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TINA

Maritime Archaeology Periodical

GEOARCHAEOLOGICAL SURVEYS However, reconstruction of the ancient coastline
described by Öner for the rest of the Patara harbor
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As already known, one of the important challenges bay needs to be revised based on some archaeolog-
in research of harbors is to determine the sea level ical observations and finds that we tried to outline
rise and advance of the coastline in the most accu- above. If we start from the northeastern part of the
rate way for respective period or periods. Another harbor bay; in 1994, it became possible to perform
challenge is to be able to determine initial and final archaeological excavations to the northeast of the
dates of harbors such as Patara that have been out pond on the north following a drought that persisted
of use due to siltation. Furthermore, it is also a chal- for a few seasons. These excavations yielded a series
lenge to trace what kind of environmental/climatic of wall remains, most of which extend in the south-
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activities these harbors went through during various east-northwest direction (Fig. 10) . Unfortunately,
periods; they include a wide range of activities from the excavations did not reach the floor on which
massive and abrupt natural events such as tsunami to the walls are seated due to intense ground water.
obtaining data on the periodic flora of the micro-re- Traces of this excavation can be clearly seen in
gion (pollen analysis). Such information that would Google Earth photographs after that date. The walls
be available using geoarchaeological methods will probably belonging to the harbor buildings seem to
provide answers not only to position and relation- have been almost submerged in the reconstruction
ship of harbor structures with the sea, but also to of coastal line by Öner. Besides, to the west of these
many questions related with general topographical wall remains, i.e. towards the bay, other walls prob-
structure of a city intertwined with its harbor such as ably in parallel to these ones and a street stretching
Patara as well as its reaction to marine disasters and to the city can be expected. In this case, the coastline
its economic history. should be a little back further into the bay.
In this regard, the geoarchaeological surveys con- A similar observation can be made for the western
ducted by Ertuğ Öner in the Patara and Eşen plains skirt of the Tepecik hill. Here, still within the field
in 1993 and 1995 are of great value both for its of reeds to the north of the southern pond, there are
outcomes and establishing a base for similar studies remains of a church (Harbor Church), which has
in the future. An analysis of almost forty drillings been partly excavated during the above mentioned
carried out by Öner in the Patara harbor bay and its campaign. The apse of the east-west oriented church
vicinity showed that as expected, the ancient coast- relies on the western slope of the hill, extending 33,5
line was further inland than the current border of the m towards the west. No excavation was performed
reeds . Based on this, the harbor bay ended on the from that point to the west, but archaeologists partic-
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north nearly at the level of the entrance to the an- ipating in the campaign mention existence of some
cient city, i.e. a little further north of the pond on the remains after that point. Even though there are no re-
north, at Akdam two thousand years ago. This geo- mains in this part, there should be a certain distance
archaeological finding is supported by the remains left between the entrance and the sea in this area
of an exedra-type tomb from the Roman Period, where the entrance to the church is located. Howev-
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currently within the reed field support in this area er, this structure and the area expected in front are
(Fig. 9). submerged in Öner’s coastline reconstruction.

22 ÖNER 2009 fig. II.56, pp. 216.
23 AKTAŞ 2008.
24 ÖNER 2009 fig. II.56, pp. 216.
25 IŞIK – KOÇAK 2014.

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