Geoarchaeological evidence for dredging in Tyre's ancient harbour, Levant

Dados Bibliográficos

ID24088492
AutoresNick Marriner (0000-0002-7916-6059, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique), Christophe Morhange (0000-0002-1910-151X, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, autor correspondente)
Ano2006
Volume65
Fascículo1
Páginas164-171
Data de publicação2006-01-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoQuaternary Research (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0033-5894 • E-ISSN: 1096-0287
EditoraCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1016/j.yqres.2005.07.004
OpenAlexW2041016594
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas27
Referências citadas15

Chrono-stratigraphic data from Tyre's ancient northern harbour delineate extensive dredging practices during the Greco-Roman and Byzantine periods. Radiocarbon dates from four cores consistently cluster between ca. 500 B.C. and 1000 A.D. and indicate rapid rates of sedimentation in the basin, namely ∼10 mm/yr during the Greco-Roman and Byzantine periods, compared to 0.5–1 mm/yr for the period 6000–4000 B.C. Absence of strata between 4000 B.C. and 500 B.C. is not consistent with a natural base-level sediment sink and cannot be interpreted as a depositional hiatus in the high-stand systems tract. Ancient dredging is further corroborated by persistent age-depth inversions within the fine-grained harbour facies. These data support removal of Middle Bronze Age to Persian period sediment strata, with deliberate overdeepening of the harbour bottom by Greco-Roman and Byzantine societies.

Archaeology · Byzantine architecture · Dredging · Facies · Geography · Harbour · Period (music) · Radiocarbon dating · Sedimentary depositional environment · Structural basin · Ancient Mediterranean Archaeology and History · Archaeology and Historical Studies · Geology · Maritime and Coastal Archaeology · Oceanography · Paleontology