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 Roman Lighthouse at Akko,Israel

During Roman rule Akko, in Israel, was a major Levantine seaport. Historical, numismatic and archaeological evidence shows that often Roman maritime‐associated activities, in the Levant and elsewhere, included the building or maintenance of lighthouses. No clear indications of a Roman lighthouse in Akko are known. Re‐examination of navigational considerations, coastal archaeological surveys, underwater investigations and numismatic evidence supports the proposition that a Roman lighthouse existed there. It is suggested that the lighthouse was situated on an islet near the harbour entrance. © 2011 The Authors     

Magnetic detection of ship ballast deposits and anchorage sites in King Herod's Roman harbour,Caesarea Maritima,Israel

Ballast stone deposits are a common feature of sediments in ancient harbour basins but are often overlooked as a potential source of archaeological information. Recent geophysical investigations at Caesarea Maritima in Israel have discovered a thick, laterally extensive ballast layer in the area seaward of the 1st c. BC Roman harbour. The ballast deposits were identified by low-relief mounds on the seabed with elevated magnetic intensities. Jet probing and excavation of magnetic anomalies at several locations revealed a 20–60 cm thick rubble layer containing large quantities of Late Roman and Byzantine pottery, local sedimentary boulders (kurkar sandstone, limestone cobbles) and foreign igneous and metamorphic boulders (granite, schist, volcanics; ca. 50%). The foreign boulders and pottery identify the rubble layer as ballast and ships refuse jettisoned by merchant ships outside the harbour. The strong magnetic contrast between the ballast deposits and the natural seabed sediments is attributed to the high magnetic susceptibility (>10⁻³ SI) of crystalline boulders and pottery materials within the ballast rubble.     

Shipwreck Evidence from Kilwa,Tanzania

This article reports on the artefacts and environment of marine ballast and pottery sites identified through inter‐tidal and underwater survey around Kilwa, Tanzania, one of the most important medieval sultanates along the east African coast. An inter‐tidal site on the limestone fringing reef on the approaches to Kilwa Kisiwani Harbour and an underwater site within the harbour have been dated from associated pottery to c.8th–10th century and the 13th–16th century respectively. The presence of exotic basalt ballast is discussed as an indicator of wreck‐sites.     

The ROMACONS Project: a Contribution to the Historical and Engineering Analysis of Hydraulic Concrete in Roman Maritime Structures

Since all long-distance trade in the Roman world travelled by water, Roman harbour design and construction have special importance. Harbour excavation must be supplemented by analysis of the components of the hydraulic concrete, structural analysis of the cementing materials, and consideration of the design of the wooden formwork. The authors have begun collecting large cores from concrete blocks at Roman harbours and other maritime structures, analysing the materials used, the method of placement, and the structural characteristics of the resulting concrete. These data have provided new information on the engineering properties of Roman concrete, the process of funding and execution, and the trade in the volcanic ash which was the crucial component of hydraulic concrete.
© 2004 The Nautical Archaeology Society     

New Evidence for the Submerged Ancient Harbour Structures at Tolmetha and Leptis Magna,Libya

Surveys carried out in 2009, during a project for the creation of three underwater archaeological parks in Libya, have allowed archaeologists both to analyse already known ancient structures and to discover new evidence about the harbour areas of the ancient cities of Tolmetha and Leptis Magna. © 2012 The Author     

Archaeology of the Ljubljanica River (Slovenia): early underwater investigations and some current issues

Abundant archaeological evidence and specific geomorphologic features make the upper course of the Ljubljanica River running through Ljubljana Moor (Slovenia) one of the most interesting rivers in Europe. Roman bronze vessels and iron weapons found by chance in the Ljubljanica at Vrhnika, the ancient Nauportus, led the director of the Provincial Museum in Ljubljana, Karel Dežman, to devise a large scale plan for an underwater survey of the riverbed. This, one of the first modern research projects of underwater archaeology was executed in 1884 with the help of divers from the Austro-Hungarian naval base in Pula. Investigations by the Group for Underwater Archaeology and the activities of amateur divers from 1979 onwards revealed distinctly structured distributions of underwater finds on several sites in the upper course of the river indicating possible sacred places with votive offerings and funeral sites, as well as other non-ritual concentrations.     

Greek nationalism,architectural narratives,and a gymnasium that wasn’t

Abstract

This paper seeks to further the discussion that positions archaeological interpretation as a practice entangled between professional ethics and political circumstances. Perhaps the most obvious route for the mobilisation of extant architecture is to recruit it into nationalist discourses. An example of this is the case of the Roman Bath-Gymnasium Complex at Salamis (Cyprus), which can be used to illustrate how nationalism can call forth convenient narratives about material culture. Excavations (1952–1974) revealed the remains of a massive structure, and Vassos Karageorghis, the principal excavator, identified it as a ‘Gymnasium’. This paper demonstrates that Karageorghis’ hitherto well-accepted interpretation remains largely conjectural due to the absence of hard archaeological evidence. By examining the architectural characteristics of the remains and analysing the published excavation data, the paper explains how the present structure belongs to a bath-gymnasium complex, erected during the Roman period, and is an amalgamation of Roman and Greek culture. The paper revolves around the argument that the Romans’ role in negotiating the socio-cultural differences, which ultimately enriched the existing structures, has been systematically downplayed in the architectural narratives for the sake of presenting a homogeneous ethnic-cultural continuity from the Homeric Greek world down to the contemporary Cypriote Greek society.     

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.     

Exotic plants from Roman waterlogged sites in London

An extensive range of plant remains was recovered from seven Roman sites in London where waterlogged conditions had resulted in good preservation. In the majority of cases the “artificial” nature of urban deposits precludes any objective ecological interpretation, since the allochthonous origin of the plant remains cannot be satisfactorily established. However, the presence of exotic plants in dated deposits is of both botanical and archaeological significance and is here artificially treated as an autonomous group. This varied group of plants (excluding carbonized cereals) is arranged according to their use and put in archaeological and botanical perspective. Species such as cucumber (Cucumis sativa), gold of pleasure (Camelina sativa), peach (Prunus persica), olive (Olea europaea) and millet (Panicum miliaceum) have not been recorded from Romano-British sites before. For many of these plants their status, either as introductions or imports, is uncertain. Whichever is the case, it is clear that a wide variety of economic plants was available in Roman London.     

Reburial and Analyses of Archaeological Remains in the Marine Environment — Investigations into the Effects on Metals

Abstract

The treatment and long-term storage of recovered cultural material from underwater heritage sites is becoming less cost effective, and reburial of archaeological sites and the associated artefacts in the marine environment is becoming increasingly common practice in managing the submerged cultural resource. Following recent large-scale underwater archaeological excavations in Marstrand harbour, Sweden, the majority of recovered finds were reburied in defined trenches in the harbour sediment. Subsequently, the Studio of the Western Sweden Conservators in conjunction with the Bohus County Museum initiated a fifty-year research project to evaluate reburial as an appropriate method of preserving waterlogged archaeological artefacts in the long term. The research project, entitled ‘Reburial and Analyses of Archaeological Remains’, was launched in 2002 and consists of six sub-projects. The main aims of these sub-projects are to analyse the extent of deterioration of the most common material types found on underwater archaeological sites, assess the stability of packing and marking materials used in archaeological documentation, and monitor the reburial environment.

The aim of the metals sub-project is to investigate the short- to long-term corrosion behaviour of metals buried in the marine environment by examining the deterioration of reburied and exposed modern metal coupons and eventually compare these results to the analysis of actual shipwreck artefacts. The environmental monitoring sub-project is designed to complement the other sub-projects by assessing the physico-chemical changes occurring in the reburial environment over time and the effect on the deterioration of the different reburied material types. In comparing the results obtained over the past seven years from both the metals and monitoring sub-projects, it should be possible to more accurately evaluate the effectiveness of reburial as a long-term in situ preservation strategy for metallic archaeological remains.     

Marine Magnetic Survey of a Submerged Roman Harbour, Caesarea Maritima, Israel

A marine geophysical survey was conducted at Caesarea Maritima, Israel, to map the buried structure of King Herod's Roman harbour. Magnetic surveys reveal the presence of an extensive hydraulic concrete foundation below the ruined harbour moles. The magnetic anomaly patterns indicate that the concrete foundation was laid out in header fashion along N-S and W-E trending segments to form two large 'artificial islands'. Magnetic lows within the structure identify baffles that were infilled with sand to stabilise the concrete foundation walls.
© 2004 The Nautical Archaeology Society     

Roman lead mining in Germany: its origin and development through time deduced from lead isotope provenance studies

High precision lead isotope analysis by Multi Collector Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry was applied to the investigation of more than 240 Roman lead objects from several archaeological sites in Germany, in order to obtain information on the pattern of Roman mining activity and ore processing in the area. Measurements of ore samples from German deposits east (Siegerland, Lahn-Dill, Ems) and west of the Rhine (Eifel, Hunsrueck) were made and supplemented with data from literature to create a data bank of lead isotope ratios of European lead occurrences. Comparing the isotope ratios of lead objects with those from German ore deposits shows that the source of over 85% of the objects is Eifel ore deposits, but that, in the early years, the Romans also imported lead from the Southern Massif Central and later from Britain.     

Report on Underwater Excavation at the Phoenician Harbour,Atlit, Israel

Atlit is a small Phoenician settlement on the Carmel coast, with an artificial harbour, built during Iron Age II, before the Assyrian occupation, and used until the end of the Persian era. There are no remains of any later construction, in contrast to other Phoenician ports such as Sidon and Tyre. The study of Atlit harbour has therefore provided invaluable information on the positioning, planning and construction of Phoenician harbours in the Levant. This article is a summary of the most recent underwater excavation seasons at the harbour, and presents our conclusions on construction techniques and their historical implications. © 2009 The Author     

Education in Maritime Archaeology: The Egyptian Case Study

The investigation of archaeological sites of maritime nature started in Egypt more than a century ago, with the discovery of the Dahshur boats (Haldane 1998) and the ancient harbour of Pharos (Jondet 1912); however, education in maritime and underwater archaeology in Egypt is still in its infancy. This paper will look at the development of maritime archaeology in Egypt as a scientific discipline and the progress achieved to date in providing Egyptian archaeologists with education and training in aspects of maritime archaeology and underwater cultural heritage.     

Law,memory, and priestly office in Rome,c.500

This essay sets the development of Christian thinking about law and clerical office in the wider context of the discussion of office in the later Roman empire. It offers a reassessment of the work of Dionysius Exiguus, a well‐known translator from Greek into Latin of the Acts of the fourth‐ and fifth‐century church councils, and a compiler of papal decretals. The essay attempts to place Dionysius’ work in its immediate Roman context, in the context of fifth‐century canonical activity, especially in North Africa, and in the more general context of the political culture of office‐holding in the late Roman polity. Central here is the tension between bureaucratic regulation and autocratic room for manoeuvre. Dionysius did not attempt fully to resolve this tension, though he did attempt to contain it.     

MAPPING THE UNDISCOVERED RUINS OF POMPEII (NAPLES,ITALY) USING GROUND PENETRATING RADAR*

The ground penetrating radar (GPR) technique was tested in Pompeii, in an unexplored area where the Roman ruins are partially buried in the volcanic deposits. The method was also combined with time domain reflectometry (TDR) measurements to estimate the dielectric properties of the different volcanic units. In spite of the total thickness of the covering materials and the high signal attenuation measured in some layers, the radar was able to show a detailed image of the volcanic sediments and to locate the manmade structures hidden in the ash deposits. Moreover, the present study shows that the integrated use of GPR and TDR techniques could be successfully employed to evaluate the performance of the radar in specific terrains covering archaeological sites. Since it is unlikely that a large part of Pompeii will ever be excavated, GPR could be successfully used to produce detailed maps of the ruins still hidden in the subsurface, giving archaeologists the possibility of reconstructing the entire urban development of this unique ancient city.     

Locating the Harbour: Myos Hormos/Quseir al-Qadim: a Roman and Islamic Port on the Red Sea Coast of Egypt

Recent maritime investigations at Quseir al-Qadim, on the Red Sea coast of Egypt, have revealed the importance of this port in both the Roman and later Islamic periods. This paper outlines the key evidence for the location of the harbours, from survey, sedimentological analysis and selective excavation. The Roman harbour, occupied between the 1st century BC and the 3rd century AD, was located in a now-silted lagoon. Over 100 sedimentological cores indicated its siltation process. By the time the site was reoccupied in the 12th century AD, the harbour was reduced to a small bay at the entrance to the former lagoon.
© 2007 The Author     

Paros,Report II: The 1973 Campaign

Abstract

Paros is one of the most important islands of the Aegean sea, known best because of its white translucent marble. The island developed a very important school of sculpture from the Archaic to Roman times. An investigation of the island started in 1969, with the support of the Greek Archaeological Service, is centered on the ancient capital of Paros, which survives in the ruins of its ancient walls and an Archaic Ionic temple, and in the northern part of the island, where recent surveys and excavations have brought to light a significant number of sites, some of which go back to the Bronze and the Dark Ages of Greece.