Geoarchaeological Indicators for Sea Level Research and Paleogeographic Reconstruction

A special issue of Geosciences (ISSN 2076-3263).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 March 2021) | Viewed by 5001

Special Issue Editors


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Department of Earth and Geo-Environmental Sciences, University of Bari “Aldo Moro”, 70121 Bari, BA, Italy
Interests: relative sea level changes; coastal geomorphology and flooding risk; geoarchaeology; coastal tectonics; coastal karst evolution
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Guest Editor
Istituto Di Geologia Ambientale E Geoingegneria (IGAG) CNR, 00185 Rome, Italy
Interests: coastal geomorphology; relative sea level change; sea flooding risk for the future
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Archaeological sites located along the coastal area can provide significant information on relative sea-level change during the last millennia using man-made coastal structures whose successful functioning requires a precisely defined relationship to sea level at time of construction. Some of these structures offer relevant information useful to reconstruct ancient coastlines and paleogeographic scenarios. Although most of the recent researches focused on Mediterranean Sea, that constitutes a unique basin from an historical and archaeological point of view, as it has been a privileged way of communication for thousands of years for the people that dwelled on its shores, analyses of archaeological structures located in different basin could provide new insights on relative sea-level change during the last millennia. This special issue aims to highlight recent progress in coastal geo-archaeology with particular attention to: i) description of new sites especially outside Mediterranean basin, ii) new methodologies of data gathering and analyses, iii) improvements on methodological debate related to the possibility to use archaeological sites for the evaluation of sea-level change during the last millennia, iv) new survey technologies for the analyses of archaeological remains, v) remote sensing, GIS analyses and definition of DataBase of the most important sites.

Dr. Giovanni Scicchitano
Dr. Fabrizio Antonioli
Guest Editors

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

26 pages, 10658 KiB  
Article
Archaeological and Natural Indicators of Sea-Level and Coastal Changes: The Case Study of the Caesarea Roman Harbor
by Ehud Galili, Amos Salamon, Gil Gambash and Dov Zviely
Geosciences 2021, 11(8), 306; https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences11080306 - 23 Jul 2021
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 4026
Abstract
Archaeological and geomorphological features, as well as traces left by tsunamis, earthquakes, and vertical earth-crust displacements, are used to identify sea-level and coastal changes. Such features may be displaced, submerged or eroded by natural processes and human activities. Thus, identifying ancient sea levels [...] Read more.
Archaeological and geomorphological features, as well as traces left by tsunamis, earthquakes, and vertical earth-crust displacements, are used to identify sea-level and coastal changes. Such features may be displaced, submerged or eroded by natural processes and human activities. Thus, identifying ancient sea levels and coastal changes associated with such processes may be controversial and often leads to misinterpretations. We exemplify the use of sediment deposits and sea-level and coastline indicators by discussing the enigmatic demise of the Roman harbor of Caesarea, one of the greatest marine constructions built in antiquity, which is still debated and not fully understood. It was suggested that the harbor destruction was mainly the result of either tectonic subsidence associated with a local, active fault line, or as a result of an earthquake/tsunami that struck the harbor. Here we examine and reassess the deterioration of the harbor in light of historical records, and geological, geomorphological and archaeological studies of natural and man-made features associated with the harbor. We show that the alleged evidence of an earthquakes or tsunami-driven damage to the outer breakwaters is equivocal. There is no supporting evidence for the assumed tectonic, active fault, nor is there a reliable historic account of such a catastrophic destruction. It is suggested that geo-technic failure of the breakwater’s foundations caused by a series of annual winter storms was the main reason for the destruction and ultimate collapse of the western basin of the harbor. The breakwaters were constructed on unconsolidated sand that was later washed away by storm waves and sea currents that frequently hit the Israeli coast and undercut the breakwaters. The pounding effect of the waves could have contributed to the destruction by scouring and liquefying the sandy seabed underlying the foundations. Tsunamis that may have hit Caesarea could have added to the deterioration of the breakwaters, but did not constitute the main cause of its destruction. Full article
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