Searching for Neolithic sites in the Bay of Kiladha, Greece

Beck, Julien; Koutsoumba, Despina; Sakellariou, Dimitris; Surdez, Morgane; Anselmetti, Flavio S.; Papadopoulos, Nikos; Morfis, Ioannis; Rousakis, G.; Oikonomou, Dimitrios; Simyrdanis, Kleanthis; Cantoro, Gianluca; Argyriou, Athanasios V.; Emery, Patrizia Birchler; Krijnen, Ayla; Tsampouraki-Kraounaki, Konstantina

doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2020.12.025

Cited by 5 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…The bay has been subject to systematic underwater archaeological survey within the period of 2013–2018, including the mapping of the visible architectural structures, the collection of artefacts, and the study of the pottery. The results from this work enhance the significance of the specific approach to plan a targeted and more systematic archaeological excavation campaign in the future, extending the preliminary excavation efforts that have been focused on very small trenches up to now (Beck et al ., 2020).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Archaeological prospection in ultra‐shallow aquatic environments: the case of the prehistoric submerged site of Lambayanna, Greece

Papadopoulos¹,

Oikonomou

Cantoro

et al. 2021

Near Surface Geophysics

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Over the last three decades, multicomponent geophysical prospection has given a new perspective in the domain of inland archaeological prospection. However, the complexity and constantly evolving environmental regime encountered in the transition zones has so far limited the implementation of these technological advancements towards the understanding of the past dynamics in littoral and ultra‐shallow offshore environments. The main objective of this work is to appropriately adapt, test and validate the efficiency of diverse geophysical mapping and imaging methods for reconstructing the ancient built environment below a relatively thin water layer. The submerged prehistoric site of Lambayanna in Greece was used as an ‘open laboratory’ to explore in situ the resolving capabilities and limitations of marine three‐dimensional electrical resistivity tomography and multisensor magnetic gradiometry, as well as terrestrial ground‐penetrating radar. The geophysical mapping covered more than 4.4 hectares of the shallow marine and coastal part of the site with high spatial resolution. The data processing followed a specific flowchart to enhance the signal and the subsequent integrated analysis showed a number of candidate targets buried below the seabed, providing strong indications to support the hypothesis for the existence of an ancient submerged man‐made environment in the bay. The results demonstrate the complementary nature of applying multiple geophysical methods to under‐explored shallow offshore archaeological contexts in order to provide useful information for understanding the complex archaeological sites around the Mediterranean. The successful transfer of established geophysical methods into the ultra‐shallow aquatic environment comprises the major innovative aspect of this work. Thus, in view of climate change and the risks related to future sea‐level rise and erosion of low‐level coastal areas, the proposed research model can be integrated into a wider strategic framework for the sustainable management of coastal cultural resources.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Archaeological prospection in ultra‐shallow aquatic environments: the case of the prehistoric submerged site of Lambayanna, Greece

Papadopoulos¹,

Oikonomou

Cantoro

et al. 2021

Near Surface Geophysics

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“…Loke et al, 2020) that minimize the processing time of very large aquatic tomographic data can render ERT a novel tool in the service of archaeological investigation of coastal and shallow marine sites. The general guidelines can be integrated in wider geoarchaeological projects (Beck et al, 2021) to extract quantitative new information about submerged cultural material that is inaccessible to the standard mapping techniques, mapping the vertical stratigraphy and identifying potential geomorphological features that are useful to reconstruct the dynamics and evolution of coastal and shallow submerged archaeological sites.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Practical considerations for shallow submerged archaeological prospection with 3‐D electrical resistivity tomography

Papadopoulos

Oikonomou

Simyrdanis

et al. 2021

Archaeological Prospection

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Direct current electrical resistivity method has experienced significant breakthroughs during the last decades with the development of advanced instrumentation and sophisticated inversion algorithms. These have substantially benefitted the field of archaeological prospection to extract quantitative information for the buried archaeological material in a complete three-dimensional (3-D) context. The obvious continuation of past human occupation and associated settlements in the ultra-shallow part of coastal zones generated the necessity to compile methodologies for mapping submerged cultural assets. This study investigates the efficiency of dynamic floating and submerged 3-D Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT) for mapping archaeological relics buried beneath the sediments in ultra-shallow marine environments. Extensive testing is performed through numerical simulation and 3-D inversion of synthetic apparent resistivity tomographic data. The generic resistivity model including a complex resistive structure embedded in a stratified conductive environmental regime simulated typical scenario of an archaeological feature submerged below the sea water layer. Different array configurations including Dipole-Dipole (DD), Gradient (GRD), Reciprocal Wenner (RecWEN) and Wenner-Schlumberger (WS), which can be appropriately programmed for continuous off-shore measurements with associated multichannel resistivity instruments, are validated in order to determine the most efficient one for such surveys. Densely spaced multiple parallel two-dimensional (2-D) ERT lines along a single direction composed the survey layout to extract the 3-D apparent resistivity data set for the different electrode arrays using a 3-D finite element program. The synthetic tomographic data were corrupted with 3% Gaussian noise and inverted with an iterative smoothness constrained inversion algorithm. The comparative results from the various tested arrays manifest the superiority of the DD in reconstructing the optimum resistivity inversion model for both the floating and submerged survey modes. Additional tests were made concerning the resolving capabilities of ERT with variable seawater thickness and target characteristics.Although accurate 'a priori' information regarding the water resistivity and thickness are essential for constraining the 3-D inversion, erroneous estimation of these parameters can result to misleading results, especially for submerged survey modes.The simulation of floating and submerged 3-D ERT surveys through synthetic modelling documented the benefits of such approach in reconstructing structured cultural

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Coastal prehistory and submerged landscapes: Molluscan resources, shell-middens and underwater investigations

Bailey

Hardy

2021

Quaternary International

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Searching for Neolithic sites in the Bay of Kiladha, Greece

Cited by 5 publications

References 13 publications

Archaeological prospection in ultra‐shallow aquatic environments: the case of the prehistoric submerged site of Lambayanna, Greece

Archaeological prospection in ultra‐shallow aquatic environments: the case of the prehistoric submerged site of Lambayanna, Greece

Practical considerations for shallow submerged archaeological prospection with 3‐D electrical resistivity tomography

Coastal prehistory and submerged landscapes: Molluscan resources, shell-middens and underwater investigations

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