Page 29 - TINA Dergi Sayi 11

TINA

Maritime Archaeology Periodical

The port, which was also in use during the Hellenistic dating to the 2nd Millennium BC is relatively farther
Age, lost its function, putting an end to flourishing of the from the shore .
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city. The ancient cities of Limantepe and Klazomenai in A total of 18 drillings were carried out to determine the
İskele region also suffered from consequences of such changes on the Bağlararası shores and the coastal plain
changes. It appears that the Holocene transgression, fol- behind it (Fig. 12). The analysis of core samples showed
lowed by silting up by alluvial deposits, final small-scale presence of a bedrock, a shallow sea and shoreline (Ho-
sea level changes and shoreline changes played an im- locene transgression), a coastal swamp, a cultural layer
portant role in foundation, development and decline of and alluvial-colluvial terrestrial flood plain sediments
the Limantepe-Klazomenai settlement. in the environs of the Bağlararası settlement through-
A total of 24 core drillings were performed on the out the ages. The bedrock is reached at a depth of 5 to
İskele coastal plain to determine natural environmental 6 meters from the surface in the Holocene deposits of
changes and their impact on land use during Holocene. Bağlararası depression. The core drilling data showed
The sedimentological and paleontological analyses of that the Holocene transgression directly covered the
sediment samples from these drillings and geomorpho- bedrock, the sea could not progress much to the inner
logical evaluations based on archaeological data showed parts, and there was a very shallow marine environment
that the shoreline, which advanced by Holocene trans- and associated coastal swamps . Later on, a coastal
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gression, was able to encroach up to 1 km at most from swamp emerged when the shallow shore was silted-up,
the present shoreline in the middle section of the İskele and it was overlaid by a cultural layer. It appears that
plain about 6000 years ago (Fig. 11). To the west of the cultural layer consistent with the Bronze Age re-
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Limantepe, this encroachment is much narrower. Two gression started approximately 2 m below the present
major geomorphological units developed together on sea level. In fact, archaeological excavations revealed
the İskele plain following progradation due to alluvial that Bağlararası was initially settled during the Bronze
deposits. One of them is a flat and wide coastal barrier Age. The first settlement at Bağlararası started on an
on a very shallow coastal profile, where an Archaic ne- earlier surface which was 4 to 4.5 m deeper than the
cropolis on the inner side indicates that its formation has present level (2 to 2.5 m deeper than the sea level) as a
lasted for 3000 years. The second one is a wetland in the result of land forming with the Bronze Age regression.
inner part of the barrier. It disproves the claim that there Furthermore, ashes from the Minoan volcanic erup-
was a lagoon in this area during the Archaic Age, and it tion of Santorini were found among cultural deposits
was used as a port as previously suggested (Fig. 11). from the Bronze Age and considered as the key level
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6- ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE OF BAĞLARARASI, ÇEŞME in chronostratigraphic interpretations.
Çeşme Bağlararası, one of the ancient settlements on Archaeological data showed that the tephra layer
the Aegean coasts, lies near the shoreline on the Bağlar- with a thickness of 5 to 10 cm within the cultural lay-
arası coastal plain extending to the southeast of Çeşme er belongs to 3640 years ago (1640 BC) (Late Bronze
harbor (Fig. 4). The settlement which was established on Age/earlier than Late Minoan 1A). Elemental analysis
the shore during the Bronze Age has remained about 50 revealed that the samples from tephra were compatible
m inland from the present shoreline as a result of natural with the Minoan eruption in Santorini Island. Cultural
environmental changes due to alluvial-colluvial deposits deposits were covered with colluvial-aluvial deposits
in the area. While the ancient settlement dating to the 3rd following the Bronze Age, giving the coastal plain its
Millennium BC was closer to the shore, the settlement present appearance (Fig. 12).
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28 ÖNER et al 2018b, 2019c, KAYAN et al 2019
29 ÖNER et al 2018b, 2019c, KAYAN et al 2019
30 ŞAHOĞLU et al 2012
31 ÖNER et al 2018c; ÖNER − VARDAR 2018d; VARDAR − ÖNER 2016, 2017b, 2017c
32 ÖNER et al 2018c; ÖNER − VARDAR 2018d; VARDAR − ÖNER 2016, 2017b, 2017c
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