Posted on 06/04/2008 12:58:10 PM PDT by blam
Tsunami or melting glaciers: What caused ancient Atlit to sink?
By Ofri Ilani
At the bottom of the sea, some 300 meters west of the Atlit fortress, lies one of the greatest archaeological mysteries of the Mediterranean basin. About 20 years ago, archaeologists discovered a complex of ancient buildings and ancient graves with dozens of skeletons at the underwater site of Atlit-Yam. The team of marine archaeologists that excavated the site, headed by Dr. Ehud Galili of the Israel Antiquities Authority, came to the consclusion that an ancient settlement once existed there, but sank beneath the surface of the sea some 8,000 years ago. The finds at the site, including goat and pig bones and wheat seeds, indicate that it was a well-established community whose residents supported themselves by agriculture, hunting, fishing and animal husbandry.
Over the past few months, a major argument has erupted among researchers over what caused the village and the surrounding region to flood. A few months ago, a team of geologists from Pisa, Italy published a paper that offers a dramatic theory about how the ancient settlement met its end. They claim that the settlement was submerged all at once by a tsunami in the Mediterranean, causing the death of dozens of its inhabitants. This theory attributes the tsunami to something that happened thousands of kilometers away.
About 8,300 years ago, there was a mighty volcanic explosion at Mt. Etna in Sicily. The Italian geologists examined the area of the volcano, which is still active today, and found that the explosion caused a tremendous avalanche of rocks to go tumbling into the sea. They came to the conclusion that this event gave rise to a giant tsunami that crossed the Mediterranean, reached its eastern shore and, among other things, caused the destruction
(Excerpt) Read more at haaretz.com ...
It was the aliens, just ask tom cruise.
Don’t be dissin’ the Engineers...My grandfather used to take me on his steam freight runs in N. Wisconsin in the ‘50’s. Good times!
I’ve had projects considered train wrecks before they were completed.
I think the break at the Dardanelles went the other way. The Black Sea was a fresh water lake at a lower level when the Med broke through and filled it up with salt water.
13 posts to arrive at the ancient SUV culture as a reason. I thought you folks were smarter than that. :-)
If you got to blow the whistle I’m jealous.
It just fell into a gia t sinkhole!
The salt water from the Mediterranean flooded the fresh water Black Sea 7600 years ago. It probably flooded this Atlit town at the same time.
Blew the whistle, held the throttle and once (only) tried to pull the brake lever which was as tall as I was and I couldn’t even squeeze the clutch closed! Some of the best times of my youth along with dawn fishing for walleye, fighting off the bears in the blueberry patches and my grandma’s venison stew...from the deer SHE shot.
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So you favor the school of thought that supports the "Rosie O'Donnel Event" theory?
A settlement (from the mainland, as determined by analysis of their rubbish containing bones from their food animals) on Cyprus also ended kinda sudden like about 8000 years ago.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prehistory_of_Cyprus#Aceramic_Neolithic
Marcus Heinrich Hermanns
Atlit Country - Israel Locality - Atlit
Coordinates Latitude: 32º4846 Longitude: 34º5714
Land excavations carried out by C. N. Johns, in the 1930s revealed a series of rock-cut shaft tombs and cremation burials along the SE part of the kurkar (sandstone) ridge. The burial and the settlement on the north coast were dated to the periods between the 9th and the 5th centuries BCE. While studying the Crusaders north walls, Johns found an older understructure beneath. It was at the ground level of the gate with a kurkar-paved passage and two flanking towers. The remains of the Phoenician harbor were first located in 1963, during underwater survey by a team from the Underwater Exploration Society of Israel (UESI). The mapping and trial excavations continued for two years (1963-1965), as part of the "Atlit Map Survey" carried out by the Archaeological Survey of Israel. In the following year (1966), surveys and trial excavations continued. A check was made on the relationship between the structures found along the shore and the gate discovered by Johns excavations, near the northern poterna, east of the crusader fosse. Additionally, the remains of a settlement from the 10th to the 6th BCE centuries were found east of the Crusader cemetery.
Within the northern harbor and the area around it were revealed several wrecks. In 1976, Dr. E. Linder and A. Raban (University of Haifa) carried out underwater excavations to study the marine structures, digging down to their foundations. In 1981, within the North Bay and close to the shore was found a very large bronze, one piece cast, battering ram (476 kg) known as the "Atlit Ram", dated to the Hellenistic period of the 4th - 2nd centuries BCE. Other finds were bronze objects from the Late Iron Age, Persian and Hellenistic periods, along with the ammunition from a Mameluk warship, including canons and copper helmets. In the early 1980, during the underwater surveys carried out by E. Galili from the Institute for Maritime Studies, University of Haifa was revealed the unique site of a Neolithic (7000 BCE) submerged village (7th-12th m). Excavations were carried out between 1984 and 1991.
Cultural context MB II age settlement and burials - Phoenican harbor and rock-cut shaft burials - Crusader Citadel and Fortress - Centuries 16th century BCE - 7th-5th centuries BCE - end of 1291 Crusader rule was ended by the Mameluk Empire
There is not enough data to give a precise date for the ancient harbor at Atlit. The pottery vessels found during the underwater surveys and trial excavations was not earlier than the end of the 7th century BCE. The mole at Tabat el-Hammam, is dated to the 9th century BCE. The parallels between Akko, Tyre and Sidon are not earlier than 6th-5th century BCE. The Atlit harbor being more sophisticated than that at Tabat el-Hammam, and the pottery finds within the harbor basin, permit an estimated date for its construction to the 7th century BCE or even later. The Hellenistic and Roman pottery finds are quite limited, thus one may assume that during these periods the harbor was not at its high pick and use...
(must have been written before globull warming...I assume it's the same place?)
ping
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GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach | |
Just updating the GGG info, not sending a general distribution. |
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