Maritime Networks in the Mycenaean World by Thomas F. Tartaron & Thomas F. Tartaron

Author:Thomas F. Tartaron & Thomas F. Tartaron [Tartaron]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2013-08-29T16:00:00+00:00

(1) Investigation of known historical harbors; many have earlier histories as natural anchorages of the Bronze Age or Early Iron Age (e.g., Sidon, Tyre, Liman Tepe).

(2) Examination of modern natural anchorages to test, through geoarchaeological means, whether they existed as suitable anchorages in the Bronze Age.

(3) Focus on deltas and river mouths. Because these were favored as natural harbors in the Bronze Age, programs of geological coring may recover evidence of buried deltaic and estuarine systems of that age.

(4) Collection of information from local inhabitants, who often know of coastal and underwater archaeological sites. In addition, oral histories and archival data giving evidence of human activities in historical and modern times can provide analogies and insights into emic perceptions of maritime cultural landscapes (see Chapter 7).

(5) Intensive geomorphological and archaeological surface survey along the entire littoral zone of the study area to assess evidence for coastal landforms and to recover traces, however abundant or sparse, of human activity (with selective excavation, where possible, occurring at a later phase).

(6) Systematic search based on models of coastal exploitation. The Coasts and Harbors Survey, a subproject of EKAS, developed a GIS-driven probabilistic model for prehistoric harbor locations based on environmental and cultural variables (Rothaus et al. 2003; Tartaron et al. 2003). Ground-truthing the model resulted in the discovery of two major Bronze Age anchorages at Vayia and Kalamianos on the Corinthia's Saronic coast, and subsequent geoarchaeological investigation and archaeological prospection over the years has generally validated the principles and results of the model. In a different way, geoarchaeological analysis of the coast of Elis led to predictive statements about the locations of buried Bronze Age sites and coastal landforms (Kraft et al. 2005). In both cases, a Bronze Age coastline has been partially reconstructed from a modern littoral virtually devoid of recognizable anchorages, a first step to reconstituting humanized coastal worlds.

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