Most coastal sectors which show evidence of Holocene coseismic uplift in Greece and the Eastern Mediterranean were raised during a short period called here the Early Byzantine tectonic paroxysm (EBTP) between the middle of the fourth and the middle of the sixth century A.D. The areas uplifted at that time include Cephalonia and Zante in the Ionian Islands, Lechaion and the Perachora Peninsula in the Gulf of Corinth, the Pelion coast of Thessaly, Antikythira and the whole of western Crete, a coastal sector near Alanya in southern Turkey, and the entire Levant coast from Hatay (Turkey) to Syria and the Lebanon. The amount of the EBTP uplift was generally between 0.5 m and 1.0 m but reached a maximum of about 9 m in southwestern Crete. In several areas (Zante, Pelion coast, Antikythira, western Crete, Alanya), the EBTP uplifted shoreline is the only evidence of Holocene emergence. In other areas, however, a similar uplift occurred earlier in the Holocene (Levant coast), or more recently (Cephalonia). Evidence of preseismic subsidence prior to the EBTP uplift has been reported from Thessaly, Antikythira, and Crete; in both the latter islands, the EBTP uplift was preceded by a series of about 10 coseismic small subsidence movements, each measuring some tens of centimeters, which took place in the preceding 3000 years. No evidence was observed of postseismic vertical displacements.

We collected and dated fossil corals from the uplifted reef tracts of Sumba Island. Mass spectrometry (TIMS and AMS) was used to obtain reliable and precise radiochronological results. It is possible to identify outcrops corresponding to major sea level high stands: isotope stage 1 (starting at 7.1 kyr BP), 5a (c.a. 86 kyr BP), 5c (c.a. 105 kyr BP), 5e (between 119 and 132 kyr BP) and 9 (c.a. 305 kyr BP). The radiochronological data are thus broadly consistent with the timing of sea level fluctuations predicted by the astronomical theory of paleoclimates. Comparison with similar data from other terrace sequences and from benthic δ18O records indicates that the average tectonic uplift rate at Cape Laundi, Sumba, is on the order of 0.2–0.5m/kyr. The lowest values (<0.3m/kyr) lead to the build‐up of polycyclic topographic terraces in which it is possible to find corals grown during different interstadial or even interglacial times.

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