Geoarchaeology as a tool to understand ancient navigation in the northern Persian Gulf and the harbour history of Siraf
International audience; Historical texts and archaeological studies attest to the maritime and trade importance of the Persian Gulf since the Sassanid Empires. Nonetheless, there is a paucity of data regarding ancient navigation and the reasons for a shift in m aritim e trade from the western (e.g. Shatt-al-Arab) to eastern (Siraf) Persian Gulf by the Abbasid dynasty. For som e scholars, Siraf was occupied between 360 and 977 CE, after which tim e an earthquake en-trained the dem ise of the city. However, it is unclear when Siraf was founded and how natural navigation conditions changed for ocean-going vessels in harbours of the NW Persian Gulf. To address this knowledge gap, we here presen…
Climate change: A driver of future conflicts in the Persian Gulf Region?
Ongoing global change and its direct environmental impacts, in addition to securing economic transition to the post-oil era, could trigger complex socio-economic and political crises in oil-dependent economies of the Persian Gulf Region (PGR). To evaluate the role of climate change and related policies in degrading the environment and its socio-economic impacts in the PGR, we have used a variety of available global datasets and published data. The results show that the countries of the PGR pursue some types of socio-economic reforms to alleviate the impacts of climate change. However, it seems that these attempts are not compatible with the environment's capacity. The main problem stems fro…
Dynamiques géomorphologiques et typologie géoarcheologique des ports antiques en contextes lagunaires
En domaine littoral, dans un contexte de stabilisation plurimillenaire de la montee du niveau de la mer, une question qui se pose est celle de l’impact des conditions environnementales sur les choix d’implantation des communautes humaines qui s’installent autour des lagunes. L’historiographie a developpe des modeles plus ou moins deterministes mais survivent-ils a la confrontation avec les donnees environnementales recemment acquises? Quels ont ete les effets de ces occupations sur l’evolution du littoral et reciproquement, comment les societes anciennes ont utilise, contourne, surmonte ou pas les potentialites et contraintes environnementales specifiques liees a l’occupation des milieux la…
8000 years of coastal changes on a western Mediterranean island: A multiproxy approach from the Posada plain of Sardinia
Abstract A multi-proxy palaeoenvironmental investigation was conducted to reconstruct the Holocene history of coastal landscape change in the lower Posada coastal plain of eastern Sardinia. In the Mediterranean region, coastal modifications during the Holocene have been driven by a complex interplay between climate, geomorphological processes and human activity. In this paper, millennial-scale human-sea level-environment interactions are investigated near Posada, one of the largest coastal plains in eastern Sardinia. Biostratigraphic and palynological approaches were used to interpret the chrono-stratigraphy exhibited by a series of new cores taken from the coastal plain. This new study elu…
Late Holocene erosion of the Canopic promontory (Nile Delta, Egypt)
International audience; The mouths of the Nile Delta are sensitive coastal areas, their geomorphology primarily being mediated by relative sea-level rise and sediment supply. To further document the Holocene evolution of the Nile's Canopic mouth, a core was taken from the southern shores of Abu Qir Bay, close to the ancient Canopic channel. Core bio-sedimentology and chronostratigraphy highlight four stages of marine incursion which are juxtaposed upon the general progradation trend of the Nile coast in this area. Compiled age-depth points from sediment cores taken in Abu Qir Bay underscore two phases of negative sediment budget at the Canopic mouth: (1) a first period, between 3.5 and 2 ka…