Greece: Unstable Landscapes and Underwater Archaeology

Abstract

The submerged archaeology of Greece extends from the Palaeolithic to the early Byzantine period. It offers valuable information on some of the critical themes of Eurasian prehistory: hominin dispersals, settlement patterns, strategies of survival, population movements and sea voyaging, communication and trade, highenergy destructive events and climate change. This overview focuses on the prehistoric record. It includes partly or fully submerged palaeontological sites as well as archaeological sites. All these are testimonies to the more extensive coastal mosaic of biotopes that were available to prehistoric people prior to c. 4000 cal BP in the Holocene and during the cold and arid periods of the Pleistocene. They show coastal and maritime lifeways in dynamically changing landscapes connecting Asia and Europe. They are now located on the Greek continental shelf due to eustatic and isostatic change as well as the heavy imprint of tectonic activity.

Mid- to late-Holocene sea-level evolution of the northeastern Aegean sea

“…The North Aegean shores south of the Rhodope Massif generally show long-term subsidence. However, due to its fragmentation into different orogenetic blocks (Figure 1), the subsidence rates are not uniform between Thessaloniki and Enez (Galanidou et al, 2020; Jackson, 1994). In contrast, fault-bounded crustal blocks, such as the islands of Samothraki and Thasos and the Peninsula of Chalkidiki, act differently from this regional trend.…”

Shallow Offshore Geophysical Prospection of Archaeological Sites in Eastern Mediterranean

“…Thus, neither the equipment for deep-water exploration nor those used for dry land surveys can be directly employed in coastal areas. As a result, a number of archaeological sites in this shallow water environment are at risk of being excluded from the archaeological discourse on coastal area exploitation or just referred to solely as reference for sea level change across time [3].…”

Integrated Methodological Approach for the Documentation of Marine Priority Habitats and Submerged Antiquities: Examples from the Saronic Gulf, Greece

“…Therefore, the coastal zone was flooded, and prehistoric and historic evidence was submerged under the sea [29][30][31]. The maritime tradition in the Mediterranean has offered a wealthy repository of archaeological remains, submerged port facilities, settlements, and shipwrecks [32][33][34][35][36], while the geographic location of Greece and its widespread submerged landscapes favor the existence of findings related to hominin migrations and evolution, early seafaring, colonization and seaborn trade [37,38]. The earliest archaeological findings to date in Greece revealed early human occupation during the Lower Paleolithic (0.5 ma BP) [38], when that of the earliest modern humans' dispersal out of Africa were dated 210 ka BP [39].…”

“…The maritime tradition in the Mediterranean has offered a wealthy repository of archaeological remains, submerged port facilities, settlements, and shipwrecks [32][33][34][35][36], while the geographic location of Greece and its widespread submerged landscapes favor the existence of findings related to hominin migrations and evolution, early seafaring, colonization and seaborn trade [37,38]. The earliest archaeological findings to date in Greece revealed early human occupation during the Lower Paleolithic (0.5 ma BP) [38], when that of the earliest modern humans' dispersal out of Africa were dated 210 ka BP [39]. The first-ever recorded underwater archaeological survey was performed by the archaeologist C. Tsountas in 1884 A.D. [40], who attempted to find ruins from the historical Salamis naval battle using diving equipment and a long rod to validate the texture of the seabed's substrate.…”

“…Extremely shallow waters Marine geophysics is an essential tool in offshore coastal mapping, yet its efficiency is restricted up to specific depths. In extremely shallow waters, where archaeological remains are primarily apparent, including many marine priority habitats, the acquisition and interpretation of acoustic data are much more complicated, even in perfect weather conditions [38]. Recently, this gap has been efficiently covered by using cost-effective USVs equipped with sonars especially for extremely shallow waters or with underwater cameras that can be used to produce detailed 3D models through photogrammetry [125][126][127].…”