The ancient city of Kibyra in southwest Turkey has the potential to reveal the location and date of historical earthquakes. The most compelling evidence for earthquake faulting is observed in the city's Roman stadium. Damage related to seismic shaking is characterized by systematically collapsed columns, dilated and collapsed walls, and by rotated and displaced blocks in the stadium. Detailed archaeoseismological observations suggest that Kibyra was affected by earthquakes that were also recorded in historical earthquake catalogs. Although there is no historical record of a large earthquake after the 5th century A.D., Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating of deposits under the collapsed blocks suggests a later seismic event. OSL results indicate that another large event occurred in southwest Turkey, probably around the 10–11th century A.D., and caused extensive damage (Io = VIII‐IX) to the Kibyra stadium.

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Seismic-related damages of archaeological structures play an important role in increasing our knowledge about the timing and magnitudes of historical earthquakes. Although quantitative data should form the basis of objective archaeoseismological methods, most studies still do not rely on such methods. Ground-based LIDAR (light detection and ranging) is a promising, rather new, scanning technology that determines spatial position of an object or surface and provides high-resolution three-dimensional (3D) digital data. Using LIDAR, the damage and overall condition was mapped of a Roman theatre in the ancient Lycian city of Pınara (500 BC-900 AD0), located at a faulted margin of the Eşen Basin (SW Turkey). An average 0.81° NW tilt of the 20 seating rows could be computed from the LIDAR data. Conventional compass readings of these seating rows did not provide the same results because errors involved with this method are generally > 2°. The tilt direction appears perpendicular to the NE-trending basin-margin fault, suggesting that fault-block rotation is the most likely mechanism to have induced the systematic tilt of the theatre. The estimated 4 m offset on this normal fault should be seen as a rough estimate of the total displacement and was likely produced by several (more than one) earthquakes with magnitudes of M = 6-6.8. This is consistent with the historical records that mention several large earthquakes during the Roman period.

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Historical cemeteries are challenging targets for geophysical prospection but some non-destructive imaging techniques may be successful for mapping buried cemeteries if applied appropriately. Ground-Penetrating-Radar (GPR) has generally been considered to be the only geophysical method for determining cemeteries; however, Electrical-Resistivity-Tomography (ERT) and Magnetic-Imaging (MI), may determine geophysical traces of such cemeteries. Thus, as a first attempt at applying geophysical methods in the cemetery area of the Gallipoli Peninsula, these techniques were used to explore the buried graves at Agadere Cemetery. In this study, measured apparent resistivity data were processed using a two-dimensional (2D) tomographic inversion scheme. Resultant resistivity depth slices and volumetric resistivity images clearly showed the anomaly zone, which may be attributed to anthropogenic burials. Additionally, three-dimensional (3D) visualization of GPR results indicated some anomalies, much like the resistivity anomalies in terms of location. MI data were processed using linear transformations and an analytic signal image map presented anomaly zones located in some parts of the area, which are in agreement with those obtained by ERT and GPR surveys. Results derived from data processing techniques showed that these methods are suitable for bordering the locations of other buried historical graves in areas that have the same geological environment in the Peninsula.

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