Stream Deposition in the Mediterranean Area in Historical Times

Abstract

C. VITA-FINZI1 has indicated that stream action during the Middle Ages caused rapid changes synchronously over large areas in the Mediterranean, producing in the valleys a flat-topped alluvial fill into which the present river channels were later cut. During field-work in western Turkey, I noticed similar deposits in most of the basins even as far north as Gordion (Polatli) on the Sakarya. Up to now these deposits have not been dated, but a detailed examination of the Kucuk Menderes delta (near Ephesus) showed that accumulation of sediment in the delta mainly occurred during the Hellenistic period (about 300–100 B.C.)2. The sequence of events in the delta could be dated by historical evidence; for a detailed discussion the reader is referred to the original paper. After a decrease in accumulation during the Roman period, almost no changes occurred from about A.D. 800 up to about 1935, when a canal was cut which shortened the river considerably and caused some new accumulation near the canal mouth. There is, of course, always the possibility that some time during the Middle Ages accumulation increased again and was followed by a period of severe marine erosion that obliterated all trace of the medieval accumulation, but this possibility seems to be rather remote, considering the regularity of the beach ridges that form the present coast.