in Scylax’s ones (mainly on the area of the Straits); but Hecataeus’ fragments contain it in abundance. That author’s geographical treatise was a virtually exhaustive description of lands known at his time, surely including coasts of the Black Sea and the nearby Azov Sea. Hecataeus measured the size of the Black Sea (at the map rather than “in nature”). It is he who is likely to have for the first time used the famous and very popular in antiquity image of the Pontus as a Scythian bow. Of interest is the question where in the Black Sea region the scholar drew the border between Europe and Asia; the article gives arguments in favour of the opinion that for him the border was not the Don River, as later in Herodotus, but the Kuban River. Meanwhile, the territory that is now the Taman Peninsula (it was an island in antiquity) belonged to Asia according to Hecataeus. In the “Description of the Earth”, there is the first in the narrative tradition evidence on Phanagoria – one of the most significant Greek colonies at the territory of Russia, later the second in importance center of the Bosporan Kingdom. Amazons are localized by Hecataeus near the Thermodon River rather than in the Northern Black Sea Region, as Herodotus and Hellanicus later did.

Coastal areas and related sedimentary environments are remarkable providers of valuable information about climatic changes and sea level oscillations. Lake Mert was formed as a shallow Black Sea coastal lagoon that contains various mixtures of marine and freshwater sources. This study presents sedimentological, geochemical and paleontological analyses of five sediment cores recovered from the lake which has been severely influenced by sea level change and local climate over the last 6.5 cal. ka BP. The environmental and climatic records obtained by multi-proxy analyses of the cores (µ-XRF, total organic carbon, stable isotope, pollen analysis and foram content) that are confidently correlated with other regional and global climate signals. In addition, Lake Mert also remains a challenge to identify and quantify dynamic changes in time on the coastal plain, thus, it possibly reflects hydrologic changes in the Black Sea since the middle Holocene. Analysis of lithology together with paleontological content of the studied cores reveal three main depositional units, each of them indicates varying areal facies distribution due to highly dynamic depositional settings in lake. Accordingly, the main lithofacies in the cores from bottom to top are defined as a relict lacustrine sediment older than 6.5 cal. ka BP (Unit 3), coastal and deltaic facies deposited between 6.5 to 4.5 cal. ka BP (Unit 2) and the younger lagoon-marine sediment (Unit 1).Moreover, the correlation of well-dated sedimentological and geochemical proxies with the sea level and sea surface salinity records from the Black Sea allows us differentiate various phases of hydrologic changes due to connections with the Lake Mert during the middle-to-late Holocene. Our preliminary results suggest that the relict Mert Lake was first invaded by the Black Sea waters prior to 6.5 cal. ka BP, and then remained its fully connection until ~5.3 cal. ka BP due to subsequent inflow of the Mediterranean Sea via Bosporus. Furthermore, the decelerated sea level rise between 5.3 and 4.5 cal. ka BP gave rise to return semi-closed lagoon phase, restricting mixture with the Black Sea waters as inferred from stable oxygen isotope record. The later period, particularly after 3.5 cal. ka BP, was associated with more Euryhaline condition in the lake based on the paleontological content of the core sediment. The local climate changes are recorded in Lake Mert as a wet period between 6.5 and 4.5 cal. ka BP, a dry period between 4.5 and 2.9 cal. ka BP and wetter period after 2.9 cal. ka BP, respectively.

Holocene sea level and climate change in the Black Sea: Multiple marine incursions related to freshwater discharge events

The ichthyofauna of the Black Sea is comparatively poor and includes about 200 species (Boltacev 2003). The gobiid fishes (Actinopterygii: Gobiidae) are a large group of approximated by 28 species inhabiting coastal habitats of the Black Sea (Miller 1986, Smirnov 1986, Rass 1993). Five Black-Sea gobiid species are important commercially (Smirnov 1986) and they have also been targeted by anglers. In the north-western Black Sea (NWBS), gobiids can be found in different salinities ranging from fresh water (0.5‰ salinity off the Dniester River mouth) to full-salinity sea water (30‰–35‰ in the Tuzly group of lagoons). These fish make up two groups according to their origin: 1) Ponto-Caspian relict species that are endemics of the Sarmatic and Pontic basins; typical representatives of this group are: Mesogobius batrachocephalus (Pallas, 1811); ACTA ICHTHYOLOGICA ET PISCATORIA (2005) 35 (2): 103–110

A survey of open-air sites in NW Turkey identified 16 Palaeolithic sites. Analysis of nearly 2000 lithics identified Lower, Middle, and Early Upper Palaeolithic (EUP) components. The Lower Palaeolithic is represented by a core-chopper/flake assemblage at one site and an assemblage with small bifaces at another. Middle Palaeolithic assemblages similar to the typical Balkan Mousterian were found at most sites, and an EUP assemblage similar to the Balkan Aurignacian was found on the Black Sea coast. Later Upper Palaeolithic cultures, e.g., Gravettian or Epigravettian, were not found. Palaeolithic sites were also not found in Turkish Thrace west of Büyük Çekmece, and a palaeoenvironmental barrier, perhaps a channel connecting the Marmara and Black Seas, may have existed before the Bosphorus was opened in the Holocene. A difference in the distribution of Lower-Middle Palaeolithic sites and EUP sites was also noted. EUP sites are clustered on the Black Sea coast while earlier sites are found in the interior and on the shores of the Sea of Marmara. This change in settlement pattern may support a hypothesis of cultural change between the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic and perhaps the replacement hypothesis for the peopling of Europe by early modern humans.