5 th International Symposium on Eastern Mediterranean Geology Thessaloniki, Greece, 14-20 April 2004 Archaeological and environmental changes in northern Greece since the Neolithic: a multi- scalar approach Lespez L. 1 , Malamidou D. 2 , Papadopoulos S. 2 & Davidson R. 1 1 GEOPHEN-UMR LETG 6554 CNRS, Department of Geography, University of Caen Lower Normandy, Esplanade de la Paix, BP 5186, 14032, Caen cedex, France, laurent.lespez@geo.unicaen.fr, davidson@geo.unicaen.fr 2 18 th Ephoreia of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities, 17 Erythrou Stavrou Str., Kavala, Greece, d.malamidou@free.fr, strapapa@in.gr Keywords: Geoarchaeology, human practices, palaeohydrology, small scale, regional landscapes Introduction Holocene environmental changes have been investigated in numerous region of Greece. Re- cent researches compare indicators of geomorphological and palaeoecological changes, de- tailed archaeological surveys and, more rarely, historical studies. They give evidence of both climatic and anthropogenic control and demonstrate that the environmental changes since the Neolithic are not synchronous in all the Aegean area. Nevertheless, the results of these re- searches are still difficult to compare because they used different scale of analysis: small area around archaeological site (e. g. Van Andel et al., 1995; Lespez, 2000), alluvial fan, small val- ley bottom, coastal plain (e. g. Van Andel et al., 1990; Maas et al., 1999; Pope et al., 2003) or large river and their deltaic area (e. g. Bintliff, 1977; Van Andel et al., 1990; Fouache, 1999). It give arguments in Greece, and in the Mediterranean area as a whole, for multi-scalar ap- proach which integrates small scale studies around archaeological sites and medium scale analyses which attempt to make the connection between regional environmental changes, settlement history and land use practices evolution (Leveau et al., 1999). The objective of the research conducted in Northern Greece is to determine, at different scale, the part of the hu- man activities and the climatic oscillations or event in the environmental changes and to un- derstand operate links between the different scales within the environmental system. The fo- cus of the following study is North-Eastern Greece which is as yet less known than the Southern and Central part of the country. More specifically, the analysis and discussion is based on the first results of investigations in eastern Macedonia from the island of Thasos, to the east, to the Strymon valley, to the west. Methodology The research is based on geoarchaeological investigations at small scale mainly around sites under excavation from the Neolithic to Late Roman periods and at regional scale (Drama ba- sin, island of Thasos, Lower Angithis and Strymon valleys) in relation with settlement history studies. The geomorphological researches are well advanced in the basin of Drama (Lespez, 2003) and in the Island of Thasos (Lespez and Papadopoulos, in press) and in progress in the lower Strymon valley. Fieldwork has been conducted to establish the Holocene sediment distribution and stratigraphy. As the Holocene deposits are only well exposed along eroded river banks sections, we adopted the method of drilling holes with a soil auger (1-4 m) and of the mechanical shovel trenches to perform the knowledge of the seashore and continental Holocene deposits. Laboratory work (grain-size distribution, micromorphological analyses) Ref: T9-7