The Madra Çay Delta Archaeological Project, First Preliminary Report

1996 ◽  
Vol 46 ◽  
pp. 167-200 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Lambrianides ◽  
N. Spencer ◽  
S. Vardar ◽  
H. Gümüş

In 1995 a new series of multi-disciplinary investigations were initiated by the authors into diachronic human occupation of the coastal plain at Altınova, between Ayvalık and Dikili on the Aegean coast of northwest Turkey (Fig. 1). Altınova lies approximately halfway between the much better-known (and certainly more intensively investigated) archaeological regions of Troy to the north and Bayraklı/Izmir to the south (Fig. 1). Through the plain flows the Madra Çay, and during the Holocene the river's depositional activity has created a large delta clearly visible on most maps as a projection outward into the Lesbos Channel (also known as the Mytilene/Midilli Strait), with the port of Mytilene and the marina of Thermi lying directly opposite (20 km. away) on the island of Lesbos (Fig. 1, Pl. XXII(a)). Altınova's iskele, located in a sand-spit which forms a natural marina, has developed into a modern holiday resort with 5 km. or more of holiday villas along its sandy beaches.

Antiquity ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 78 (301) ◽  
pp. 579-593 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Huysecom ◽  
S. Ozainne ◽  
F. Raeli ◽  
A. Ballouche ◽  
M. Rasse ◽  
...  

The area of Ounjougou consists of a series of gullies cut through Upper Pleistocene and Holocene formations on the Dogon Plateau in the Sahel at the south edge of the Sahara Desert. Here the authors have chronicled a stratified sequence of human occupation from the tenth to the second millennium BC, recording natural and anthropogenic strata containing artefacts and micro- and macro- palaeoecological remains, mostly in an excellent state of preservation. They present a first synthesis of the archaeological and environmental sequence for the Holocene period, define five main occupation phases for Ounjougou, and attempt to place them within the context of West African prehistory.


The expedition to which this report refers was one of those organised by the Joint Permanent Eclipse Committee of the Royal Society and the Royal Astronomical Society; it was supported by a grant made by the Government Grant Committee. Guelma was chosen for the site of the observations, as being an inland station between Sfax, which was selected for an expedition from the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, and Philippeville, which it was at first expected Sir Norman Lockyer would occupy. Guelma is 58 kilometres from Bona, 65 kilometres from Philippeville, 55 kilometres from the nearest coast of the Mediterranean Sea; it lies at a height of about 1200 feet above sea-level on the south side of the Valley of the Seybouze, amongst hills which range in height from about 3100 feet at 13 kilometres to the north, to about 4700 feet at 11 kilometres on the south, where lies the celebrated mountain, Mahouna, “the sleeping lady,” so called from the resemblance of its silhouette to the form of a woman. (For the position of the observing hut, see p. 59.)


Electrum ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
pp. 245-276
Author(s):  
Achim Lichtenberger ◽  
Torben Schreiber ◽  
Mkrtich H. Zardaryan

The paper deals with the first results of the Armenian-German Artaxata Project which was initiated in 2018. The city of Artaxata was founded in the 2nd century BC as the capital of the Artaxiad kingdom. The city stretches over the 13 hills of the Khor Virap heights and the adjacent plain in the Ararat valley. The new project focusses on Hill XIII and the Lower city to the south and the north of it. This area was investigated by magnetic prospections in 2018 and on the basis of its results, in total eleven 5 × 5 m trenches were excavated in 2019. On the eastern part of Hill XIII several structures of possibly domestic function were uncovered. They were laid out according to a regular plan and in total three phases could be determined. According to 14C data, the first phase already dates to the 2nd century BC while the subsequent two phases continue into the 1st/2nd century AD. In the 2019 campaign, the overall layout and exact function of the structures could not be determined and more excavations will be undertaken in the forthcoming years. North of Hill XIII the foundations of piers of an unfinished Roman aqueduct on arches were excavated. This aqueduct is attributed to the period 114–117 AD when Rome in vain tried to establish the Roman province of Armenia with Artaxata being the capital.


1982 ◽  
Vol 1 (18) ◽  
pp. 110
Author(s):  
Vaacov Nir

The Israel Mediterranean shore forms a gentle curve from an almost easterly direction in north Sinai to an almost northerly direction in Israel. This shore forms the southeastern corner of the Levantine Basin which itself forms the extreme eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea. The length of the Israel shoreline from Rosh Haniqra near the Lebanese border to northern Sinai in the south is about 230 km, while the Sinai coast from Rafah to Port Said (Fig.1), is almost 200 km long. The coastline region consists largely of Quaternary carbonate cemented quartz sandstone, known by local name "kurkar". Recent faulting is responsible for the shape and, to a certain extent, for the morphology of large parts of the central coastline, which is characterized by kurkar cliffs (Neev et. al_. , 1973 it 1978).Wide sandy beaches are found in the southern parts, while an abraded rocky platforms occur mainly in the central and northern parts, where the beaches are narrow having kurkar cliffs at their backshor.e side. Four different morphological sections can be found in the Israel Mediterranean shore, (Nir, 1982). These differ in their beach and inland morphology on one hand, and in their sedimentological properties on the other. The four different sections from north to south are: 1) Rosh Haniqra to Akko. A sedimentological1y isolated region, bounded on both the south and north. Beach sediments are mostly of local calcareous material of marine origin. Akko promontory is the most northern limit of Nile derived sands and plays as the recent edge of the Nile sedimentary cell (Nir, 1980). 2) Haifa Bay. Wide sandy beaches, bounded on the north by the Akko promontory, and by the Carmel "nose" on the south. 3) Mount Carmel coastal plain, is sedimentologically somewhat isolated region with relatively narrow beaches and small kurkar cliffs. Sediments consist of both local and imported components. 4) The kurkar cliffs and sandy beaches from Caesarea to Rafah. Beaches of differing width having quite uniform petrographic components, mostly quartz grains originating from the Nile river and transported along the Sinai beaches to the Israeli beaches. Some of the present beach components are derivated from the abraded kurkar cliff.


1969 ◽  
Vol 34 ◽  
pp. 385-413 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. B. M. McBurney ◽  
Rosemary Payne

In the 1964 Proceedings a preliminary report was published of an initial sounding at this site, discovered and named (after a nearby village) in 1962. The main excavation, in the summer of 1964, was undertaken with the kind permission and co-operation of the Iranian Government and authorities, and with the financial assistance of grants from the British Academy and the Crowther Beynon Fund of the University of Cambridge. Subsequent laboratory analysis has been carried out mainly in the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology of the University of Cambridge.Since the geographical situation of the site forms an essential factor in its interpretation, the main features may be repeated here for convenience. The cave is eroded in the base of an escarpment which follows the foot of the Elburz range where it bounds the coastal plain along the southern shores of the present Caspian. The mountains rise abruptly in an impressive series of ridges to over 10,000 ft; the plain extends to the north to the modern sea-shore now some 8 miles away from the site and rapidly retreating. It is known however that in the recent geological past this situation has varied greatly. At times the sea lapped the base of the hills leaving traces in the form of escarpments and raised beaches, while at others it retreated scores of miles to the north and may even have disappeared altogether.


1949 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 172-194 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wesley R. Hurt ◽  
Daniel McKnight

The San Augustin Plains of south central New Mexico contain several pluvial lake basins, on the terraces of which are numerous blowout sites with remains of Early Man. The major portion of the Plains lies to the south of U.S. Highway 60, between Magdalena and Datil, New Mexico. This is the area of the basin of extinct Lake San Augustin. The small portion of the Plains to the north of the highway contains the basins of White Lake and North Lake. The Plains consist of a large basin some 60 miles long from northeast to southwest, varying in width from 20 miles at the northeast end to about 6 miles at the southwest. On three sides of the Plains are a series of mountain ranges, while on the west are the ranges that form the continental divide (Fig. 41).


1979 ◽  
Vol 45 ◽  
pp. 1-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. J. Wainwright ◽  
A. Fleming ◽  
K. Smith

Viewed from the south Devon littoral with its series of good harbours the dark bulk of Dartmoor is clearly visible across the flat coastal plain. It is the largest of the five granite masses that provide a spine to the south-west English peninsula (Dartmoor, Bodmin Moor, Hensbarrow, Carnmenellis and Penwith) that were formed by the consolidation of molten material. The 500 square kilometres of the Moor form an undulating upland up to 600 m OD on the north-east side, where the greatest elevations occur. In the southern parts of the Moor the rolling tableland is 300 m to 420 m high—modern cultivation tends to cease at the 300 m contour, that is broken by numerous upland valleys and the eroded remains of tors. Today this expanse of moorland is bleak and treeless except in river valleys at the rim of the granite escarpment, although patches of contorted oak woodland survive at Piles' Wood on the River Erme, Wistman's Wood on the West Dart and Black Tor Beare on the West Okement. Pollen analyses have shown, however, that up to a height of about 360 m Dartmoor was probably covered by a deciduous forest dominated by oak that was gradually eroded by climatic trends and human activity (e.g. Simmons, 1969). It is from this central mass that the rivers of south Devon diverge. The wide upland valleys of the Tavy, Plym, Yealm, Erme, Avon and Dart plunge through characteristic deep wooded gorges near the southern granite escarpment into the South Hams and around this border modern settlement—numerous villages and a few towns are situated.


1992 ◽  
Vol 29 (9) ◽  
pp. 1997-2006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Gilbert ◽  
Joseph R. Desloges

The postglacial sedimentary record of 59 km2 Stave Lake was investigated using 3.5 kHz subbottom profiles and cores from the sediment surface. The acoustic data show a thin cover of acoustically transparent sediment (unit 1) overlying bedrock or glacial sediment on the floor of the lake. Overlying acoustically stratified sediment is divided into unit 2, which thins from 28 m in the south of the lake to less than 12 m in the north, and unit 3, which thins from 20 m in the north to about 12 m in the south. Unit 1 is interpreted as resulting from deposition in a relatively quiet lacustrine or marine environment following retreat of Vashon glaciers about 13 ka ago. Unit 2 is ascribed to deposits of sediment in runoff to Stave Lake from the Sumas ice sheet in the Fraser Valley and connecting valleys to the Stave Basin. Following the retreat of the Sumas ice about 11 ka ago, deposition of unit 3 resulted almost entirely from sediment input from Stave River entering at the north end of the lake. Raising the lake in 1912 by damming for hydroelectric generation resulted in deposition of a thin but distinct marker horizon in the sediment, from which modern rates of accumulation averaging 3 mm/a are estimated. These are more than twice the average rates for the Holocene estimated from the total thickness of unit 3. The rates of sediment yield calculated from accumulation in Stave Lake are 4.5 × 105 kg∙km−2∙a−1 (modern) and less than 2 × 105 kg∙km−2∙a−1 (averaged over the Holocene).


1953 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
pp. 74-80
Author(s):  
Olwen Brogan ◽  
David Oates

Gasr el-Gezira stands on high ground about one kilometre south of the edge of the escarpment overlooking Wadi el-Matmùra where it debouches on to the Gefara, the coastal plain of Tripolitania, and about four kilometres due north of kilometre-stone 166 on the Jefren—Giado road. The escarpment in the neighbourhood is over 400 metres high, and the building stands at a height of 745 metres above sea-level, on the watershed between the wadis running down to the Gefara and those feeding the affluents of the Upper Sofeggin system to the south.The building is surrounded by scattered troglodyte dwellings and sparse olive groves, interspersed with fig gardens and more open land used for cereal cultivation. The remains of a Roman village lie some three hundred metres to the south-east, and the whole complex marks the north-eastern extremity of an area of Roman olive cultivation, roughly coinciding with the district known as ez-Zintan, and probably to be assigned to the period between the first and the fourth centuries a.d.


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