study day : Man faced with natural risks in antiquity: fatalism, adaptation, resilience
MSH Bordeaux, December 16, 2022

“Swallowed by water and sand, ancient witnesses of adaptation and risks on the Aquitaine coast (France)”
Camille Culioli, Bordeaux-Montaigne University, Sorbonne-Université, UMR 5607, Ausonius, camille.culioli[at ]u-bordeaux-montaigne.fr
Florence Verdin, research fellow, CNRS, Bordeaux-Montaigne University, UMR 5607, Ausonius, Florence.Verdin[at]u-bordeaux-montaigne.fr

Keywords: Adaptation, risks, coastline, geoarchaeology, Aquitaine

Made up of a mosaic of environments, the Aquitaine coastline offers multiple resources (salt, fishery products, resin) as well as spaces conducive to the development of communication networks (bay, channels, estuary). Taking advantage of these advantages, protohistoric and ancient societies established themselves there, temporarily or permanently. However, these environments have experienced profound changes and societies have thus been exposed to risks such as silting, erosion or submersion. These constraints must have put pressure on coastal communities who had to develop means to maintain their occupation, adjust, or even recover from these risks. The question then arises of the vulnerability of societies and their capacity to adapt. By combining the archaeological and environmental archives revealed naturally by current erosion, this geoarchaeological analysis aims to retrace the major trajectories of adaptation on the Aquitaine coast and their modalities over two study windows (the beaches of Nord-Médoc and the Pilat dune). By placing current adaptation within long-term trends, it is possible to propose a reflection on the capacity to adapt to current and future risks and environmental changes.