Abstract
Tsunami events in antiquity had a profound influence on coastal societies. Six thousand years of historical records and geological data show that tsunamis are a common phenomenon affecting the eastern Mediterranean coastline. However, the possible impact of older tsunamis on prehistoric societies has not been investigated. Here we report, based on optically stimulated luminescence chronology, the earliest documented Holocene tsunami event, between 9.91 to 9.29 ka (kilo-annum), from the eastern Mediterranean at Dor, Israel. Tsunami debris from the early Neolithic is composed of marine sand embedded within fresh-brackish wetland deposits. Global and local sea-level curves for the period, 9.91-9.29 ka, as well as surface elevation reconstructions, show that the tsunami had a run-up of at least ~16 m and traveled between 3.5 to 1.5 km inland from the palaeo-coastline. Submerged slump scars on the continental slope, 16 km west of Dor, point to the nearby "Dor-complex" as a likely cause. The near absence of Pre-Pottery Neolithic A-B archaeological sites (11.70-9.80 cal. ka) suggest these sites were removed by the tsunami, whereas younger, late Pre-Pottery Neolithic B-C (9.25-8.35 cal. ka) and later Pottery-Neolithic sites (8.25-7.80 cal. ka) indicate resettlement following the event. The large run-up of this event highlights the disruptive impact of tsunamis on past societies along the Levantine coast.
Highlights
The aeolianite is overlain by red-brown loam with Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) age of 31.59 ± 3.20 ka (Unit F1; Fig 3; S1 and S2 Tables); the loam is barren of any flora and fauna and contains irregularly shaped hard calcareous and manganese nodules consistent with palaeosols that are widespread in the area [9]
Late Pleistocene to early Holocene-age sediments OSL dated to 14.94 ± 1.34 ka and 9.42 ± 0.85 ka, from samples received from the middle part of unit and its surface respectively, include dark greybrown homogenous organic-rich loam (Unit F2; Fig 3; Tables 1 and 2) with brackish microfauna and fresh to brackish plant remains (S1 Dataset) interpreted as fresh—brackish wetland deposits
S1 Fig. Borehole D4 with lithological classification, description, accompanying features, brightness differences, relative elemental concentration variations and OSL data obtained in the present study. (DOCX)
Summary
Multidisciplinary analyses of a large spatial and temporal dataset distributed across the Carmel coast was made with detailed site-specific coastal mapping, supplemented with three terrestrial boreholes and an underwater archaeological excavation conducted in the south Bay of Dor after attaining the proper permits from the Israel antiquities authority and Israel Natural Parks Authority.Compilation of existing datasetsSixty terrestrial and offshore borehole datasets were collected from previously published research and their X, Y and Z coordinates incorporated into a series of GIS (ESRI ArcGIS 10.7) tables. Multidisciplinary analyses of a large spatial and temporal dataset distributed across the Carmel coast was made with detailed site-specific coastal mapping, supplemented with three terrestrial boreholes and an underwater archaeological excavation conducted in the south Bay of Dor after attaining the proper permits from the Israel antiquities authority and Israel Natural Parks Authority. Low resolution terrestrial Digital Elevation Models (DEM) and bathymetric raster files (25 × 25 m bin size), soil maps, rectified historical aerial photographs and chronostratigraphic data were uploaded into ArcGIS and stored as one homogenous database after modification (Fig 2B). Photogrammetric remote sensing techniques were used to create a digital surface model (DSM) of the study area’s terrestrial part. The survey data was georeferenced with a South Galaxy G1 RTK-GPS collecting 63 ground control points (GCPs) distributed across the study area with a vertical and horizontal error no greater than ±7 cm. A total of 808 images and 43 GCPs were used and for photogrammetric reconstruction in Agisoft Photoscan on high settings, resulting in a 4.41 × 4.41 cm ground sampling distance (GSD) DSM, and an orthorectified photomosaic with an average 2 × 2 cm GSD
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