Oct. 14 Seminar: Lost Harbors and Ancient Storms: Geological Context for Black Sea Archaeology

Ilya Buynevich, Department of Earth & Environmental Science, Temple University

The Black Sea has a long historical record of intense storms, and occasional tsunamis, which had a profound impact on its coastline and ancient maritime activities. Changes in wave climate and storminess, extending beyond the documentary record of ancient Greeks and Romans, must be considered as operating in the background of sea-level trends to better explain the development of coastal landforms and the paleogeographic context of ancient settlements over the past 4,000-5,000 years.

Recent advances in geophysical methods and chronometric techniques are opening new possibilities to investigate the geological legacy of major climatic and oceanographic events. The talk will discuss the geological context of the northern Black Sea coastline that housed many of the important harbors of antiquity. An overview of the results of recent U.S.-Ukrainian expeditions will shed light on both recent and ancient (Byzantine) shipwrecks offshore Crimean Peninsula, when the vessels followed trading routes across the sea more than 1,000 years ago. Finally, we will explore the potential for future research aimed at identifying and dating geological signatures of extreme events along the northern Black Sea coast.