H. Brückner, F. Stock, Ephesos, the Artemision and the Ephesia – A geoarchaeological perspective

Postglacial sea-level rise led to the development of extended marine gulfs in the grabens of the western margin of the Anatolian Plate. During the last seven millennia, these marine indentations have silted up due to the continued progradation of the deltas of major rivers. A prominent example of this geomorphological metamorphosis from a ria coast to delta-floodplains is the Küçük Menderes (Cayster, Kaystros) valley and its tributaries, with Ephesos as the most prominent ancient harbour city. The presentation outlines the spatio-temporal scenario of this fundamental landscape change based on geoarchaeological criteria, archaeological evidence and information from literary sources. A special focus is on the permanent westward shift of the harbour sites due to the siltation process, and on the fate of the Artemision from a geoscience point of view, on the Roman harbour basin and the harbour canal. The lecture presents the spatio-temporal transformation of this area from a marine gulf into a floodplain, based on geoarchaeological evidence.


Helmut Brückner is Emeritus Professor for Geomorphology and Geoarchaeology at the University of Cologne: https://geographie.uni-koeln.de/index.php?id=14147. For his publications: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Helmut-Brueckner.


Friederike Stock is research associate in the departement of Ecotoxicology and Biochemistry, at the Bundesanstalt für Gewässerkunde in Koblenz (Germany). She graduated in 2015 from the University of Cologne, under the direction of Helmut Brückner. For her publications: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Friederike-Stock.


The seminar of Geoarchaeology is organised at AOROC, in the Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris Sciences & Letters, by Anca Dan: http://www.archeo.ens.fr/geo_hist_archeo.