A team of European archeologists say a gigantic tidal wave traveled more than 25 miles inland, destroying the Roman port city of Hispalis (Seville). The Seville Cathedral, as seen from Patio de Banderas Plaza.M. Morenatti
Posted on 05/29/2023 12:30:40 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
In the 1970s, two Roman inscriptions — dated from 245 to 253 AD — were discovered in Écija (known in ancient Roman times as Astigi), a city in Spain's southern province of Seville. The writings on the tablets suggest that the emperor at the time had exempted the Roman province of Baetica (roughly the equivalent of modern-day Andalusia, a region of southern Spain) from taxes...
A gigantic tsunami that began in the Bay of Cadiz crashed into land, causing numerous coastal settlements to be abandoned and engulfing everything its path, including the city of Seville, located 45 miles inland from the sea. The discovery was made following the excavation and study of a public building from the Roman era, destroyed during what researchers now believe was a massive tidal wave event...
...in 400 BC, the Atlantic Ocean had created a large lagoon, known in antiquity as Lacus Ligustinus, at the mouth of the Guadalquivir River. The lake was fed by three river corridors, one of which led directly to Hispalis. The river was large enough that medium-sized ships could use it to transport minerals, oil, wine, and other goods as far inland as Alcalá del Río, roughly 10 miles past Seville. It is estimated that the Port of Seville was quite large, even at that time, stretching over a kilometer in length and moving some 18,000 tons of merchandise per year...
...the ruins at the Patio de Banderas... between the years 200 and 225 AD... there was "widespread collapse of the architectural remains [and] most of the southern walls appear to have been displaced from their original position [by an external force], always in the same direction, toward the northwest."
(Excerpt) Read more at english.elpais.com ...
A team of European archeologists say a gigantic tidal wave traveled more than 25 miles inland, destroying the Roman port city of Hispalis (Seville). The Seville Cathedral, as seen from Patio de Banderas Plaza.M. Morenatti
Been to Seville, great city.
Hmmm, would have had to be quite a tsunami to make it 45 miles inland. I suppose it’s possible, but I’m a bit skeptical of this hypothesis
Figaro...Figaro....Figaro...Figaro...Figaro...Figaro...
The article states “45 miles”.
Whoa. Even the Tohoku event traveled a fraction of that distance.
Bump for later (taking a quick lunchbreak).
I think the water ran up a river channel.
That’s what happened in Japan, water went right up the rivers well inland.
The entire documentary. In the original black and white.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydLzvWaX0C8
I remember in my classical music appreciation class, the teacher used a lot of examples from Bugs Bunny. Like “Kill The Wabbit....Kill The Wabbit.....”
According to a 2022 article posted in 2022 at Archeology.org, Seville, when it was hit by the tsunami in question, was located not forty-five, but rather, only twenty-five miles from the sea.
Still, 25 miles is an astonishing distance for water to travel across land and still be able to hit with enough force to knock over stone walls!
______________
https://www.archaeology.org/news/10705-220727-seville-roman-era-tsunami
SEVILLE, SPAIN—According to a report in El País, excavations of a public building from the Roman-era port of Hispalis—now modern Seville—suggest that sometime between the years A.D. 197 and 225, a massive tsunami that began in the Bay of Cadiz landed in southern Spain, destroying coastal settlements and overwhelming everything in its path. The ensuing flooding reached Seville, located more than 25 miles inland at the time, where it caused the collapse of a commercial warehouse located in the city’s outskirts. The site of the building, which is thought to have been in some way related to Hispalis’s booming export trade in foodstuffs such as olive oil, is now located in the Patio de Banderas, a public square adjacent to Seville’s main cathedral. Archaeologists excavating the Patio de Banderas between 2009 and 2014 uncovered evidence for urban occupation from between the ninth century B.C. and the thirteenth century A.D., but singled out the Roman-era commercial building, which was organized around a central courtyard and featured a gallery of columns at its southern end. Analyzing the ruins, they concluded that the structure had been renovated and repaired multiple times during the first century A.D. Especially during the early third century A.D., it appeared to have suffered widespread damage. Using a multidisciplinary method, including radiocarbon dating, micromorphology, micropaleontology, and mass spectrometry, the team identified deposits consisting of sand, silt, and shell, materials that they believe must have been transported to the site and trapped there by the violent tsunami event. To read about the importance of Spain’s silver mines to the Roman economy, go to “Spain’s Silver Boom.”
My music history professor covered opera, but for some reason he skipped over this one. No sense of humor…
In Roman times it was only 25 miles. In the late 1950s, a chunk of glacier slid into a river, and due to the geography (the river estuary is basically a fjord) the wave went inland and upward, leaving a debris line a half-mile above sealevel. And that was just a little booboo compared with most underwater landslides, the source of most tsunamis.
Like the later 1755 tsunami that destroyed Lisbon and the Portuguese navigation and map secrets which were stored under guard in the Library.
Canary Islands origin.
1755 The Great Lisbon Earthquake and Tsunami, Portugal
https://www.sms-tsunami-warning.com/pages/tsunami-portugal-1755
The 1755 Lisbon Earthquake-Tsunami and the West Cork Coast
http://www.deepmapscork.ie/past-to-present/climate/1755-lisbon-earthquake-tsunami-west-cork-coast/
sidebars:
The Battle of Alcacer Quibir (also known as “Battle of Three Kings” ... or “Battle of Wadi al-Makhazin” ... in Morocco was fought in northern Morocco, near the town of Ksar-el-Kebir ... and Larache, on 4 August 1578.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Alc%C3%A1cer_Quibir
https://freerepublic.com/tag/muttonisland/index?tab=articles
“Been to Seville, great city.”
Ditto, been there every year since 2019.
Lovely place and very interesting in every way.
Just avoid it in July-August.
That’s the point.
The Guadalquivir, which loops around Seville, was and still is (though less so these days, after a lot of civil engineering) prone to destructive floods.
That’s why historically Seville wasn’t a real port, even in the days when it received the bulk of the trade of the Americas. The riverbank didn’t have wharves, it was just an extensive beach. Harbor facilities wouldn’t have lasted long.
Ah.
So it was Roman cow farts which triggered the apocalyptic wave.
(don’t tell czar ketchup)
Seriously, though: I’m gonna have to read this later. The sheer volume of water displacement is mind boggling, fjord or not.
Interestingly, there’s a movie called The Wave which dramatizes this effect in modern Norway.
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