In search of the harbours: New evidence of Late Roman and Byzantine harbours of Ephesus

The environs of Elaia's ancient open harbour – a reconstruction based on microfaunal evidence

“…Additionally, typical microfauna assemblages including brackish water and lagoonal species like the Ostracoda C. torosa and Loxoconcha spp. and the Foraminifera H. germanica and A. tepida are observable (Reinhardt et al, 1994;Stock et al, 2013). Spit-protected lagoons, used as harbours in the Mediterranean, like the Phoenician military harbour of Kition Bamboula (Cyprus), were already described by Morhange et al (2000).…”

“…This has been successfully demonstrated in geoarchaeological contexts at, e.g., Ras Ibn Hani, Ephesus, Miletos, Tyre, Rome and the Nile delta, just to mention some of it (Handl et al, 1999, Brückner, 2005Marriner et al, 2008;Goiran et al, 2010;Mazzini et al, 2011;Marriner et al, 2012;Flaux et al, 2013;Stock et al, 2013). General issues like the evolution of coasts, lagoons and lakes as well as special aspects like the usage of harbours and the navigability of waterways can be solved by the aid of microfossil analyses.…”

“…Some investigations deal with the function and history of ancient harbour settlements in general: the harbours of Tyre, Lebanon (Marriner and Morhange, 2007;Marriner et al, 2008Marriner et al, , 2010Morhange et al, 2012), Carthage, Tunisia (Gifford et al, 1992), Pergamum (Elaia), Turkey Seeliger et al, 2013), Ephesus, Turkey (Brückner, 1997(Brückner, , 2005Stock et al, 2013), Corinth (Lechaion), Greece (Hadler et al, 2013), Marseille (Morhange et al, 2003), Rome, Italy , Ostia, Italy (Goiran et al, 2014) e to mention a few. Others describe special harbour or economy facilities like fish tanks and ship sheds in relation to the palaeo-sea level in detail.…”

“…Archaeological, geophysical and geoarchaeological fieldwork at Elaia started in 2006 (Pirson, , 2008a(Pirson, , 2011Brückner et al, 2013;Seeliger et al, 2012Seeliger et al, , 2013Seeliger et al, , 2014Pint et al, 2013). While most of the archaeological structures and facilities of Elaia's harbour such as the closed harbour basin and a submerged Late Roman saline have already been described and dated (Pirson, , 2008aSeeliger et al, 2012Seeliger et al, , 2013Seeliger et al, , 2014Pint et al, 2013), the hypothesis about the Hellenistic ship sheds of Elaia has not been proved so far. These structures, visible only in the geomagnetic and geoelectric measurements, are located immediately to the east of the closed harbour basin.…”

The drowning of ancient Limyra (southwestern Turkey) by rising groundwater during Late Antiquity to Byzantine times

“…Akyüz and Altunel, 2001;Karabacak, 2011;Karabacak et al, 2013;Öz-daş and Kızıldağ, 2013;Passchier et al, 2013). Geomorphological studies additionally constrained the interaction of humans and landscape (Kraft et al, 2007(Kraft et al, , 2011Brückner et al, 2013;Stock et al, 2013Stock et al, , 2014Seeliger et al, 2014;Delile et al, 2015). Geoarchaeological work therefore contributes to a better understanding of ancient life in southwestern Asia Minor.…”