Abstract

The paper dealt with review of geoarchaeological data from the region of Kerch strait on the north-eastern part of Black sea littoral to evaluate the possibility to use them as indicators of sea level change and coastal evolution during the last 3,0 ka. Despite the wide presence of the submerged cultural remnants of the antique time on the coasts the principal constrains in the use of geoarchaeological indicators are related to disturbing of cultural layer due to wave and current and the scarcity of the port construction. The review of existed data set from various most detailed archaeological settlement on the shoreline of Kerch strait show that the depth of the present-day location of the submerged cultural layers antique time didn’t exceed 2.5-3.5 m below present. On the base of archaeological and geomorphological evidence the position of relative sea level in the I^th millennium BC – first half of the I^th millennium AD could be evaluated as 4.5-5.5 m below present. In the case of the co-presence of the antique and medieval cultural remnants the trace of slow sea level rise in the early I^th millennium AD could be detected. The received data on the sea level change provide the base for reconstruction of the rate and direction of the coastal dynamic during the last transgressive phase of the Black sea.