3 - Geoarcheological Study of the Kota Cina Site (North Sumatra, Indonesia)

Abstract

The geoarchaeological study of Kota Cina is a pioneering work in Sumatra. It questions the environmental changes involving the position of the site in relation to the current coastline and the variables underlying these transformations. A geomorphological approach is used to define the chronostratigraphy, completed by a phytolith survey to specify changes in the plant cover. The study suggests that before the eleventh century CE, Kota Cina was covered by a volcano-sedimentary sequence devoid of phytoliths, associated with a fluvial reworking of the volcanic hinterland. From the eleventh century, the area evolved into a marshy estuarine land cut by channels and covered by a palm tree mangrove and dense forest. Between the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the site was settled and silted up by deposits inputs from the hinterland. The vegetation became more diversified with the appearance of cultivated plants. After the fourteenth century, the landscape opened in a more terrestrial environment due to intensification of siltation, linked to the clearings of the hinterland for various types of plantations