Mediterranean Resilience; Collapse and Adaptation in Antique Maritime Societies; Yasur-Landau; Gambash; Levy

Edited by

Assaf Yasur-Landau [+–]

University of Haifa

Assaf Yasur-Landau is Professor of Mediterranean Archaeology, Head of the Recanati Institute of Maritime Studies, founder of the Laboratory for Coastal Archaeology and Underwater Survey, and cofounder of the School of Archaeology and Maritime Cultures at the University of Haifa. He studies mobility, ancient economy, and human adaptation in the Mediterranean during the Bronze and Iron Ages. Currently, he codirects the excavations of the Canaanite palace at Tel Kabri and the underwater excavations at Tel Dor. Yasur-Landau has penned about a hundred articles and is the author or editor of eight books and volumes, including The Philistines and Aegean Migration in the Late Bronze Age (Cambridge University Press 2010, 2014).

Gil Gambash [+–]

University of Haifa

Gil Gambash is a classical historian studying the ancient Mediterranean. Former chair of the Department of Maritime Civilizations and former director of the Recanati Institute for Maritime Studies, Gambash is Professor at the University of Haifa. Co-founder and director of the Haifa Center for Mediterranean History, his current projects include a book on the maritime southern Levant and multidisciplinary research on arid areas and their interaction with the maritime sphere. Gambash was recently Leverhulme Visiting Professor at the Institute of Classical Studies at the School of Advanced Study, University of London.

Thomas Evan Levy [+–]

University of California, San Diego

Thomas Evan Levy is Distinguished Professor of the Graduate Division, Co-Director of the Center for Cyber-Archaeology and Sustainability at the Qualcomm Institute and inaugural holder of the Norma Kershaw Chair in the Archaeology of Ancient Israel and Neighboring Lands at the University of California, San Diego. With over forty years of archaeological field experience in Israel and Jordan, Levy’s current research focuses on marine and cyber-archaeology in Israel. He is Associate Director of the Center of Interdisciplinary Science for Art, Architecture and Archaeology (CISA3) at UCSD’s California Insitute of Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2). Levy is editor of Archaeology, Anthropology and Cult: The Sanctuary at Gilat, Israel (Equinox Publishing, 2006) and co-editor, with Thomas Higham, of The Bible and Radiocarbon Dating: Archaeology, Text and Science (Equinox Publishing, 2005). His most recent book, with his wife Alina and the Sthapathy brothers of Swamimalai is Masters of Fire: Hereditary Bronze Casters of South India (German Mining Museum, 2008). Levy is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Mediterranean Resilience examines various forms of adaptation adopted by coastal societies in the ancient Mediterranean in response to external pressures they occasionally experienced. The investigation spans the longue durée stretching from the epi-paleolithic to the Medieval period. Special attention is given to the impact of two groups of variables: climate and sea level changes on the one hand, and fluctuations in political circumstances connected with the domination of empires, on the other hand. For adaptation, the volume analyses modes of coastal residence, subsistence, and maritime connectivity, not as a static feature, constant throughout history, but as a process that requires permanent adjustments due to changes in environmental, social and political conditions. Methodologically, various forms of case studies are employed, isolating thematic issues, geographic micro-regions, temporal boundaries, and disciplinary perspectives, ultimately seeking to embrace as wide an array of phenomena as possible in the human experience of collapse and adaptation.

Series: New Directions in Anthropological Archaeology

Prelims

List of Figures and Tables vii-xii

Assaf Yasur-Landau,Gil Gambash,Thomas Evan Levy FREE

University of Haifa

University of California, San Diego

Preface xiii-xv

Assaf Yasur-Landau,Gil Gambash,Thomas Evan Levy FREE

University of Haifa

University of California, San Diego

Chapter 1

Introduction: Mediterranean Resilience, Collapse, and Adaptation in Antique Maritime Societies 1-9

Assaf Yasur-Landau,Gil Gambash,Thomas Evan Levy FREE

University of Haifa

University of California, San Diego

Chapter 2

Micro-geoarchaeology: An Essential Component in the Detection and Decipherment of Resilience, Collapse, and Adaptation [+–] 10-28

Ruth Shahack-Gross £17.50

University of Haifa

Ruth Shahack-Gross is Professor and geoarchaeologist at the School of Archaeology and Maritime Cultures, and directs the Laboratory for Sedimentary Archaeology at the Department of Maritime Civilizations at the University of Haifa. Trained in both geology (BSc and MSc, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem) and anthropological archaeology (MA and PhD, Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri), her research focuses on questions related to human behavior, subsistence practices, human-environment interactions, and archaeological site formation processes. Shahack-Gross conducts research in coastal and marine archaeology through small-scale geoarchaeologically focused excavations at Tel Dor (Middle Bronze Age, Iron Age) and Dor South (Early Bronze Age).

Since its inception, geoarchaeology has proved to be essential to the discipline of archaeology. Traditional geoarchaeology, a research field closely linked to geomorphology and pedology, contributed important insights regarding societal resilience, collapse, and adaptation, primarily through studies of regional environmental changes. The aim of this paper is to present a conceptual framework in which micro-geoarchaeology, the field of research that focuses on the study of anthropogenic material culture remains from a microscopic perspective, plays a pivotal role in addressing societal resilience, collapse, and adaptation. The dialogue between macro- and microscopic archaeological evidence used to address these broad subjects is discussed, along with three case study examples from the Mediterranean region.

Chapter 3

A Multi-Method Approach for Studying Environmental-Human Interaction: A Case Study from Dor, the Carmel Coast in Israel [+–] 29-51

Gilad Shtienberg,Michael Lazar £17.50

University of California, San Diego

Gilad Shtienberg is a Koret Postdoctoral fellow at University of California, San Diego. He specializes in the theoretical and practical aspects of landscape processes that occur in the ever-changing coastal environment. His research interests include investigating the complex environment–human interactions from prehistoric times to the modern period, while gaining a unique perspective on social vulnerability to environmental changes. Shtienberg’s studies rely on a multidisciplinary approach incorporating field surveys, borehole coring, sediment analysis, radiometric dating, and surface and subsurface remote sensing techniques. He integrates the produced datasets through Geographic Information System platforms, enabling a holistic, transdisciplinary understanding.

University of Haifa

Michael Lazar is a geophysicist and founding member of the Department of Marine Geosciences, Charney School of Marine Sciences, University of Haifa, Israel. His current research focuses on shallow geophysical applications, from neotectonics to archaeology and Holocene landscape evolution. Michael has also been a professional artist for over 20 years, combining the two worlds of art and science.

Shallow marine, atmosphere, and land systems converge at the coastal zone, acting as agents that modify its morphological and lithostratigraphic characteristics through time. This interface is also known to be rich with archaeological remains and ancient constructions, remnants of prehistoric and historic civilizations whose population was drawn to the moderate temperatures and abundance of resources. Thus, a systematic surface/subsurface mapping and assessment of proxies embedded in the shallow marine and terrestrial parts of the coast are critical for reconstructing paleolandscape changes and can serve as the basis for examining environment-human interactions through time. Here, a workflow is proposed for reconstructing the land-sea interface in four dimensions (X, Y, Z, t). The proposed workflow builds on an ongoing project conducted along the Carmel Coast in northern Israel by establishing an onshore-offshore chronostratigraphic correlation through an amalgamation of elevation raster grids and subsurface data collected by remote sensing techniques, as well as lithological datasets, all acquired by surveying the shallow shelf and terrestrial parts of the coast. The applied methodology and spatiotemporal integration discussed here could be of use in other multidisciplinary investigations conducted in similar high-energy coastal settings aimed at evaluating past environmental changes and targeting the location of prehistoric archaeological sites. Furthermore, this protocol can be utilized for assessing human reaction, adaptation, and resilience to environmental changes.

Chapter 4

The Maritime Neolithic: An Evaluation of Marine Adaptation in Eastern Mediterranean Prehistory [+–] 53-65

Chelsea Wiseman £17.50

Flinders University and the University of Haifa

Chelsea Wiseman is a Bolaffi Postdoctoral Research Associate (Maritime Archaeology) at Flinders University in South Australia. In her PhD, which Weisman completed under a cotutelle agreement between Flinders University and the University of Haifa, she presented a comparison of methodological approaches for locating submerged landscape archaeology. Weisman’s current research focuses on geophysical and 3D recording
techniques for maritime archaeology.

In eastern Mediterranean prehistory the earliest known exploitation of marine resources dates to the Paleolithic, while the emergence of distinct maritime adaptation and intensified use of marine resources corresponds with the development of sedentary lifeways and agricultural economies in the Neolithic. However, the extent of maritime adaptation and its role throughout the Neolithic requires further investigation. The aim of this paper is to address this issue by presenting a synthesis of published archaeological sites ranging from the Epipaleolithic to the Late Neolithic to analyze variation in prehistoric marine adaptation from across the eastern Mediterranean, including the southern and northern Levant, Cyprus, and Anatolia. This allows us to conceptualize the “maritime Neolithic” on a regional scale. Through analysis of the material cultural indicators of maritime adaptation identified in prehistoric contexts, it is possible to move toward the characterization of the use of marine resources at different sites, ranging from limited use of aquatic resources to intensive fishing economies. The analysis of these sites in a broader context indicates variation in the role of marine resources in subsistence economies on a regional scale and highlights the potential for further investigation.

Chapter 5

The Early Bronze I Coastal Settlements of Israel: A New Phenomenon or Part of a Long-Lived Settlement Tradition? [+–] 66-91

Roey Nickelsberg,Ruth Shahack-Gross,Assaf Yasur-Landau £17.50

University of Haifa (PhD candidate)

Roey Nickelsberg is a PhD candidate at the Department of Maritime Civilizations, University of Haifa. His research focuses on maritime archaeology in the eastern Mediterranean, exploring ancient coastal settlement patterns, resource management, and trade networks through the combined examination of traditional archaeological finds and microarchaeological indicators. Roey has earned a master’s degree, also in Maritime
Civilizations, and a bachelor’s degree in Archaeology with a minor in Government and Politics from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. He has led several archaeological projects in Israel both on land and underwater.

University of Haifa

Settlement patterns along Israel’s Mediterranean coast during the Chalcolithic period and Early Bronze Age (EB) I have been heavily debated over the years. The collapse that ended the Chalcolithic period is evidenced by the abandonment of settlements in the central Coastal Plain, followed by resettlement of the southern coast during EB I. The new settlement pattern was largely attributed to the rise of Predynastic Egypt that emerged during this time. This work examines a contrasting hypothesis, that settlement patterns along the entire Israeli coast from the Early Chalcolithic to EB IB represent a long-lasting phenomenon of resilient coastal villages. In order to examine this hypothesis, we created a database documenting every site within 10 km inland from the coast, from the Gaza Strip in the south to Rosh Ha-Niqra in the north, that was surveyed and/or excavated (between 1972 and 2020), looking into presence (or lack thereof) of Chalcolithic and EB I phases, occupation intensity (where possible), and types of remains. The results reveal a continuous settlement along the entire Coastal Plain rather than a breakage and a subsequent new pattern. They portray a long-lasting coastal village tradition rather than the emergence of new coastal settlements in EB I, testifying to the resilience of coastal villages and their ability to adapt to changes in the region.

Chapter 6

Cypriot Pottery as an Indicator of Adaptive Trade Networks [+–] 92-114

Brigid Clark £17.50

University of Haifa (PhD candidate)

Brigid Clark is a PhD candidate of Maritime Civilizations within the School of Archaeology and Maritime Cultures at University of Haifa, where she also completed an MA on the same topic. Her research focuses on Bronze Age Mediterranean archaeology, Cypriot ceramics and chronology, and Cypro-Levantine maritime trade. Brigid has worked throughout the eastern Mediterranean, including at Hala Sultan Tekke, Erimi-Pitharka, Tel Kabri, and Dor-Yam.

Mediterranean connectivity, including trade, is an adaptation to the local conditions. Temporal changes in pottery imports reflect adaptation of maritime trade systems to economic, social, political, and environmental changes. In this paper I investigate the connection between diachronic changes in Cypriot imports to the southern Levant throughout the Middle Bronze Age and contemporary political and social processes. The eighteenth century BCE saw a paradigm shift within ancient Near Eastern connectivity networks, as networks formerly dominated by the powers in Mesopotamia and Anatolia turned their attention toward the Mediterranean. In the Middle Cypriot period Cypriot imports were integrated into the Levantine littoral systems, which suggests the rise of maritime trade as adaptive behavior both in Cyprus and within the emerging Levantine urban systems. Trade was further expanded during the sixteenth century BCE and in the transition from the Middle to Late Bronze Age, with an increase in the amount as well as the types of Cypriot ceramic imports to the southern Levant. This change is contemporary with the rise of (proto-)urbanism in Cyprus and the last phase of Hyksos rule, coinciding with the rise of the Eighteenth Dynasty in Egypt. This study includes the first results of an integrated analysis of Cypriot imported pottery found at Levantine maritime gateways, including Akhziv and Kabri, as well as inland hubs like Megiddo.

Chapter 7

The Collapse of the Mycenaean Palaces Revisited [+–] 115-127

Philipp Stockhammer £17.50

Ludwig Maximilian University Munich

Philipp W. Stockhammer, Ph.D., is Professor for prehistoric archaeology with a focus on the Eastern Mediterranean at the Ludwig Maximilian University Munich and co-director of the Max Planck-Harvard Research Center for the Archaeoscience of the Ancient Mediterranean, Jena. He studied prehistory, classical archaeology, and ancient history at the Universities of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Brussels, and Tübingen. In 2008, he earned his PhD in at Heidelberg University where he worked until 2016 as postdoctoral researcher. In 2013, he received the venia legendi for prehistory at Basel University. He is heading several large collaborative research projects on the Bronze and Early Iron Age in Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean. His research focuses on intercultural encounter, mobility, food, social practices and the integration of archaeological and scientific data.

For a long time, 13th century in the Aegean has been considered as a peaceful period marked by rather stable, local communities and the large-scale exchange of commodities most emblematically materialised by the Mycenaean palaces of the Argolid. In contrast to that, the 12th century seemed to be characterised not only by the end of the palaces and all connected societal institutions but also by human mobility together with a rather neglectable scale of the exchange of commodities. The year 1200 BC was considered as the peak of the crisis which has been taken as an explanation for the assumed ground-breaking shifts between the two centuries. In my contribution, I want to go beyond simplifying narratives and take a more differentiated view on what transformations took place at the end of the 13th century or already during its course. I want to show that major changes already seem to have taken place in the second half of the 13th century and continued into the 12th century and thereby relativise the year 1200 BC as a hallmark of the developments. I will demonstrate the shifts of the Mediterranean network of mobility of humans and objects during the 13th century and in the early 12th century with a strong focus on the archaeological evidence from Tiryns. This will lead to a revaluation of the historical developments in the 13th century and show that the breakdown of the palatial system is the result of socio-political transformations over ca. 50 years.

Chapter 8

A 12th-Century BCE Shipwreck Assemblage Containing Copper Ingots, from Neve-Yam, Israel [+–] 128-155

Ehud Galili,Dafna Langgut,Ehud Arkin Shalev,Baruch Rosen,Naama Yahalom-Mack,Isaac Ogloblin Ramirez,Assaf Yasur-Landau £17.50

University of Haifa

Ehud Galili (PhD) is a marine archaeologist and research fellow at the University of Haifa,
Israel. He is an advising professor, co-directing the project BEFOREtheFLOOD, who has
been studying the submerged Neolithic settlements off the Carmel Coast since 1984. Galili has conducted underwater archaeological surveys off the Israeli coast and established and directed (1990–2004) the marine unit of the Israel Antiquities Authority. As a member of the national Committee for the Protection of the Coastal Environment since 2004, he produced policy documents and risk assessment surveys aimed at managing and protecting underwater heritage. His research interest include submerged settlements, sea level changes, coastal tectonics, ancient shipwrecks, cargoes, fishing instruments and salt production, and underwater heritage.

Tel Aviv University

Dafna Langgut is Head of the Laboratory of Archaeobotany and Ancient Environments and Senior Lecturer at the Department of Archaeology at Tel Aviv University, Israel. Langgut specializes in the study of past vegetation and climate based on the identification of botanical remains (pollen and wood-charcoal remains). Through this discipline, she considers the past relationship between humans and the environment—for example, human dispersal out of Africa and the beginning of agriculture. Langgut’s research also involves the identification of plant remains from archaeological contexts. Her studies address issues such as fruit-tree cultivation, diet, plant usage, plant migration, and ancient gardens.

University of Haifa

Ehud Arkin Shalev is a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, University of Haifa, and Adjunct Lecturer at the Ono Academic College. He has earned a PhD in Maritime Civilizations and a bachelor’s degree cum laude in Economics. Arkin Shalev is a maritime archaeologist who has excavated and surveyed extensively underwater. His interests are in eastern Mediterranean historic and
protohistoric seafaring cultures, and his current research focuses on Iron Age maritime economic strategies, with an emphasis on shifting niche markets.

Independent scholar

Baruch Rosen, born in 1935 in Tel Aviv, earned his BSc at the University of Washington, and a PhD at North Carolina State University in 1969. Rosen was Senior Scientist and Head of the Food Science Laboratory, at the Ministry of Health of Israel and taught courses in Food and Agriculture Sciences at the Faculty of Agriculture, Hebrew University at Rehovot and courses on paleo-subsistence at the Institute of Archaeology, Tel Aviv
University. Retired, Baruch volunteers at the Israel Antiquities Authority and is currently an independent scholar in archaeology and history of material culture, with research interests and publications in food science, food microbiology, food in antiquity, ancient and traditional subsistence systems, and general marine archaeology.

Hebrew University

Naama Yahalom-Mack is an associate professor at the Institute of Archaeology, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and holder of the Nahman Avigad Chair in Biblical Archaeology. She is a codirector of the Tel Abel Beth Maacah excavations and the head of the Laboratory for Archaeological Materials and Ancient Technologies. Her research interests focus on archaeometallurgy, the provenancing of archaeological materials
as a proxy for reconstructing ancient trade interaction, and the incorporation of scientific analytic methods in archaeology.

University of Haifa

Isaac Ogloblin Ramirez, an underwater geoarchaeologist, is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Haifa. His main interest is deciphering submerged prehistoric sites using micro-geoarchaeology. Ogloblin Ramirez works at terrestrial and underwater sites throughout the Mediterranean and participates in four projects, (1) investigating pyro-technology during the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze at ‘Ein Asawir (Israel); (2) collaborating with the ERC project BEFOREtheFLOOD, studying submerged Neolithic sites off the Carmel Coast (Israel); (3) codirecting underwater surveys in Sicily to detect the earliest human occupation of the island (Italy); and (4) exploring the Antikythera shipwreck (Greece) as a geoarchaeologist and diving member.

University of Haifa

A shipwreck assemblage from the Neve-Yam bay is described, reevaluated, and discussed in relation to the associated artifacts recovered at its site, including copper ingots, stone anchors, hematite weights, bronze artifacts, and pottery. Taking into consideration the site formation and postdepositional processes and the possible dating of the various finds, based on their typology, a radiocarbon date, and the suggested provenance of the copper ingots in the ‘Araba Valley, the cargo is dated to the transition period between the Late Bronze Age and the Iron Age (twelfth century BCE) known as the “crisis years.” The maritime activity and trading routes of metal in the eastern Mediterranean during these years are discussed, suggesting that the Neve-Yam shipwreck provides direct evidence for inland and maritime transport of copper during this time, when evidence for international maritime activity along the Syro-Canaanite-Anatolian coast is scarce. A holistic view from the Middle Bronze Age till Iron Age II is provided, indicating the oscillations of Mediterranean maritime activities, based on the underwater and inland finds from the southern Levant.

Chapter 9

The Collapse of Cultures at the End of the Late Bronze Age in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean: New Developments, Punctuated Equilibrium, and Further Questions [+–] 156-166

Eric H. Cline £17.50

The George Washington University

Eric H. Cline is Professor of Classics and Anthropology and Director of the Capitol Archaeological Institute, at George Washington University, in Washington DC. A National Geographic Explorer, NEH Public Scholar, Getty Scholar, and Fulbright Scholar, with degrees from Dartmouth, Yale, and the University of Pennsylvania, he is a field archaeologist with more than 30 seasons in Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Cyprus, Greece, Crete, and the United States, including at Megiddo and Tel Kabri. He is the author or editor of 22 books and nearly 100 articles, either solo or as cooperative efforts. Translations of his books have appeared in 19 languages.

In order to put some of the other papers within this workshop into context, this paper presents a brief and rapid overview of the events that took place at the end of the Late Bronze Age in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean. However, in an effort to bring things up to date, it also includes a summation of some of the additional work that has been done recently, including new scientific work involving ancient pollen in Syria, Israel, Egypt, and Cyprus; isotopic signatures and other indicators from lake sediments in Turkey, Syria, and possibly Iran; oxygen isotope studies from stalagmites and mineral deposits within caves in Greece and Israel; and other relevant studies. It concludes with a brief look at several questions about the human element to the Collapse that still remain to be answered, including whether they were aware that the entire world system as they knew it was coming to an end.

Chapter 10

Anthropogenic Erosion from Hellenistic to Recent Times in the Northern Gulf of Corinth, Greece [+–] 167-186

Katrina Cantu,Richard Norris,George Papatheodorou,Ioannis Liritzis,Dafna Langgut,Maria Geraga,Thomas Evan Levy £17.50

University of California, San Diego (PhD candidate)

Katrina Cantu is a Ph.D. student at UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography.Her primary research interest is how environments change over time, and how these changes as well as humanenvironment interaction can be studied through the collection and analysis of sediment cores. Her methods include identification of microfaunal and macrobotanical remains, sedimentological analysis, isotope analysis, XRF core-scanning, and stratigraphy. Katrina’s field work has taken her to Israel’s Carmel Coast and Puerto Rico to collect sediment cores and assist in both terrestrial and underwater excavations. She works with Scripps Center for Marine Archaeology researchers Profs. Tom Levy, Dick Norris, and Isabel Rivera-Collazo and has a BS and MS in Earth Sciences, both completed at Scripps Institution of
Oceanography.

University of California, San Diego

Richard Norris is Distinguished Professor of Paleobiology at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego. He has a long oceanographic research career working on micropaleontology of the open oceans, warm climate dynamics, and human impacts on marine ecosystems. His research is built around Scientific Ocean Drilling where he has led two expeditions, sailed on four others,
has been an author of numerous drilling proposals, and has served on the scientific panels and program offices that direct this international effort. He has also led oceanographic cruises to the North Atlantic, Mediterranean and NE Pacific in addition to land-based field studies in Greece, Israel, Sicily, the Alps, South Africa New Zealand, Australia and western North America. He is the Curator of the SIO Geological
Collections and has worked to set up the Scripps Center for Marine Archaeology, to link archaeological records to environmental history. His training includes a BS from UC Santa Cruz, a MS from the University of Arizona, a Ph.D. from Harvard University and experience as a postdoc and research scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Norris is author of 143 research papers and 7 books.

University of Patras

George Papatheodorou is Professor of “Environmental and Geological Oceanography” in the Geology Department and Dean of School of Natural Sciences of the University of Patras. He is/was coordinator of many national, international and EU-funded research projects. He has carried out marine geoarchaeological surveys in Alexandria of Egypt, in Croatia, Cyprus, Corsica, Italy and in Lebanon. He has also conducted marine surveys in many archaeological sites of Greece (Cape Sounio, Poros and Dokos Islands, ancient harbours of Zea, Mounichia and Kyllene, Naval Battles of Navarino and Lepanto, ancient shipwrecks in Ionian and Aegean Seas). He has more than one hundred (100) publications in International Refereed Journals with more than 3000 citations.

Henan University, China

View Website

Ioannis Liritzis is Distinguished Professor of Archaeometry-Natural Sciences-Archaeo-environment at Henan University, China and serves as Dean of Class IV (Natural Sciences) at the European Academy of Sciences and Arts (Salzburg) since 2020. He specializes in Natural Sciences in archaeology, cultural heritage, and geo-environment, though he has researched a range of multidisciplinary fields during his career. Liritzis was
included in the 2021 Stanford list of top 2% ranked scientists in the world. The founder of two international journals (in Scopus and WoS) and member of editorial boards of over 30 Scopus indexed journals, he has also published more than 300 papers and books (www.liritzis.eu).

Tel Aviv University

University of Patras

Maria Geraga is Professor of Archaeological Oceanography at the Geology Department of the University of Patras, Greece. Her research focuses on paleoceanography, paleoclimatology, and mapping of underwater cultural and natural heritage sites. Geraga has conducted paleoceanographic studies in marine sediments of shallow and deep waters from the Aegean, Ionian, Levantine, and Red Seas and adjacent gulfs. She has
participated in underwater geo-archaeological projects in Greece, Cyprus, Egypt, Croatia, Italy, Corsica and Lebanon. She has published more than 60 peer review scientific articles and many chapters in books.

University of California, San Diego

The problem of soil erosion due to human activities such as deforestation, pastoralism, and agriculture has long been recognized. Greece, like much of the of the Mediterranean world, is particularly susceptible to soil loss, due to the arid climate and steep, rocky terrain, and previous studies have sought to date this soil aggradation and to attribute it to human activity, climatic changes, or a combination of the two. This study uses near-shore sediment cores from Antikyra Bay, in the Gulf of Corinth, to understand the sources and timing of erosional events in the study area of the Kastrouli-Antikyra Bay Land and Sea Project. Sedimentological analysis and radiocarbon dating of foraminifera and twigs show that there are two major periods of soil aggradation in this record: the first occurred in the Hellenistic and/or Roman period (ca. 1900–2100 BP), and the second started in the Ottoman period (ca. 350 BP) and persists today. In addition to documentation of soil aggradation, two paleo-shorelines were identified during the geophysical survey. A local relative sea level curve constructed for this study suggests the shallower of the two is between ~7.7 and 8.7 thousand years old, while the deeper feature formed around 8.9 to 9.7 thousand years ago.

Chapter 11

Cultural Resilience in the Hellenistic Southern Levant [+–] 187-205

Eleonora Bedin £17.50

University of Haifa (PhD candidate)

Eleonora Bedin is a PhD candidate at the School of Archaeology and Maritime Cultures at the University of Haifa, Israel, where she is also part of the Recanati Institute for Maritime Studies and the Haifa Center for Mediterranean History (HCMH). With a solid background in epigraphy and ancient languages, her research focuses on the micro and macro effects of Graeco-Roman globalization in the Mediterranean basin, through sociocultural and religious adaptation, continuity, and change.

Throughout antiquity, coastal Mediterranean societies frequently adapted their cultural constructs in response to challenges in their routine and changes in their environment. Most of the crises portrayed in this volume and the modes of adaptability devised to meet them would have found representation in the cultural aspects of gradually changing societies. In the Hellenistic Levant, when influential Hellenism followed Hellenistic conquest, two complementary strategies were adopted for securing the resilience of both state and identity. Aimed mostly outwardly, symbols and motifs participating in the universal language of power—such as language, coinage, and official deities—were quickly adopted by elite groups and the administration, aimed to encourage international recognition. Internally, however, traditional elements preceding Hellenism were preserved, and the adoption of change occurred gradually, often resulting in syncretistic creations combining old and new. It is the purpose of this article to analyze this phenomenon through perspectives relevant to adaptation and resilience, focusing on the coastal cities of the Hellenistic southern Levant—namely, Ptolemais-Ake, Dora, Joppa, and Ascalon, as well as on the Hasmonean dynasty.

Chapter 12

Negev Fragility and Mediterranean Prosperity in Late Antiquity [+–] 206-221

Gil Gambash £17.50

University of Haifa

The prosperity of the southeastern coast of the Mediterranean and its hinterland during the Byzantine period is well attested in literary and material sources. Much of the evidence for this prosperity comes from commercial activities that would have relied, more or less heavily, on the maritime medium. The intense connectivity that emerged at one point between the Negev settlements and Mediterranean networks generated knowledge, influence, and wealth in both directions and played a significant part in nurturing a rapidly growing desert economy, which declined and collapsed no less rapidly some two centuries later. This article offers an initial evaluation of the involvement of the Negev routine within widely regional networks, ultimately seeking to demonstrate the extent to which its resilience was determined by, and dependent upon, Mediterranean dynamics and market forces.

Chapter 13

Collapses and Renascences: What the Maya and the Old World Have in Common [+–] 222-236

Geoffrey E. Braswell £17.50

University of California, San Diego

Geoffrey Braswell is a Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, San Diego. He also has taught at the University of Buffalo, the Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán, and the Universidad del Valle de Guatemala. His archaeological research focuses on the ancient economy and political structure of the Maya, as well as long-distance relations with the civilizations of central Mexico. Best known for his research at Chichen Itza and Copan and in southern Belize and the Kaqchikel highlands of Guatemala, Braswell is the author of more than 120 articles and editor of five books about the ancient Maya of Mexico and Central America.

The Classic Maya Collapse of AD 800 is a subject of great speculation as well as research. What is not widely appreciated is that this was but one of several cyclical collapses and cultural rebirths that took place in the rainforests of Mexico and Central America over a 2,600-year time span. Following Bárta’s “laws,” I argue that dramatic collapses—which are triggered very rapidly (perhaps by climate instability) and seem like punctuated events—are the result of long-term cultural processes. Moreover, the cyclical nature of growth, stability, and collapse appear to be inherent to ancient civilizations, and perhaps to our own.

End Matter

Index 237-253

Assaf Yasur-Landau,Gil Gambash,Thomas Evan Levy FREE

University of Haifa

University of California, San Diego

Reviews

This book is a largely useful volume encompassing many different periods while remaining focused on the effects of crises on various societies, yet not necessarily only coastal ones. Furthermore, the book is well balanced between investigative chapters presenting new information and chapters reviewing the available literature. The quality of research in most of the chapters is generally high. All in all, this volume is a worthy addition to the corpus on coastal societies’ adaptation to crises.
Antiquity

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Books and Journals in Humanities, Social Science and Performing Arts

Mediterranean Resilience

Collapse and Adaptation in Antique Maritime Societies

Assaf Yasur-Landau [+–]

University of Haifa

Gil Gambash [+–]

University of Haifa

Thomas Evan Levy [+–]

University of California, San Diego

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