archaeological geology

archaeological geology The study of archaeological sites for data relevant to geological investigations has been much pursued and enhanced in recent decades. They have ranged from ancient hearths in Australia to architectural ruins in the classical sites of the eastern Mediterranean. Clues to the occurrence and magnitude of earthquakes, the nature of local volcanic eruptions, the rise and fall of sea or land levels, floods, and other disruptive events have been gathered and correlated to human history and activities. For example, in the Roman city of Hierapolis in Western Turkey displaced walls and irrigation gutters reflect the city's location astride a newly developing fault zone where shocks occurred many times. At Phalasarna in western Crete a harbour dating from classical times is now several metres above sea level. Its uplift probably came about from movement on an offshore fault, possibly associated with the tectonic plate boundary along which Africa is slowly sliding beneath Eurasia. There many instances like this where the rate of such local or regional neotectonic processes may now be judged.

Clues have been sought also in order to test the validity of legends or folklore. The disappearance of the legendary Atlantis has been linked both to sudden fault-initiated collapse of land areas into the sea and to volcanic explosions. Elsewhere geological processes or events, some involving disaster for human communities, have been revealed from archaeological evidence. One such discovery was of charred skeletons near Pompei which had been smothered by a nuée ardente discharge from Vesuvius in ad 79. The instantaneous preservation of so much of that Roman city presented both archaeological and geological problems, but these have been at least partly resolved by experience of nuées ardentes eruptions at Mt. St Helen's, and further archaeological work to confirm the enormously high temperatures experienced at Pompei in the ad 79 disaster.

Data of service to archaeological geology may be revealed as a consequence of direct (surface or submarine) observations or may be found as a result of excavations and the employment of geological investigation techniques for primarily archaeological ends. Thus geoarchaeology and archaeological geology can be mutually informative.

D. L. Dineley

Bibliography

McGuire, W. J., Griffiths, D. R., Hancock, P. L., and Stewart, I. S. (eds) (2000) The archaeology of geological catastrophes. Geological Society Special Publication No. 171.