Bilkent University
The Department of Archaeology & History of Art
Newsletter No. 3 - 2004
Geoarchaeology and Environmental Change around
Kinet Höyük
Environmental research in
the
Kinet
Archaeology
Project has had several
objectives from the first
geomorphic work by F. S.
Ozaner in the early 1990s
(e.g., Ozaner 1994). One
ongoing objective is the
chronology and rates of
coastal
plain
formation
around the Höyük at Kinet.
Another objective is to shed
light
on
soils
and
geomorphic
questions
from the Höyük itself. A
third is to understand
environmental changes in
the
watershed
that
humans
might
have
caused or that might have
influenced ways of life at
different times in the past.
The general geoarchaeological focus is thus on
human
environmental
interactions over the long
period
of
Kinet’s
existence
on
the
Mediterranean coast.
Toward the goal of
understanding
coastal
plain formation over time,
we have built on Ozaner’s
mapping
and
aerial
photographic surveys by
studying
vertical
sequences through the
coastal plain along stream
cutbanks and in a group of
soundings
around
the
höyük.
We have used
sediment analyses, artifacts,
and radiocarbon dates to
estimate rates of coastal
plain aggradation.
Coastal Aggradation
The aggradation evidence
from the coastal plain
suggests a long term rate of
c. 1 m per millennium.
Aggradation proceeded in
three waves, starting with 1)
the filling of sediments on
top of Early Holocene terra
rosa paleosols, pedogenesis
of this fill; 2) aggradation
during the Bronze Age,
pedogenesis of the Bronze
Age fill; 3) aggradation
during
and
after
the
Hellenistic period, and then
spotty instability in Medieval
times.
Stream channel
dredging in the last three
Fig. 1 Dr. Tim Beach during
fieldwork in 2003
(Photo: B. Claasz Coockson)
decades has greatly altered
stream channels and the
sediment
supplies
for
coasts. We are now trying
to discern if these watershed
paleosol sequences are the
products of natural changes
such as climate or uplift or
connected to human land
use changes.
5
Sedimentation
The sedimentation rates
near the mound vary greatly.
since erosion and collapsing
structures contribute significantly to deposition rates.
The gross sedimentation
rate since the Medieval
period (approximately 800
years ago) is low, no more
than 50 cm. For the previous 1500 years, sedimentation rates have
been
tested
through
soundings around the site
to vary from 5.3 to 2.1 m.
They would date a higher
aggradation rate in the
Hellenistic period and
after. The sedimentation
of c. 4.8 m since the
Early-Late Bronze Age
indicates gross rates from
2.3 m per millennium
near the mound, to > 1.3
m at 1 km from it. A
detailed study has been
published in Beach and
Beach 2000.
These rates are higher
than the cutbank buried
soils, in the range of 1 m
per millennium. The Kinet
mound currently and
probably in the past
shows signs of high
erosion rates from its
steeply angled slopes. For
example, we have measured 12 cm rills and sapping
channels along its sides,
even under thick, annual
grasses.
Sedimentation Sources
We have now started to
identify the sources of
sediment in the watershed
for the sedimentation on the
coastal plain with the
evidence for tremendous
erosion around a Roman
settlement near the village
Bilkent University
The Department of Archaeology & History of Art
Newsletter No. 3 - 2004
of Karakase in the foothills
around the Özerli Çay,
several
km
into
the
mountains east of Kinet. In
2003, our team surveyed
many local informants about
sites and finds. The Roman
sites were heavily gullied,
(up to 1 to 3 m), and even
dissected into the soft,
weathered
serpentine
bedrock in places. We also
found colluvial sand and
gravel deposits that were 6
m deep over a ceramic
sherd, and 7 m deep over
an old red terra rosa, soil
that was the mid Holocene,
(probably Neolithic) surface.
This was the first time we
have been able to link
foothill
and
mountain
erosion with ancient sites.
Similarly, we discovered
similar erosion levels at
Kara Göl with Hellenistic
associations,
discussed
below, and at Kuzuculu in
the foothills along the Deli
Çay
near
a
Roman
farmstead (N36° 53.082,
E36° 14.300 at 110 m elev).
Finding evidence for high
quantities of erosion around
foothill and mountain sites is
important
because
it
provides another line of
evidence for human impact
on the environment. It also
results in the sedimentation
of the coastal plain, burying
stable surfaces, and the
sites around the mound.
This survey will continue in
2004 in eroded foothill and
mountain sites to attempt to
identify the spatial and
temporal extent of watershed erosion.
We have
already been able to study
where eroded sediment has
buried houses and roads in
the Coastal Plain, but in
2004 we hope to build on
the 2003 discoveries and
link this sedimentation with
the sources and quantities
of past erosion.
Coring Program
Cores
also
document
sediment deposits, and we
have successfully extracted
sediment cores from several
sites. First, we took four
cores from a wetland fen
site near a Roman road and
occupation site 6.42 km
north of Kinet along the E-5
highway (N36°
54.370',
E036°07.687').
This
wetland lies at c. 10 masl
and occurs where a spring
debouches along a fault
scarp, exposing conglomerate and limestone bedrock.
Fig. 2 The Deli Çay near the coast
line
Our 2002 Survey had
discovered more than 2 m of
organic sediment here. We
cored the north, central, and
east parts of the fen,
extracting over 1 m of
sediment, but we could not
penetrate to a greater depth
because
of
underlying
dense sands and gravels. A
radiocarbon date from near
the core’s bottom, at 120
cm, was modern, showing
rapid, recent sedimentation
on the upstream side of the
local highway.
6
We also scouted for another
coring site and found one at
Kara Göl, a lake in the
Amanos Mountains (N36°
59.742', E036° 17.212', c.
1250 masl, and 19.4 km NE
of Kinet). This lake was
formed by a landslide. A
Hellenistic occupation is
indicated by sherds along its
west side. We obtained a
core by wading into the lake
and sampling the sediment,
and extruded about 100 cm
of dense, sticky, organic
clay, with charcoal at the
bottom. This charcoal provided an AMS date of BP
1510-1315 (Cal 14C (2) 95%
P).
(Photo: B. Claasz Coockson 2003)
This core may also give a
pollen
record
for
the
centuries since the Late
Roman Period, and we hope
to resample this lake in
2004. We plan to study the
pollen, magnetic susceptibility, charcoal, and chemistry of these cores to answer
questions such as ecological
change over time, periods of
marsh and lake formation,
and human impacts on
these environments.
Bilkent University
The Department of Archaeology & History of Art
Newsletter No. 3 - 2004
Ancient samples
Another project involves
sampling
ancient
floors
excavated on the mound for
direct
evidence
about
human activity at different
times. We worked with site
excavators to decide which
floor levels would be the
most productive. Thus far,
we have studied elemental
signatures with inductively
coupled
plasma-atomic
emission spectroscopy (ICP
AES) on a chronological
basis
to
assess
how
elements vary from period to
period. With the current
samples we will use ICP
AES for spatial variation
across floors, to suggest
possible
activities
or
compare
supposed
activities.
This provides
another line of evidence
about what took place
across floors and the
composition of floor and wall
material.
The samples
already show a variety of
elements such as copper,
iron,
lead,
mercury,
strontium, and phosphorous
in parts per million and
billion levels (Beach and
Beach 2000; Beach and
Beach in preparation). We
collected samples across
Early
Bronze,
Middle
Bronze, Iron Age and
Hellenistic surfaces, and
many more samples are
now being analyzed.
Mound Formation
Another important question
is that of mound formation.
At Kinet, one such puzzles
is a curious stratum which
separates the Middle Bronze
level there from a medieval
one immediately above it. I
have identified this deposit
as a paleosol, an old soil
surface that must have been
a stable surface for a long
period of time because it
Fig. 3
K 10 during the 2003
season. In the section the main
deposits are clearly visible.
(Photo: B. Claasz Coockson 2003)
shows significant pedogenesis (soil development).
This deposit in places is a
gravelly clay loam and
elsewhere a clay loam with
a well developed granular
structure
that
clumps
textural particles together.
Its sequence starts at the
top (or ends in time), with a
Medieval slope wash and
transient settlement deposits. They overlie a sloping,
well sorted, large, rounded,
cross-bedded gravel deposit, capping a yellowish clay
loam, then the stratum of
interest, and the destruction
layer of the Middle Bronze
Age.
The cross-bedded gravel is
water-washed and probably
the result of local flooding.
The paleosol is a discrete
layer with abrupt boundaries
at its upper and lower limits.
It has a highly rounded and
mixed gravel and cobble
matrix throughout the exposure. It has some sherds
lying at all angles.
This
stratum thus shows both
stream action, since nearly
all
rocks
are
fluvially
rounded serpentines, and
mass movements, since the
rocks vary greatly in size
from sand to boulder, as do
colluvial deposits. Colluvial
deposits are usually not so
7
Bilkent University
The Department of Archaeology & History of Art
Newsletter No. 3 - 2004
well defined and evenly
deposited. The paleosol is
interesting because it has
high amounts of phosphorus (an indicator of past
fertilization or much bone),
copper, and different salts.
The paleosol is also topped
by an extensive, thin, low
energy water-lain deposit
(slack-water).
Radiocarbon dates from the
top and bottom of the
deposit give a range of cal
BC 1955 to 1625, which
shows a narrow range of
dates for a Middle Bronze
paleosol.
One possible
explanation for the deposit is
an enriched soil formed from
a flood deposit, mixed by
bioturbation and fertilized
with bone and shell. To shed
further light on formation, a
lab in Australia is analyzing
this sequence of sediments
with another battery of tests,
including elemental and
tephra analysis. A somewhat similar deposit occurs
on the northwest side of the
mound in trench M, involving
Bronze Age deposits.
In conclusion, we have
studied landscape formation
in the coastal plain and
watershed of Kinet, elemental chemistry in the watershed and at the höyük, and
environmental change in the
region. We have found a
complicated landscape that
has experienced high rates
of upland erosion and
coastal plain sedimentation.
In this landscape, sediment
moves down-slope through
mass wasting and erosion
off the steeply incised
mountain
valley
sides;
stores some sediment in
thick colluvial footslopes;
and conveys more sediment
down steep canyons that
debouch onto the coastal
plain
through
dynamic
channels
and
overland
floods. Its chronological
sequence is still developing
but, as in the Amuq Valley
← Previous Article
(Wilkinson 1999), the greatest evidence for landscape
instability is around the
Hellenistic or Roman period,
the Bronze Age, and early in
the Holocene when old terra
rosa soils were eroded and
buried by sedimentation.
These are only broad brush
strokes thus far but we hope
that more watershed survey
in 2004 will clarify the
geography and timing of our
resolution.
Beach,
T., and S. LuzzadderBeach,
2000.
Soil
Erosion
and
Geoarchaeology in the
Eastern Mediterranean.
Paper presented at the
Workshop on the Longterm Effects of Land-use
on Soil Erosion in a
Historical
Perspective.
European Society for Soil
Conservation.
Oxford
University,
15-17
September.
Luzzadder-Beach, S. and T. Beach.
In preparation. ICP-AES
Elemental Analysis of
Soils in Turkey and
Mexico.
MS
in
preparation.
S.
Redford, S., S. Ikram, E. Parr, and
T.
Beach.
2001.
Excavations at Medieval
Kinet,
Turkey:
A
Preliminary
Report.
Ancient Near Eastern
Studies 38: 58-138.
Wilkinson, T.J. 1999. Holocene
Valley Fills of Southern
Turkey and Northwestern
Syria:
Recent
Geoarchaeological
Contributions.
Quaternary
Science
Reviews 18:555-571.
Program in Science, Technology,
and International Affairs,
School of Foreign Service,
Georgetown University,
Washington DC 20057;
Email: beacht@georgetown.edu
Timothy P. Beach
Luzzadder-Beach and T.P.
Beach,
2000.
“Geoarchaeology around
Kinet,
Turkey.”Paper
presented
at
“Near
Eastern Archaeology at
the Beginning of the
Third Millennium AD, 2nd
International
Congress
on the Archaeology of the
Ancient
Near
East”.
Abstract in Proceedings.
University
of
Copenhagen, Denmark,
May 22-28, 2000.
Ozaner, F. Sancar 1994. Dörtyol Payas (Issos) Ovasi’nda
(Antakya)
Tarih
Çağlardan
Günümüze
Süregelen Jeomorfolojik
Değişikliklerin
Kinet
Höyük Üzerindeki Etkileri.
(Dörtyol - Payas (Issos)
Plain in Anatkya: The
Effects
of
Geomorphological
Changes
through History to the
Present at Kinet Höyük).
Araştirma
Sonuçlari
Toplantisi 12: 513-527.
8
Next article →