Elaia, Pergamon's maritime satellite: the rise and fall of an ancient harbour city shaped by shoreline migration

Abstract

Throughout human history, communication and trade have been key to society. Because maritime trade facilitated the rapid transportation of passengers and freight at relatively low cost, harbours became hubs for traffic, trade and exchange. This general statement holds true for the Pergamenian kingdom, which ruled wide parts of today's western Turkey during Hellenistic times. Its harbour, located at the city of Elaia on the eastern Aegean shore, was used extensively for commercial and military purposes. This study reconstructs the coastal evolution in and around the ancient harbour of Elaia and compares the observed environmental modifications with archaeological and historical findings. We use micropalaeontological, sedimentological and geochemical proxies to reconstruct the palaeoenvironmental dynamics and evolution of the ancient harbour. The geoarchaeological results confirm the archaeological and historical evidence for Elaia's primacy during Hellenistic and early Roman times, and the city's gradual decline during the late Roman period. Furthermore, our study demonstrates that Elaia holds a unique position as a harbour city during ancient times in the eastern Aegean region, because it was not greatly influenced by the high sediment supply associated with river deltas. Consequently, no dredging of the harbour basins is documented, creating exceptional geo‐bioarchives for palaeoenvironmental reconstructions.

Meta-Analysis of Geomorphodynamics in the Western Lower Bakırçay Plain (Aegean Region, Turkey)

“…The increasing presence of Glomus-type fungi in the sediments from the harbor around 2.7 ka BP, along with an increasing sedimentation rate, indicators of torrential floods, and palynological proxies, point to increased land clearing and subsequent erosion inland after 2.3 ka BP [37,41]. This impact was much more pronounced in the vicinity of the major settlement around the bay compared to more distal locations [37]. The occurrence of torrential floods and consequent siltation presumably resulted in the abandonment of several coastal settlements and made the harbor inaccessible for certain types of ships whose draught exceeded water depth [38,39].…”

“…For Elaia, the "maritime satellite" of the ancient city of Pergamon [34,35] (the modern city of Bergama) (Figure 1), geoarchaeological and sedimentological studies are also available [36][37][38][39][40][41]. In the bay of Elaia, the construction of breakwaters and moles during antiquity had an impact on local sedimentation rates and styles [39,40].…”

“…This change in sediment dynamics was, however, not only due to the constructions of maritime structures and therefore a change in the local depositional environment, but also due to human impact in the contributing catchments [39]. The increasing presence of Glomus-type fungi in the sediments from the harbor around 2.7 ka BP, along with an increasing sedimentation rate, indicators of torrential floods, and palynological proxies, point to increased land clearing and subsequent erosion inland after 2.3 ka BP [37,41]. This impact was much more pronounced in the vicinity of the major settlement around the bay compared to more distal locations [37].…”

“…For details on the sediment sequences see Table 1. Database: TanDEM-X digital elevation model [45,46], rivers partly digitized from Open Street Map-data [47]; locations of sediments according to original publications [37][38][39][40][41][48][49][50][51].…”

“…Studies from the western lower Bakırçay plain revealed changed sediment dynamics in the context of historical settlements [37,49,50]: Fan development originating from the slopes around the acropolis of Atarneus started in the Bronze Age, around 3.1 ka BP. Colluvial sediments in the area date to the Middle-Late Iron Age (ca.…”