New Data on the Postglacial Development of Narva-Luga Klint Bay (eastern Gulf of Finland): Results of Geoarchaeological Research

This paper presents the first results of geological and geoarchaeological multi-proxy studies conducted from 2012 to 2017 in the northern part of Narva-Luga Klint Bay (between the Kurgalov and Kurovitski Plateaus). A detailed geological study using ground-penetrating radar (GPR), drilling, outcrops description and sampling revealed a previously unknown accumulative landform (the Kuzemkino “palaeospit”). The GPR data set indicates that the accretion form is a polygenic, steeply inclined glaciofluvial delta foreset, which was formed during the Pandivere stage of deglaciation as a result of consistent discharges of huge amounts of sediment materials from the melting ice-sheet and arriving from the south, west, north-west and south-west. The foreset was formed within a relatively shallow (approximately 20 m) ice-dammed lake, which did not have an outlet in the south-western direction during that time period. In the Holocene, the foreset became a source of sediment for the development of the largest accretion form of Narva-Luga Klint Bay – the Kudruküla Spit. During the maximal level of the Littorina transgression, the Kuzemkino landform was a peninsula or an island. A relatively long-term stabilization of the sea level apparently occurred at 8.5 m a.s.l. The beach and submarine sand ridges formed during this time interval were subsequently unaffected by marine transgressions and were preserved as relict forms in the relief. The Kuzemkino landform was settled by ancient peoples after the Littorina maximum. There is evidence that the settlers’ long-term subsistence strategy was based on the combined exploitation of coastal and forest resources.