Coping with marsh floods and fires: Resilience at the pile-dwelling site of Dispilio, Northwestern Greece

Abstract

Lacustrine environments are considered favorable locations for Neolithic settlements, constituting a reliable year-round water resource, which contributes to fertile arable land, rich biodiversity, and natural protection. Living by the wetlands, however, is characterized by intensive ecological vulnerabilities, that is, floods and fire events. These recurrent episodes are difficult to trace in the occupation layers since natural processes combined with human activities can form variable mixed microenvironments. Consequently, the direct impact of these events on the biography of the settlement and the decision-making of its inhabitants is understudied. This paper presents a high-resolution, microstratigraphic analysis at the Neolithic pile-dwelling settlement of Dispilio (Kastoria, northern Greece) to trace past ecological threats and unravel the resilience strategies of the lake-dwellers against the continuously altered microenvironments. By correlating the results with regional environmental and cultural events, this paper questions the role of environmental changes as triggers for cultural modifications and considers a wide range of strategies for coping with wetland hazards.