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Ancient harbors and Holocene morphogenesis of the Ras Ibn Hani peninsula (Syria)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 April 2012

Nick Marriner ,
Jean-Philippe Goiran ,
Bernard Geyer ,
Valérie Matoïan ,
Michel al-Maqdissi ,
Marion Leconte  and
Pierre Carbonel
Nick Marriner*
Affiliation:
CNRS CEREGE UMR 7330, Europôle de l'Arbois, BP 80, 13545 Aix-en-Provence cedex 04, France
Jean-Philippe Goiran
Affiliation:
CNRS, Archéorient UMR 5133, Université Lyon 2, 5/7 rue Raulin, 69365 Lyon cedex 07, France
Bernard Geyer
Affiliation:
CNRS, Archéorient UMR 5133, Université Lyon 2, 5/7 rue Raulin, 69365 Lyon cedex 07, France
Valérie Matoïan
Affiliation:
CNRS, Archéorient UMR 5133, Université Lyon 2, 5/7 rue Raulin, 69365 Lyon cedex 07, France
Michel al-Maqdissi
Affiliation:
Direction Générale des Antiquités et des Musées de Syrie, Damascus, Syria
Marion Leconte
Affiliation:
Université de Lyon, 5/7 rue Raulin, 69365 Lyon cedex 07, France
Pierre Carbonel
Affiliation:
CNRS, EPOC UMR 5805, Université de Bordeaux I, avenue des Facultés, 33405 Talence, France
*
⁎Corresponding author. Email Address:marriner@cerege.fr
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Abstract

Ras Ibn Hani peninsula, a wave-dominated tombolo (800 × 1000 m) on the Syrian coast, provides evidence for significant Holocene changes that can be linked to geological inheritance, rising post-glacial sea level, sediment supply and human impacts. Initial development of Ras Ibn Hani's coastal system began ~ 8000 years ago when shallow marine environments formed in a context of rising post-glacial sea level. Following relative sea-level stabilization ~ 6000 cal yr BP, beach facies trace the gradual formation of a wave-dominated sandbank fronted by a ~ 2300 × ~ 500 m palaeo-island whose environmental potentiality was attractive to Bronze Age societies. A particularly rapid phase of tombolo accretion is observed after ~ 3500 cal yr BP characterised by a two- to fourfold increase in sedimentation rates. This is consistent with (i) a pulse in sediment supply probably driven by Bronze Age/Iron Age soil erosion in local catchments, and (ii) positive feedback mechanisms linked to regionally attested neotectonics. Archaeological remains and radiocarbon datings confirm that the subaerial tombolo was probably in place by the Late Bronze Age. These data fit tightly with other eastern Mediterranean tombolo systems suggesting that there is a great deal of predictability to their geology and stratigraphy at the regional scale.

Keywords

TomboloGeomorphologyGeoarchaeologyCoastsHarborRas Ibn HaniUgaritSyriaLevantBronze AgeHolocene
Type
Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 78 , Issue 1 , July 2012 , pp. 35 - 49
Copyright
University of Washington

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