Landslides and Fortified Settlements as Valuable Cultural Geomorphosites and Geoheritage Sites in the Moldavian Plateau, North-Eastern Romania

Today, as in the past, people living in hilly and mountainous regions have had to face the consequences of mass movement processes. Archaeological remains are important elements of cultural heritage, which can be significantly affected by landslides in different environmental settings and landscape evolution phases. In the Eastern Carpathians lowlands, landslides have shaped a landscape with inaccessible escarpments tens of metres high, providing ancient populations with naturally defensive sites at which to build their fortified settlements. In this study, we present a unique geoarchaeological context, the case of Chalcolithic and Thraco-Getic (6.5 ka BP to 2500 BP) fortified settlements, for which landslides provided a favorable geomorphologic setting for their construction. At the same time, however, landslides reamin as a permanent threat to the archaeological sites. In the Moldavian Plateau, North-Eastern Romania, more than 35 sites were identified on structural plateaus bounded by wide scarps of Pleistocene to Lower Holocene landslides, on cuesta ridges bounded by scarps of Holocene landslides, or situated on hillslopes, on erosional remnants of very old landslide bodies. For nine out of the 35 sites, we discuss and evaluate the geomorphosite status according to an indirect method developed by mixing a variety of methodologies illustrated in the literature, and we classify them as geomorphosites and specifically as cultural geomorphosites. The complex geomorphological, paleogeographical, and archaeological value of these proposed geosites allow us to argue for their geoheritage status. This situation requires a detailed analysis of landslide hazard and risk for these sites, since some have already been affected by landslides in the past, and especially when considering possible protection measures and actions to preserve and to include these geoheritage sites in the geotouristic networks of North-Eastern Romania.

Niculiţă, M., Mărgărint, M.C. Landslides and Fortified Settlements as Valuable Cultural Geomorphosites and Geoheritage Sites in the Moldavian Plateau, North-Eastern Romania. Geoheritage 10, 613–634 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12371-017-0261-0

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs12371-017-0261-0