Exploration of the Canal of Xerxes, Northern Greece: the role of geophysical and other techniques (original) (raw)
Related papers
The Canal of Xerxes: summary of investigations 1991–2001
The Annual of the British School at Athens, 2003
WHEN King Xerxes of Persia in 483-480 BC prepared his invasion of Greece, part of his programme concerned the construction of a ship canal across the Mount Athos peninsula: this would allow his fleet accompanying the invasion army to avoid the dangerous Mount Athos headland where in 492 BC an earlier invasion fleet under Mardonius had come to grief. Our information about Xerxes having dug such a canal goes back mainly to the account written in the fifth century BC by Herodotus, 1 but the subject remained a matter of considerable interest and continued to be written about by ancient and more recent authors. Attitudes towards Herodotus' account varied from acceptance to partial or total disbelief: an important statement is that by Demetrios of Skepsis (who lived about three centuries after Herodotus) who, apparently on the basis of first-hand information, stated that there was indeed a canal where it had been dug into soft and easily worked ground, but not where the projected route went across rocky ground near its southern end, which made the digging of a canal impossible. In more recent times, a number of main points of discussion emerged. Firstly, were there still signs that a canal had once crossed the Mount Athos isthmus from north to south where it is narrowest between the modern settlements of Nea Roda and Tripiti? This was answered affirmatively by travellers visiting the neighbourhood, and the makers of three main survey maps constructed respectively, in the eighteenth century, by the French nobleman Choiseul-Gouffier, in the early nineteenth century by the British naval lieutenant, T. Spratt, with his surveying party and in the early twentieth century by the German engineer, A. Struck, working alone. 2 They all pointed to the existence of a canal in the central part of the shortest line across the Athos isthmus; that this was situated in a reach of high ground (which our own measurements have shown to be up to 15.7 m above present sea-level), but gently sloping north and south. This raised another question: was a canal dug below sea level even across such a zone of high ground, or was a diolkos-a slipway along which ships would be dragged from sea to sea-constructed over part or all of the route? Both answers have found advocates. Struck was of the opinion that locally the canal must have been dug very deep; on the other hand, E. M. Cousinery in his book (referred to by Struck) suggested there was a slipway paved with wood, along which ships could be dragged over rollers.^ Yet another suggestion was that the ground traversed by the canal was at sea-level when it was dug, but had been elevated to its present raised position by earth movements since antiquity.4 About very recent suggestions of lesser but still important earth movements we shall have more to say later. There is finally the question of the length and width of the canal (if canal it was) and of its depth and cross-section(s), all under dispute.5 All told it can be said that as late as 1990 the most basic fact concerning the canal remained in doubt. It will be our endeavour to show that it did exist and is in fact (as has not always been recognized) a major monument
A new look at the Butic Canal, Egypt
E&G Quaternary Scientific Journal , 2021
The Butic Canal-a Roman period transversal route across the northern Nile Delta-was the longest artificial watercourse in the Nile Delta, yet it remains very poorly understood. To date, the canal has not yet been verified by archeological excavations. The route of the eastern section of the canal has been indirectly identified based on a linear elevated feature most likely representing earth from the excavation of the canal. This study combines the analysis of historical sources and remote sensing data, such as satellite imagery and the TanDEM-X digital elevation model, in order to discuss its date of construction, route, and functions. Based on the data of the digital elevation model, new construc-tional features are visible in the eastern delta providing the first detailed route of a Roman-era artificial watercourse in Egypt. It is suggested that the canal's construction is placed in the context of imperial investments in the infrastructure of the eastern part of the Roman empire. Kurzfassung: Der Butische Kanal war eine römerzeitliche Querverbindung durch das nördliche Nildelta. Obwohl er die längste künstliche Wasserstraße des Deltas darstellt, ist unsere Kenntnislage über diesen Kanal sehr gering. Bis heute ist der Kanal nicht durch archäologische Ausgrabungen verifiziert. Der Verlauf eines Abschnitts des Kanals im östlichen Nildelta wurde indirekt durch eine lineare Struktur iden-tifiziert, die höchstwahrscheinlich den Aushub des Kanals repräsentiert. Dieser Artikel kombiniert die Analyse historischer Quellen und Fernerkundungsdaten, wie Satellitenbilder und das TanDEM-X Digitale Höhemodell, um die Datierung, die Route und die Funktionen des Kanals zu diskutieren. Auf der Grundlage der Daten des Digitalen Höhenmodells sind im östlichen Delta bestimmte bauliche Merkmale des Kanals erstmals genauer erkennbar. Dadurch kann die erste detaillierte Route eines Ab-schnittes einer römerzeitlichen künstlichen Wasserstraße in Ägypten rekonstruiert werden. Es wird vorgeschlagen, die Errichtung des Kanals im Zusammenhang mit imperialen Infrastrukturprojekten in der Osthälfte des römischen Reiches zu verstehen.
The Isola Sacra Survey, 2020
This chapter provides additional evidence for the Portus to Ostia Canal. It first presents a detailed analysis of the sediments in the geoarchaeological boreholes drilled at three different points along the line of the canal and its immediate vicinity. These confirm its identification as a navigable watercourse, even though there remains some uncertainty as to whether the Isola Sacra 1 and 2 shipwrecks were deposited in the canal or in an associated palaeo-lagoon close to the ancient coastline. The study suggests that the canal was probably dug in the Trajanic period, had various phases of use, and that it was abandoned in the early third century AD. The second part of the chapter comprises a study of these two shipwrecks.
Les ports de l'espace méditerranéen antique, 2016
The Roman canal, which was found using magnetometer survey in Isola Sacra (Tiber delta, Italy) in 2009 is fundamental to our understanding of the relationship between Portus and Ostia, which constitute the core of what has been defined as the « port system » of Imperial Rome. This article presents the preliminary results of a stratigraphical study of the canal in an attempt to reconstruct its morphology, phases of activity and eventual disuse. In order to achieve this, three cores were drilled at the widest point of the canal in order to analyse the deposits, while an Electrical Resistance Tomography (ERT) profile was undertaken to correlate the core sequences. The study of the results of this fieldwork suggests four periods of use. A first phase comprises a straight canal running between the Fossa Traiana (Fiumicino) and the natural mouth of the Tiber near Ostia (Fiumara Grande). A second phase is marked by a lateral mobility of the northern part of the canal, this means that the canal took a new route (CPO-2 core) while the earlier course had been sedimented (core CPO-3). This new stretch of the canal was probably disconnected upstream from the Fiumicino and filled-in with fine sediment (core CPO-2). Finally, a fourth phase of use appears with a later recut of the second phase of the canal, most likely for agricultural purposes. With a depth of between 3 and 4 meters below the Roman sea level respectively, the first two canals would have been navigable by many kinds of ancient boats but not larger vessels. These phases of canal activity are in the process of being given absolute dates.
In: C. von Carnap-Bornheim/F. Daim/P. Ettel u. a. (Hrsg.), Harbours as object of interdisciplinary research. Archaeology + history + geosciences. RGZM Tagungen 34 (Mainz 2018), 2018
Big navigable canals – fossata magna – are crucial parts of the European harbour network in the 1st millennium AD. By means of canals, site conditions at transition zones of the transportation network were artificially modified. Water depths and fairway widths of canals reflect specific requirements regarding the accessibility of inland harbours and waterways in the adjacent transport zones. These requirements significantly depend on the size of ships. In our study we present a supraregional and diachronic comparative approach, integrating canal parameters and ship findings. Our pivotal point is the Fossa Carolina or fossatum magnum (Germany), constructed in 793 AD to bridge the main European watershed. The 8th-century Kanhave Canal was cut through an isthmus on Samsø island (Denmark) to avoid a lengthy detour and to offer direct access to a safe natural harbour. The Fossa Corbulonis, built around 50 AD by Roman military, bridged the watershed between the Rivers Waal and Maas (Netherlands) to avoid a dangerous coastal route.