The Swamps of Home: Marsh Formation and Settlement in the Early Medieval Near East

Eger, A. Asa

doi:10.1086/659093

Cited by 31 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…14), indicating that the deposition of this sediment has accompanied localised subsidence, presumably reflecting in part the local sediment loading and in part the local component of active extension. Furthermore, maps of palaeoenvironments prior to the Amik Basin being drained in the mid twentieth century (published, for example, by Yener et al, 2000;Çalışkan, 2008;Eger, 2011; show lacustrine and wetland environments in roughly the same location as this leftward step in the faulting, confirming the proposed causal connection between surface environments and active crustal deformation.…”

Section: The Amik Basinmentioning

confidence: 68%

The kinematics of central-southern Turkey and northwest Syria revisited

et al. 2014

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Central-southern Turkey, NW Syria, and adjacent offshore areas in the NE Mediterranean region form the boundary zone between the Turkish, African and Arabian plates. A great deal of new information has emerged in recent years regarding senses and rates of active crustal deformation in this region, but this material has not hitherto been well integrated, so the interpretations of key localities by different teams remain contradictory. We have reviewed and synthesized this evidence, combining it with new investigations targeted at key areas of uncertainty. This work has led to the inference of previously unrecognized active faults and has clarified the roles of other structures within the framework of plate motions provided by GPS studies. Roughly one third of the relative motion between the Turkish and Arabian plates is accommodated on the Misis-Kyrenia Fault Zone, which links to the study region from the Kyrenia mountain range of northern Cyprus. Much of this motion passes NNE then eastward around the northern limit of the Amanos Mountains, as previously thought, but some of it splays northeastward to link into newly-recognised normal faulting within the Amanos Mountains. The remaining two thirds of the relative motion is accommodated along the Karasu Valley; some of this component steps leftward across the Amik Basin before passing southward onto the northern Dead Sea Fault Zone (DSFZ) but much of it continues southwestward, past the city of Antakya, then into offshore structures, ultimately linking Central-southern Turkey and northwest Syria; Page 2; 30/12/2013 to the subduction zone bounding the Turkish and African plates to the southwest of Cyprus.However, some of this offshore motion continues southward, west of the Syrian coast, before linking onshore into the southern DSFZ; this component of the relative motion is indeed the main reason why the slip rate on the northern DSFZ, measured geodetically, is so much lower than that on its southern counterpart. In some parts of this region, notably in the Karasu Valley, it is now clear how the expected relative plate motion has been accommodated on active faults during much of the Quaternary: rather than constant slip rates on individual faults, quite complex changes in the partitioning of this motion on timescales of hundreds of thousands of years are indicated. However, in other parts of the region it remains unclear whether additional major active faults remain unrecognised or whether significant relative motions are accommodated by distributed deformation or on the many smaller-scale structures present. Highlights

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Section: The Amik Basinmentioning

confidence: 68%

The kinematics of central-southern Turkey and northwest Syria revisited

et al. 2014

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“…This transformed riverine lowland and intervening plains into a lacustrine and marshy plain of which only the fringes and eastern area could be regarded as dry cultivable land. As argued by Eger (2011) this transformation of the local ecology resulted in a significant degree of adaptation to the marshland environment by local communities. To the south within Syria, the Ghab Valley is a naturally marshy lowland which exhibited expanded marshes during the Hellenistic, Roman and Islamic Periods.…”

Section: Insert Figmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…9). In addition to withdrawing water from the river, excess water from the downstream (outfall) ends of canals and irrigation systems contributed to the development of marshes and shallow lakes during the late first millennium BC and first millennium AD (Wilkinson, 1997;Casana, 2003b;Eger, 2011). This process of marsh and lake development is evident in the form of the accumulation of lacustrine deposits over archaeological sites and palaeosols of former fields (Wilkinson 2010: fi.…”

Section: Insert Figmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…4). The main extent of the lake of Antioch is clearly post Late Bronze Age in date and, according to the Late Roman writers Libanius and Malalas, a lake was present in the early centuries AD; it then expanded further in early Islamic times to reach its maximum extent (Eger, 2011: fig. 3).…”

Section: Insert Figmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Major canals of Hellenistic through Early Islamic date diverted flow from the Afrin River, and in the eastern plains were used to supply settlements and presumably their irrigation systems with water. Ceramics on the associated sites date the later phase of canal construction to the early Islamic period, the 7 th and early 8 th centuries AD, (Eger, 2011), at which time the lake and its reed-fringed marshes appear to have expanded eastwards. Although it is likely that no single factor contributed to the expansion of the Amuq Lake and its marshes, a combination of accelerated alluvial deposition, flooding, riverine avulsions, increased runoff from the surrounding uplands, and the outfall of excess irrigation water from canals contributed to the development and growth of the lakes and marshes (Wilkinson 1997;Casana, 2004;Eger, 2011;Gerritsen et al, 2008).…”

Section: Insert Figmentioning

confidence: 99%

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