Tsunami Or Melting Glaciers: What Caused Ancient Atlit To Sink?

Haaretz ^ | 6-3-2008 | By Ofri Ilani

[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

[blam]

GGG Ping.

I'm choosing the melting glaciers/end of Ice Age as the cause of sinking.

[Just another Joe]

I postulate that a GREAT BIG FAT elephant sat on that portion of the land and it sank because it couldn't support the weight.

Either that or an earthquake maybe sank the portion of land beneath the waves.

[bert]

I thought the rise in the level of the Black Sea that broke the dam and formed the Bosporus caused the water level rise in the Med.

[RightWhale]

Polar shift did all that.

[thackney]

. He believes that changes in the climate about 8,000 years ago, which caused glaciers to melt and sea levels to rise, were responsible.

If a rise in sea level was cause, should not the Meditraian be littered with such underwater settlements? Would we not expect every river/shoreline have at least one?

[RightWhale]

should not the Meditraian be littered with such underwater settlements?

It is, hundreds of them.

[thackney]

Meditraian = Mediterranean

Meditraian ????

I don’t know how I came up with that spelling

Bad even for an engineer.

[stefanbatory]

I’m postulating that it sank along with the ancient continents of Atlantis and Lemuria right after their thermonuclear exchange that wiped out both populations.

Or Orca Winfrey was swimming nearby...

[Red_Devil 232]

I thought the flow of water was from the Med into the Black Sea when that happened.

[pabianice]

*cough*thegao’uld*cough*

[RightWhale]

There are not enough polar shift threads.

[steelyourfaith]

From the link:

"So what did cause the village to flood? Galili argued that the flooding was caused by a slow rise in the level of the Mediterranean that led to a gradual evacuation of the village. He believes that changes in the climate about 8,000 years ago, which caused glaciers to melt and sea levels to rise, were responsible. "The flooding occurred as the result of the melting of the glaciers, as is happening today," he said."

What? Impossible !
Surely climate change is exclusively the result of the SUV and the affluence of American freedom and capitalism only. < / sarcasm >

 

Calculate your one-day Carbon Belch !

[Waco]

Smokers!

[OESY]

Obesity!

[Bender2]

My guess is first a mega tsunami, then the rising sea as the ice age ends covers the site.

[Jim Noble]

Over the past few months, a major argument has erupted among researchers over what caused the village and the surrounding region to flood.

5 The LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. 6 The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. 7 So the LORD said, "I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth—men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air—for I am grieved that I have made them.

[raven92876]

ping

[tet68]

Baaaaah, waiting for it, George Bush’s fault!
Indigenious Mediteranian Minorites and children hit worst.

[HeartlandOfAmerica]

Bad even for an engineer.

Oh wow! Do you actually get to drive the whole train???

My hero!