#MAREMonday 02

On 01.02.2021 we present the second session of our online lecture series with a contribution by

Jafar Anbar
(Aix-Marseille Université)

Revisiting the Syrian coastline from Tartous to Tabbat Al-Hammam:
Maritime geoarchaeology on Arwad reef

Abstract:

The Syrian coastline has a wealth of maritime cultural heritage including early sites, important Bronze Age harbours, well-known Phoenician settlements, Classical to Medieval period harbours, to potentially well-preserved shipwrecks of all periods.

The research concerns the maritime geoarchaeological study of a number of important harbour settlements on the southern part of the Syrian coast from the modern city of Tartous to Tabbat Al-Hammam – along the submerged reef of Arwad. The study will primarily focus on Arwad island which served as a naturally-protected multi-function harbour (commercial, military, shipbuilding activities) from the Bronze Age and is still in use today. Arwad constituted a navigation landmark of the Syrian coastline, located at the crossroads of major trade routes between the Egyptian, the Hittites and the Mesopotamia civilisations. According to literary sources, the island functioned in a maritime network connected with harbour-cities on the mainland and the islands nearby (Antarados, Marathos, Tabbat Al-Hammam, Machroud, Al-Abbas).

The archaeological sites under study possess several built and rock-cut archaeological structures (harbour infrastructure, breakwaters, coastal fortifications, quarries, etc.) as well as open anchorages. Several of these features were studied by Honor Frost in the 1960s and, in the framework of this research, they will be documented using modern surveying methods and interdisciplinary geoscience approaches.

Specifically, the research aims to create an interdisciplinary GIS database, that will integrate data from

A) A systematic archaeological documentation of the sites, through coastal and underwater fieldwork.

B) A coastal interdisciplinary research: study of the coastline evolution, relative sea-level change and geohazards, as well as a detailed bathymetric recording, aiming at the maritime landscape reconstruction of the reef of Arwad diachronically.