Le littoral de la Tunisie dans l'Antiquité : cinq ans de recherches géo- archéologiques

Paskoff, Roland; Slim, H.; Trousset, Pol

doi:10.3406/crai.1991.15006

Cited by 9 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…This unit probably represents either natural deposits of evaporation transported from a nearby lagoon or sebkha or an anthropic composite lime material composed of crushed shells, sands and some fragments of volcanic rock. This lime composition is found in Meninx and Kerkouane in the Punic period (Paskoff et al, 1991). The sharp transition between this layer and the previous unit argues in favour of an anthropogenic deposition.…”

Section: The Northern Facade Of the Utica Promontory: A Potential Harbour Environmentmentioning

confidence: 58%

“…One of the supposed causes of the decline and then the abandonment of Utica is thought to have been the silting up of its harbour (Tissot, 1888;Bernard, 1911;Paskoff et al, 1991). This would have led the inhabitants of the city to modify their economic base, previously oriented towards maritime trade, in favour of the exploitation of the surrounding landscape (Lézine, 1968).…”

Section: The Problem Of the Port(s)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…According to the latest fieldwork, the most likely location of the ancient harbour would be on the north side of the Utica promontory to the east of the Large Baths (Fig. 2; n°4-5) (Paskoff et al, 1991;Paskoff and Trousset, 1992;Chelbi et al, 1995;Slim et al, 2004;Delile et al, 2015b).…”

Section: The Problem Of the Port(s)mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Exploration of the maritime façade of Utica: The potential location of the Phoenician and Roman harbours

Pleuger

Goiran

Delile

et al. 2019

Quaternary International

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According to ancient literary tradition, Utica is considered to be one of the first three Phoenician foundations in the Western Mediterranean, supposedly founded in 1101 BC by Levantines from Tyre. In the Phoenician and Roman periods, it was an important merchant coastal town, on a promontory facing the sea. Over the centuries Utica lost its access to the sea, and its ports silted up as a consequence of the activity of the wadi Medjerda, which flowed to the south of the city. Despite over a century of investigation by archaeologists and associated researchers, the location of the city's harbour structures from the Phoenician and Roman periods remains unknown, buried under sediments resulting from the progradation of the Medjerda. Based on the study of sedimentary cores, the research presented here highlights the existence of a long maritime façade to the north of the Utica promontory in Phoenician and Roman times. A deep-water marine environment is attested in the former bay from the 6th mill. BC and the depth of the water column along the northern façade was still 2 m around the 4th -3rd c. BC. Another core to the east of the Kalaat El Andalous promontory showed the possibility that this sector was a sheltered harbour during the Phoenician and Roman periods. This paper illustrates the contribution of geoarchaeology to address this archaeological problem and to understand the relations of this important port city with the sea.

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Section: The Northern Facade Of the Utica Promontory: A Potential Harbour Environmentmentioning

confidence: 58%

Section: The Problem Of the Port(s)mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Exploration of the maritime façade of Utica: The potential location of the Phoenician and Roman harbours

Pleuger

Goiran

Delile

et al. 2019

Quaternary International

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“…The sandy coasts of the western US and Mediterranean basin has well-established historical records of sea-level rise derived from archeological observations [10,[13][14][15][16], tide-gauge recording [17,18] and paleontological dating [19,20]. Additionally, an observed mean sea-level trend of 1.1-1.5 mm/yr in the Mediterranean basin during the last century has been inferred [21,22].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Deconvolving The Effects of Coastal Erosion and Sea-Level Rise in Assessing Shoreline Retreat Along Semi-Arid Urban Coasts

Amrouni

Heggy

Hzami

2022

Preprint

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The alarming vulnerability of low-lying sandy beaches to the acceleration of global sea level rise has been confirmed in the recent IPCC AR6 report. The situation is worsened by increasing coastal erosion, resulting in additional shoreline retreat of sandy beaches along several semi-arid urban coastal areas around the globe. The additional shoreline retreats from erosion are indicative of the rising imbalance in coastal sedimentary processes, which are a direct consequence of changes in precipitation patterns, urban growth, and change in land use. To quantify the magnitude and timescale of both coastal erosion and sea-level rise (SLR) in generating shoreline retreat of sandy beaches in semi-arid urban areas, we combine photogrammetric and statistical methods to measure and forecast the decadal evolution of these coastlines using two well-characterized sites that are hypothesized herein to be globally representative of these types of coasts undergoing rapid urban growth. We use multi-decadal shoreline positioning and land use classification surveys of the Southern California (SC, USA) and the Hammamet-North (HAM, Tunisia) beaches from aerial and orbital photogrammetric images, combined with the Digital Shoreline Analysis System, for the period from 1985 to 2018. Our results suggest that the current average shoreline retreat rates of sandy beaches range from -0.75 to -1.24 m/yr in SC and from -0.21 to -4.49 m/yr in HAM under similar aridity, land coverage and precipitation patterns. The observed decadal changes in shoreline positions along these semi-arid urban coastal areas are found to be accentuated by anthropogenic drivers associated with extensive urbanization, causing sediment imbalance at the coastline, adding up to the effect of the accelerating SLR. We assess that ~81% and 57% of the observed shoreline retreat was due to SLR, and 19% to 43% due to coastal erosion from urban growth along SC and HAM beaches, respectively. Using these measured rates, we establish a semi-empirical numerical model that combines urban growth and the observed shoreline retreat rate to forecast retreat rates through 2100 for both of our study areas, inferred herein to be representative of other global semi-arid urban coasts. Our model suggests that future average total shoreline retreat rates, accounting for both urban growth and SLR, range from -2 to -4 m/yr for SC and HAM sandy beaches, respectively, through 2100. The above suggests that if no mitigation is made, by 2100 the cumulative shoreline retreat in these urban areas could significantly exceed the Global Scale Assessment Model’s [46] cumulative projected average retreat of -30 m, confirming the alarming vulnerability of the semi-arid coastal urban areas that would need intensive and costly beach nourishment to control increasing shoreline erosion.

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“…The local trade, principally in olive oil, was of nothing like the scale that would merit a harbour that could boast a mole 1 km in length. Indeed, following the precipitous decline of Thysdrus (modern El Djem, 50 km from Thapsus) and the area around it in the late 3rd century (Leone, ), all trade was subsequently successfully accomplished through the much smaller local harbours of Sullecthum, Thaenae (Paskoff et al., : 526, 533–4), Leptiminus (Yorke et al., : 16; Davidson, : 163–175) and Gummi (Leone, : 49).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Enigma of the Great Thapsus Harbour Mole

Davidson¹,

Yorke

2013

International Journal of Nautical Archaeology

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On the East coast of Tunisia, between Sousse and Sfax, lie the scant remains of the ancient city of Thapsus, notable mainly for a battle fought in the civil war in 46 BC. Visits by the authors resulted in the discovery of one of the longest‐known harbour moles in the entire Roman Empire. No ancient sources make reference to any work of such magnitude and the paper suggests that the harbour was never completed, but might have been started by the local emperors Gordianus, none of whom survived long enough to have executed such a project.

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Le littoral de la Tunisie dans l'Antiquité : cinq ans de recherches géo- archéologiques

Cited by 9 publications

References 2 publications

Exploration of the maritime façade of Utica: The potential location of the Phoenician and Roman harbours

Exploration of the maritime façade of Utica: The potential location of the Phoenician and Roman harbours

Deconvolving The Effects of Coastal Erosion and Sea-Level Rise in Assessing Shoreline Retreat Along Semi-Arid Urban Coasts

The Enigma of the Great Thapsus Harbour Mole

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