Pavlovski G. - Blazevska S., Archaeological Evidence for Earthquakes at Stobi, Monumenta 2/3, MASA, Skopje 2017/2018, pp. 49-82 (original) (raw)
Related papers
Historical seismicity, palaeoseismicity and seismic risk in Western Macedonia, Northern Greece
Journal of Geodynamics, 1998
Western Macedonia, Northern Greece, was a seismically quiescent region for one or more centuries, and was regarded as a nearly aseismic, rigid block inside a broad zone of distributed continental deformation and faulting, and a region of minimum seismic risk. Consequently, the May 13, 1995 destructive earthquake (M = 6.6) which hit this assumed aseismic zone was a surprise for scientists, government and population.
The Lykos Valley and Neighbourhood in Late Antiquity, eds. C. Şimşek and T. Kaçar, 2018
This paper assesses the evidence for earthquakes at Laodikeia and Hierapolis with particular attention to their impact on late antique urbanism. In particular it raises the considerable methodological problems that earthquakes pose to both archaeologists and historians working at these two important sites. A discussion of the textual sources for earthquakes in the Lykos valley show that they can be very difficult to use as ‘hard evidence’ for the date of particular seismic catastrophes recovered in excavations. However, the archaeological projects at Laodikeia and Hierapolis have both adopted current archaeoseismological approaches, and future work is likely to improve our understanding of the chronological sequence and impact of earthquakes in the region.
Two Inferred Antique earthquakes recorded in the Roman theater of Beit-Ras / Capitolias (Jordan)
2021
A Roman theater is recently being excavated at Beit-Ras/Capitolias in Jordan, which is one of the Decapolis cities, founded before 97/98 AD. This is an archaeoseismological study that aims to investigate temporal and intensity impacts on the existing structures. A rich set of Earthquake Archaeological Effects (EAEs) are identified, including deformed arches, tilted and collapsed walls, chipped corners of masonry blocks, and extensional gaps indicating a seismic intensity of VIII-IX. Contrary to the long lasting belief that the 749 AD event is the main candidate earthquake damaging most of the Decapolis cities, the study found that at least two major older earthquakes damaged the site and may have led to the abandonment of its major use as a theater at different periods. This is based on field observations of construction stratigraphy and damage features and on the assessment the observed destruction and on reports in literature. The date of the first event is bracketed between the e...
American Journal of Archaeology, 1972
The second campaign of the new excavations at Stobi in Macedonia by the University of Texas at Austin and the National Museum of Titov Veles contributed significantly to the study of the history of the ancient city.' Moreover, excavation of the Baptistery of the Episcopal Basilica (infra, Sections 8-9) indicates a somewhat unexpected grandeur at Stobi in the early Christian period; it also raises questions about liturgy in the churches of Macedonia. The project is sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution and, again, most of the funds were provided through its Foreign Currency Program.2 Excavation in I97I1 began 24 May and ended in most areas on 31 July. Work in the east parodos of the Theater, however, continued until 6 August and the Baptistery was not completely cleared until 13 August. 2. THE SITE Mapping of the ancient city and its environs has progressed enough to publish a portion of it (ill. I). The plan presented here includes most of the buildings discovered in previous excavations as well as those in the new areas, but in both cases only in the west and central parts of the city.4 The basis of the survey is a 2 m. grid generated from a datum point in the Central Fountain (ill. 1:17; a brass pin set in concrete is indicated by a crossed circle). The grid was developed by A. G. Grulich in 197o and he established a True North line, as well as a perpendicular at the datum point. The grid areas are 2 m. squares enclosed by lines parallel to those forming the original cross. Each grid area is designated by an abbreviation, N, E, w, s, indicating the direction from the datum point, which is accompanied by the number of the grid area counting sequentially from the datum point. The grid areas surrounding the datum point, then, are NI/Wi, Ni/Ei, SI/EI, SI/WI. To cite one more example, the entrance to the lower Via Axia (ill. i:I9) E of the Central Fountain lies in grid area NI/E2. The designations thus give an immediate and precise area location both in distance and direction from the Central Fountain. 1 A preliminary report on the 1970 season appeared in AJA 75 (971I) 395-41I, cited hereafter as W-MZ 1970. 2 We are grateful to the Smithsonian Institution for its continued support of the project and to the Ford Foundation for once again providing funds for the American student members of the staff. Numerous items of equipment were made available for the excavations by the University of Texas at Austin, the National Museums at Titov Veles and Prilep, and the Archaeological Museum at Skopje; our sincere thanks go to all these institutions and their administrative officials. The directors of the museums are Mr. Todor Gruev, Dr. Bo'ko Babi6 and Dr. Blaga Aleksova, respectively.
Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 92: 2961-2982
This article presents the results of research aimed at enhancing our knowledge of the active faults in southwestern Sicily, which is considered a low seismic hazard zone. The Selinunte archaeological park, the largest in the Mediterranean, with its great temples and evidence of spectacular collapses, is an information source that can be analyzed using the methodological approach of archaeoseismology. Having assessed the situation concerning the interpretation of the collapse in the literature (seismic and nonseismic events), we have proceeded to identify the seismic indicators at Selinunte, which has required a detailed analysis of both old and new archaeological evidence. We have reconstructed the history of the archaeological deposits, spoliation, and excavations. These data have been reevaluated in the light of the most recent research and of methodological criteria already successfully used in previous works on archaeoseismology. By means of a detailed and systematic critical analysis of the archaeological data, we have formulated a hypothesis arguing that two seismic events had actually struck Selinunte, leading to the collapse of the temples. One of the methods for this analysis is to visualize the direction of the temples' collapse, pinpointing congruent chronological phases. The results have allowed us to date the two earthquakes to a period between the fourth and third centuries B.C. for the first, and for the second between the sixth and thirteenth century A.D. This work has provided new information for the archaeological identification of seismic events in the total absence of written information.
The Alarming of the City of Stobi in the 6th Century AD
Within the field archeological excavations of the visual aspects of the early Byzantine castles on the territory of the Republic of Macedonia in the last decade, we discovered that exactly in the 6 th century AD. a system of visual signaling was planned and realized. It was a visual notice of nighttime fires in towns and villages about the impending dangers in the form of barbaric breakthroughs coming mainly from the northern late antique Danube provinces. Fig 1 Reconstructed route of the signal line through the territory of the Republic of Macedonia in the Late Macedonian Period (4-6 century AD), formed in the 6th century AD.
Geoarchaeological evidence on a Late Bronze Age earthquake, Ohrid Basin (North Macedonia
Geoarchaeological investigations on the northeastern shore of Lake Ohrid revealed 3.5 m thick deepwater lacustrine sediments overlying terrestrial vegetation macrofossils, worked wood and abundant potsherds dated to the Late Bronze Age (LBA). Distinct contact of deepwater sediment with the sub-aerial weathered limestone bedrock point to a sudden increase in lake level. According to radiocarbon data, catastrophic flooding occurred shortly after 1214 yr BC. Because the area is located in a highly active seismic zone, we propose that this event was caused by tectonically induced, metre-scale coseismic subsidence related to faults bordering the Ohrid alluvial plain. Moreover, this event coincides well with a dramatic switch in the habitation and settlement strategy in the region. More important, however, is the finding that the age of the proposed massive tectonic event and change in habitation lies within the interval of the proposed 'earthquake storm' in the eastern Mediterranean dated to 1225-1175 BC. As the Ohrid-Korça zone belongs to the same tectonic province, a relationship between the abovementioned earthquakes and the proposed event can be expected. This research therefore might provide the first direct evidence of a large-scale earthquake event linkable to the LBA collapse of Europe's first urban civilisation in the Aegean.
Understanding the 13 May 1995 western Macedonia earthquake: a paleoseismological approach
Paleoseismological research by means of trenching in the area that was affected by the Kozani-Grevena strong (Ms = 6.6) earthquake sequence, revealed evidence for past reactivations of the same seismogenic fault. Five trenches were excavated along the Palaeochori-Sarakina part of the fault, in which three surface faulting paleoevents were identified at ca. 8.97, 36.7 and 72.5 ka BP (TL dates). Recurrence interval based on these datings is about 30 ka, which is very long, verifying the 'low seismicity' status of the area. On this basis, the 1995 earthquake was an out of sequence event, because the elapse time since the last major event is 8.97 ka instead of 30. Assuming a constant rate of strain accumulation, this would also explain the small amount of surface displacement that was observed during the 1995 earthquake (maximum 18 cm, usually up to 10 cm) in respect to the displacements observed in the trenches (< 25 cm) for previous paleoevents.