Holocene sea-level changes along the Mediterranean coast of Israel, based on archaeological observations and numerical model

Sivan, Dorit; Wdowinski, S.; Lambeck, Kurt; Galili, Ehud; Raban, Avner

doi:10.1016/s0031-0182(00)00234-0

Cited by 185 publications

(149 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…Sivan et al (2001) show that on the coast of Israel, sea level rose to reach a level close to present around 2000 years ago, with evidence of changes of < 30 -40 cm since. Evidence includes Neolithic pottery, wells and rock -cut pools, in addition to abrasion platforms and accretionary vermetid reefs (Sivan et al 2004 ).…”

Section: The Mediterranean Seamentioning

confidence: 94%

“…Quarries carved along the coastlines and located nearby fi sh tanks, and harbors or villas of similar age, can provide additional data on past water level, as well as information on their functional elevation above sea level, although these are less precise indicators (Flemming 1978 ). Wells, such as those submerged off the coast of Israel ( Figure 4.8 b), indicate gradual sea -level rise since 8000 years ago (Sivan et al 2001(Sivan et al , 2004. Likewise, now -submerged sites of human activity can provide limiting information.…”

Section: Archaeological Sea -Level Indicatorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…(b) A pre -pottery Neolithic submerged well at Atlit Yam, radiocarbon -dated from settlement refuse at between 9500 and 8200 calibrated years BP, in water depth of 10 m, off the coast of Israel. The base of the well provides a limiting estimate of sea -level change since it was abandoned by rising saline groundwater (Sivan et al 2001 , with permission from Elsevier) (photo credit: the Israel Antiquities Authority and E. Galili) . (c) Fish tanks constructed during Roman times at Briatico, Calabria (southern Italy).…”

Section: Archaeological Sea -Level Indicatorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Paleoenvironmental Records, Geophysical Modeling, and Reconstruction of Sea‐Level Trends and Variability on Centennial and Longer Timescales

Lambeck

Woodroffe

Antonioli

et al. 2010

Understanding Sea‐Level Rise and Variability

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The level of the sea does not remain constant. It changes at varying rates, geographically and over time. Changes of sea level have affected human civilizations in the past (as preserved in legends, such as that of Atlantis), and anticipated accelerated sea -level rise as a consequence of enhanced global warming (Church et al. 2001 ;Bindoff et al. 2007 ) seems certain to have serious ramifi cations in the future.Understanding past sea -level change plays an important role in determining the underlying causes, and also permits the extrapolation of past sea levels to locations and epochs for which there are no instrumental data. In addition, the Earth has a memory of past events, and the pattern of relative sea -level change, today and in the future, will continue to respond to past events. This occurs for several reasons, including crustal response to past glacial retreats and re -advances, coastal subsidence from past sediment deposition, from present tectonic upheavals the underlying processes of which have their origins in the remote past, and from

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Section: The Mediterranean Seamentioning

confidence: 94%

Section: Archaeological Sea -Level Indicatorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Archaeological Sea -Level Indicatorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Paleoenvironmental Records, Geophysical Modeling, and Reconstruction of Sea‐Level Trends and Variability on Centennial and Longer Timescales

Lambeck

Woodroffe

Antonioli

et al. 2010

Understanding Sea‐Level Rise and Variability

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This subsidence has resulted from the activation of the Yammuneh and the RoumTripoli Thrust, as well as slip along east-northeast transverse fault panels in the vicinity of Tyre (24). The Rosh Hanikra/Ras Nakoura fault marks the southern boundary of vertical displacements, with no evidence for coastal uplift being reported from northern Israel during the Holocene (25).…”

Section: Geomorphological and Archaeological Contextsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Holocene morphogenesis of Alexander the Great's isthmus at Tyre in Lebanon

Marriner

Morhange

Meulé

2007

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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In 332 B.C., Alexander the Great constructed an Ϸ1,000-m-long causeway to seize the offshore island of Tyre. The logistics behind this engineering feat have long troubled archaeologists. Using the Holocene sedimentary record, we demonstrate that Alexander's engineers cleverly exploited a shallow proto-tombolo, or sublittoral sand spit, to breach the offshore city's defensive impregnability. We elucidate a three-phase geomorphological model for the spit's evolution. Settled since the Bronze Age, the area's geological record manifests a long history of natural and anthropogenic forcings. (i) Leeward of the island breakwater, the maximum flooding surface (e.g., drowning of the subaerial land surfaces by seawater) is dated Ϸ8000 B.P. Fine-grained sediments and brackish and marine-lagoonal faunas translate shallow, low-energy water bodies at this time. Shelter was afforded by Tyre's elongated sandstone reefs, which acted as a 6-km natural breakwater. (ii) By 6000 B.P., sea-level rise had reduced the dimensions of the island from 6 to 4 km. The leeward wave shadow generated by this island, allied with high sediment supply after 3000 B.P., culminated in a natural wave-dominated proto-tombolo within 1-2 m of mean sea level by the time of Alexander the Great (4th century B.C.). (iii) After 332 B.C., construction of Alexander's causeway entrained a complete anthropogenic metamorphosis of the Tyrian coastal system. geoarchaeology ͉ Mediterranean ͉ tombolo ͉ coastal geomorphology

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“…Until this is achieved, the following predictions must be based on a range of effective earth model parameters that yield predictions consistent with field data that have been obtained across the region. The data used include information from Israel (Sivan et al 2001(Sivan et al , 2004, from locations in Greece where vertical tectonic displacements are believed to be small (van Andel and Shackleton 1982;Lambeck 1996), from Italy , and from the French Mediterranean (Lambeck and Bard 2000). These data span the critical period during which the sills guarding the Black Sea were likely to have been breached by a post-LGM Mediterranean transgression.…”

Section: Majormentioning

confidence: 99%

Timing of the last Mediterranean Sea Black Sea connection from isostatic models and regional sea-level data

Lambeck

Sivan

Purcell

The Black Sea Flood Question: Changes in Coastline, Climate, and Human Settlement

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Abstract:Water levels in the Mediterranean and Black Seas since the Last Glacial Maximum have varied substantially across the region because of the influence of the melting of the last great ice sheets in redistributing ice and water over the Earth's surface. This spatial variability is significant for discussions of the timing of water exchange between the Aegean and Black Sea, which reached ca. -10 m relative to present sea level at 12 ky calBP. In the absence of direct observational evidence, sea-level change at sill locations is predicted here using isostatic models that have been calibrated against observational data from other Mediterranean localities. If one assumes a depth of ~ -32 m for the Bosphorus sill, the Black Sea is predicted to have been reached by rising Mediterranean water between about 10.3 and 9.5 ky calBP. Alternatively, if the Bosphorus bedrock gorge at ~ -100 m depth is adopted as the sill, then the first Mediterranean influx over the shallower Dardanelles sill at ~ -80 m is predicted to have occurred between 15 and 13.7 ky calBP.

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Holocene sea-level changes along the Mediterranean coast of Israel, based on archaeological observations and numerical model

Cited by 185 publications

References 31 publications

Paleoenvironmental Records, Geophysical Modeling, and Reconstruction of Sea‐Level Trends and Variability on Centennial and Longer Timescales

Paleoenvironmental Records, Geophysical Modeling, and Reconstruction of Sea‐Level Trends and Variability on Centennial and Longer Timescales

Holocene morphogenesis of Alexander the Great's isthmus at Tyre in Lebanon

Timing of the last Mediterranean Sea Black Sea connection from isostatic models and regional sea-level data

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