Geoarchaeology of Sidon's ancient harbours,Phoenicia

Geoarchaeological data from Sidon's ancient harbour areas elucidate six evolutionary phases since the Bronze Age. (1) At the time of Sidon's foundation, during the third millennium BC, medium sand facies show the city's northern and southern pocket beaches to have served as proto-harbours for Middle to Late Bronze Age societies. (2) Towards the end of the Late Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age, expanding international trade prompted coastal populations into modifying these natural anchorages. In Sidon's northern harbour, transition from shelly to fine-grained sands is the earliest granulometric manifestation of human coastal modification. The lee of Zire island was also exploited as a deep-water anchorage, or outer harbour, at this time. (3) Although localised sediments evoke developed port infrastructure during the Phoenician and Persian periods, high-resolution reconstruction of the northern harbour's Iron Age history is problematic given repeated dredging practices during the Roman and Byzantine periods. (4) Fine-grained silts and sands in the northern harbour are coeval with advanced Roman engineering works, significantly deforming the coastal landscape. Bio- and lithostratigraphical data attest a leaky lagoon type environment, indicative of a well-protected port. (5) The technological apogee of Sidon's northern harbour is recorded during the late Roman and Byzantine periods, translated stratigraphically by a plastic clays unit and brackish lagoon fauna. (6) A final semi-abandonment phase, comprising coarse sand facies, concurs silting up and a 100–150 m progradation of the port coastline after the seventh century AD. We advance three hypotheses to explain these stratigraphic data, namely cultural, tectonic and tsunamogenic. Finally, our results are compared and contrasted with research undertaken in Sidon's sister harbour, Tyre.     

The Hull of Yenikapı Shipwreck YK 11: a 7th‐century merchant vessel from Constantinople's Theodosian Harbour

YK 11, a small, heavily repaired merchantman, was one of 37 Byzantine shipwrecks excavated at Yenikap? in Istanbul, Turkey. This 7th‐century hull, abandoned in the harbour as a derelict, was studied by archaeologists from the Institute of Nautical Archaeology. Originally built with mortise‐and‐tenon edge joinery, the ship had undergone a series of significant repairs over its lifetime. Repairs included the replacement of planking as well as framing. Although the repaired vessel exhibits evidence of both shell‐first and skeleton‐first shipbuilding techniques, detailed study of the hull remains indicates that the ship was initially designed and built as a primarily shell‐based vessel.     

The Dor 2001/1 Shipwreck, Israel—a Summary of the Excavation

Dor 2001/1 was probably a Byzantine coaster carrying building stones, dated to the end of the 5th or beginning of the 6th century AD. No shell-first construction features were identified, specifically no kind of planking edge-joints; but instead all the essential components showed that it was a frame-based hull. Thus it is apparently among the earliest frame-based shipwrecks found so far in the Mediterranean.
© 2006 The Authors     

Galilee Blooming: First palynological and archaeological data from an Early Byzantine Cistern at Horvat Kur

Abstract

Preliminary archaeological and palynological results are presented from an early Byzantine cistern of the village Horvat Kur in eastern Lower Galilee/Israel. The rural site was settled from the Hellenistic until the Early Arab period, its synagogue was constructed shortly after 425 AD and renovated sometimes during the 2nd half of the 6th century AD. It was abandoned probably as a consequence of the earthquake of 749 AD. The intact and properly sealed cistern contained complete or fully restorable pottery. Two cooking pots from the early 5th century AD comprised sediments which was sampled for palynological purposes. Both samples, as well as a sample from the soil beneath one of the pots and a modern surface sample from the site, revealed well preserved palynomorphs in comparably high concentration showing a great potential of the cistern as a pollen archive. The pollen content points to an open, grassy semiarid landscape with an apparent scarcity of cultivars and trees in the vicinity of the site and an abundance of herbs, especially Asteraceae, which are still commonly found in modern regional vegetation.     

Byzantine–Early Islamic agricultural systems in the Negev Highlands: Stages of development as interpreted through OSL dating

Abstract

An extensive survey followed by OSL (optically stimulated luminescence) dating of loess accumulation in agricultural terraces at six Byzantine and Early Islamic sites in the Negev Highlands revealed clear stratigraphic and chronological sequences. Traditionally dated to the 1st–7th centuries a.d., results from the present study demonstrate that the construction and use of largescale agricultural systems took place in the 4th–11th centuries a.d. This new chronology provides the framework for a more precise interpretation of the circumstances of construction and demise of largescale agriculture in the Negev Highlands. The agricultural fields were exploited continuously, yet ancient farmers had to confront the environmental hazards of occasional intensive floods, successive years of drought, and a constant process of loess accumulation and erosion. The constant maintenance and repair of fields necessitated an investment of labor. However, it seems that the expansion of ancient agriculture was part of the natural growth and development of Byzantine settlements in the Negev, and not the outcome of planned government enterprise. The agricultural systems were abandoned in the course of the 11th century a.d. and sporadically reused by pastoral nomads.     

A Structural Analysis of The Chantry,Bridport, Dorset

STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS of the Chantry, Bridport before and during its restoration has revealed that it was constructed in the late 13th or early 14th century as a municipal building, probably associated with a harbour. In the later 14th century it was converted into a house for a chantry priest. The building was enlarged at this date by the addition of an attic storey which contains a columbarium.     

The Iron Age Maritime Interface at the South Bay of Tel Dor: results from the 2016 and 2017 excavation seasons

The aim of the Tel Dor joint Sea and Land Project is to reassess and expand understanding of the maritime interface of Iron Age Dor. During 2016 and 2017 five features excavated under water provided new data about the development and chronology of this interface. The results support a revised dating and interpretation of previously excavated structures and the identification of several new stone‐built coastal fortification and maritime features, dating to the Early Iron Age. A later phase of construction attributed to the 7th century BCE Assyrian period at Dor was also documented. The outcome of the excavation is the introduction of new aspects of the development of Dor in the Iron Age, including what is likely part of the Iron Age II city's harbour. This may encourage revisiting current views of harbour evolution in the eastern Mediterranean.     

Geoarchaeology of Tyre's ancient northern harbour,Phoenicia

Tyre's ancient northern harbour has been a source of scientific intrigue and debate for many centuries. Today an insignificant fishing harbour, looking north and sheltered from the dominant winds by a sandstone reef system, is all that remains of the famous Bronze Age, Phoenician, Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine anchorage havens. In light of this many scholars have long questioned whether the modern port corresponds to its counterpart in antiquity. Here, we provide litho- and biostratigraphical evidence for an ancient harbour approximately twice as large as the present, comprising the modern day harbour and city centre. Four distinct sedimentary units have been identified, translating the different Holocene palaeoenvironments: (1) The Holocene transgressive contact is dated ca. 7800 BP, and lies at the base of a silty-clay lithodependant unit. Our proxies are consistent with a low energy, lagoonal type environment, protected by an extensive reef system. (2) Transition to a coarse sand fraction after ca. 5500 BP is concomitant with the accretion of a semi-protected pocket beach. This environment served as a proto-harbour during the Middle Bronze Age (MBA). (3) After the MBA, artificial harbour sedimentation is represented by a fine-grained silty-sand unit with stress on the natural biosystem. This unit attests to a closed, marine-lagoonal type environment, which existed until around 1500 BP. Dredging activity during the Roman and Byzantine periods explains the absence of 1st millennium BC strata. (4) The economic decline of the ancient city after the Byzantine period is marked by the opening of the basin to greater marine influence, with a progradation of the harbour coastline. Natural sediment infilling diminished the size of the harbour to its present dimensions, lost until now, beneath the Medieval and Modern centres.     

Artificial cranial modification on a female skeleton from the Byzantine site of Maroneia (Thrace,Greece)

Artificial cranial modification is one of the most often documented types of intentional intervention on the human skeleton in the anthropological record. A female cranium exhibiting headshaping recently came to light at the Early Byzantine site of Maroneia, in Thrace, northern Greece. Headshaping was practiced by several different population groups during the migration period (1st–9th c. AD), but was unknown in Byzantine customs. Homogeneity in burial customs, evidenced by the skeleton's position and orientation and by cemetery topography, strongly supports the hypothesis that this burial belonged to a Christianised citizen who had the right to be buried in a common Christian cemetery. Headshaping provides strong evidence for the cultural adaptability and complexity of Early Byzantine society at Maroneia, an important provincial urban centre of the Byzantine Empire. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Exploring Diversity in Household Pottery Traditions in Crusader Greece: a Case Study from the City of Thebes,Boeotia

This paper provides new data on an under‐documented topic in Aegean archaeology, that of the impact of Latin–Greek cohabitation on craftsmanship, socio‐economic organization and household pottery traditions. The chosen approach is a petrographic study of the provenance and technology of 37 cooking pots, jugs, basins and storage jars from the city of Thebes, Boeotia. The ceramics span from the late 12th to the mid‐14th century and thereby cover the periods of Byzantine, Frankish and Catalan control over the city. The analysis indicates that most pottery products were not locally made during these periods. Pottery consumption at Thebes involved, in the 12th/13th century, regional products from northern Boeotia, while pottery supplies from Euboea that had developed under Byzantine rule continued into the 14th century, well after Boeotia and Euboea came into the hands of, respectively, Frankish and Venetian lords in the aftermath of the Fourth Crusade (1204). The petrographic analysis also allows for the characterization of Byzantine and Latin tempering practices of the pottery fabrics. These results highlight phenomena of regional economic reliance in central Greece and provide rare evidence for the cross‐cultural diffusion of technological knowledge in the late medieval Mediterranean.     

THE BYZANTINE CHURCH OF THE NUTRITION IN NAZARETH REDISCOVERED

Abstract

Although Nazareth has usually been seen by scholars as a relatively minor Byzantine pilgrimage centre, it contained perhaps the most important ‘lost’ Byzantine church in the Holy Land, the Church of the Nutrition – according to De Locis Sanctis built over the house where it was believed that Jesus Christ had been a child. This article, part of a series of final interim reports of the PEF-funded ‘Nazareth Archaeological Project’, presents evidence that this church has been discovered at the present Sisters of Nazareth convent in central Nazareth. The scale of the church and its surrounding structures suggests that Nazareth was a much larger, and more important, centre for Byzantine-period pilgrimage than previously supposed. The church was used in the Crusader period, after a phase of desertion, prior to destruction by fire, probably in the 13th century.     

The Roman Harbour of Alexandria Troas,Turkey

This article summarizes the results of a survey conducted in the area of the ancient harbour of Alexandria Troas. It presents an outline reconstruction of the harbour and explains its significance for our understanding of the region. The harbour is located at the point where two important sea‐routes met and where ships waited for favourable winds to travel through the Dardanelles. It was built in the reign of Augustus and consisted of an outer basin protected by two breakwaters and an inner basin. The area was occupied until the beginning of the 7th century. © 2010 The Author     

Variations in the bridging trait of the hypoglossal canal in 13th century Byzantine skulls

The presence of a bony bridge in the (bridging trait) hypoglossal canal, with five different modes, was investigated in 25 adult male Byzantine (13th century) skulls. First, we re‐evaluated the viability of proposed classification schemes, then for the first time, provided information on the structural features of this part of the occipital bone in a population of Asia Minor. Analysis of the data revealed minor differences in the Byzantine population compared to those previously investigated. Diverse geographical sources may be beneficial in understanding the role of developmental and genetic factors in bridging trait. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Critical Reappraisal of Eustathios Makrembolites’ Hysmine and Hysminias

Abstract

Despite the massive amount of scholarly literature on Iconoclasm and its aftermath, there are really only two major publications that deal specifically and synthetically with ninth-century art. One of these is André Grabar's magisterial L'iconoclasme byzantin, a chronological analysis of monuments and texts; the other is Robin Cormack's short but insightful essay in Iconoclasm, the collection of papers originally presented at Birmingham in 1975, which asks ‘whether the discussion of religious images stimulated by Iconoclasm changed the nature of Byzantine Art’. My aim is rather different. Rather than presenting an encyclopedic overview, this article attempts to crawl into the fabric of Byzantine culture: to see and understand Byzantine art of the ninth century as the Byzantines saw and understood it. It follows that the material presented has not been segregated into the familiar (and often useful) categories of style, iconography, and context, for, to the Byzantines, the three were neither exclusive nor separable. For similar reasons, I have deemphasized any linear progression that might imposed with art historical hindsight on the distant past, and have thereby underplayed the flashes of innovation, novelty and erudition that such detachment allows. These sparks are probably more visible (and certainly more appealing) to twentieth-century art historians than they were to the ninth-century Byzantines, for whom, as we shall see, the power of tradition militated against individual creativity, and artists on the whole remained anonymous artisans. In my attempt to look at Byzantine art from the inside rather than from the outside I have, in other words, concentrated on the fluid interface between objects, and the shifting dialogue between objects and context. This is because what interests me here is how Byzantine ideas about art (their theories), Byzantine perception (how the Byzantines saw), and the artifacts themselves (the practice) come together in the ninth century: how art, that preeminent social construct, worked in the years after Iconoclasm.     

Cabotage at Aperlae in Ancient Lycia

Aperlae was a small remote maritime city in ancient Lycia with a millennial floruit (late 4th century BC through the late 7th century AD). The harsh terrain of its hinterland forced a reliance on the Mediterranean from its founding to its demise. The Aperlites stabilized and enhanced their urban waterfronts in modest ways over the centuries, but basically they maintained and sustained their intimate relationship with the sea without elaborate docking or harbour installations. Fishing, probably a primary industry, centred on the harvest of murex trunculus , the marine mollusk from which purple dye was made. This valuable commodity appears to have been produced in Aperlae for export to Andriake, the international emporium of nearby Myra, for transshipment to textile centres throughout the Mediterranean. There, coastal traders also acquired the necessities and luxuries the city needed but did not produce. Proxy evidence, impressive archaeological features on land and under the sea, speaks to moments of prosperity for Aperlae well beyond mere subsistence. Cabotage was this secondary port's enduring lifeline.     

On The Grounds Of Post‐Byzantine Greek Icons

The grounds of 51 post‐Byzantine icons (Eastern Orthodox panel paintings) were studied by means of analytical techniques. The artefacts cover the period from the mid‐15th to the mid‐19th century and originate mainly from western (Epirus and the Ionian Islands) and southern Greece (Crete). The findings are examined in the light of technical recipes from related areas and eras, while special insights are gained from the exploration of a gypsum processing recipe by Dionysius of Fourna. A spectrum of ground fabrication practices that is richer than that reported so far or can be deduced from surviving Greek recipes is documented; three instances of ‘grosso‐sottile’ type grounds and a case of ‘inverse grosso‐sottile’ ground are among the reported novel, for post‐Byzantine icons, findings. Moreover, a case of an early icon restoration intervention is documented.     

On the Metal‐Leaf Decorations of Post‐Byzantine Greek Icons

Metal leaves were widely used as decorative materials in post‐Byzantine ritual painting. Fifty‐two icons (mid‐15th to mid‐19th centuries) were studied by means of analytical techniques in order to reveal the materials and techniques encountered in their metal‐leaf decorations. High‐purity gold leaf was used throughout the studied period. Silver was employed rarely and mostly during the latter part of the period in consideration, while metal powders were mostly used from the mid‐18th century onwards. The identification of a gold–silver powder mixture and an ‘electrum’‐type alloy are among the reported findings, which are novel for post‐Byzantine icons. Three micromorphologically distinct highlighting techniques were also documented.     

Traces of Fatty Acids from a Byzantine Sounding Lead Recovered off the Israeli Coast

Fatty acids, typical to large herbivores, were isolated from a 7th century Byzantine sounding lead recovered from a shipwreck off Dor, an ancient anchorage in Northern Israel. The fatty acids survived by being sheltered in an anaerobic environment provided through a site formation process induced by the disintegrating wreck. Previously established identification criteria for fatty acids, absorbed in ceramics, were used to show that tallow was used in this navigational instrument in the Eastern Mediterranean during late antiquity.     

Nari (calcrete) outcrop contribution to ancient agricultural terraces in the Southern Shephelah,Israel: insights from digital terrain analysis and a geoarchaeological field survey

A field survey revealed that Byzantine and Early Arab (ca. 5th to 8th century C.E.) agricultural systems in the semi-arid region of the Shephelah (central Israel) were similar to runoff agricultural systems in the arid region of the Negev (southern Israel). This similarity led to the hypothesis that systems in the Shephelah also function as runoff farms. This hypothesis is not trivial since runoff values in semi-arid regions are generally low due to intensive but short rainfall events, and due to the presence of sink patches that absorb runoff on slope surface. The aim of the current research is to examine whether runoff potential in a representative agricultural system in the Shephelah is sufficient for sustaining runoff farming. A geoarchaeological field survey and digital terrain analysis show that large Nari (calcrete) outcrops on the footslopes generate high runoff values that improve water potential. Hydrological simulations and calculations show that 230 mm of direct rainfall generates a water potential equivalent to 300 mm of direct rainfall. In view of these results, it is reasonable to conclude that the presence of Nari enabled runoff agricultural farming in the Shephelah region, even in drought years.