The Pre-Pottery Neolithic Site of Atlit-Yam
The Pre-Pottery Neolithic Site of Atlit-Yam
| Submerged Prehistoric Settlements |
Several Neolithic settlements dating from the 9th to the 7th millennium BP (uncalibrated C14) have been exposed on the seabed along the Carmel coast. The sites include a Pre-Pottery Neolithic C (PPNC) settlement calledAtlit-Yam, and five Pottery-Neolithic (PN) settlements belonging to the Wadi Rabah culture. |
| Atlit-Yam | ||
The site of Atlit-Yam is situated some 200-400 m offshore, at a depth of 8-12 m and extends over an area of ca. 40000 m2. Radiocarbon dates for the site gave a range of 8180-7550 years BP (uncalibrated). The architectural finds consist of stone-built water-wells, foundations of rectangular structures, series of long unconnected walls, round installations, ritual installations and stone-paved areas. In addition, 65 human skeletons were discovered in both primary and secondary burials. In at least four of the male individuals, an inner ear pathology – auditory exostosis – caused by diving in cold water, was observed.
Faunal remains consisted of bones of wild and domesticated animals, including domesticated sheep/goat,pig and dog and cattle on the verge of domestication, as well as numerous remains of marine fish. The fish remains included more than 6000 bones, most of them belonged to Balistes carolinesis, (the grey trigger fish), and a few to Serranidae, Sparidae, Sciaenidae, Mugillidae and other fish families. Artifacts made of stone, bone, wood and flint were also recovered, as well as large quantities of botanical remains, including seeds of domesticated wheat, barley, lentil and flax. Some of the artifacts and plant remains may be associated with fishing. The archaeological material indicates that the economy of the site was complex and was based on the combined utilization of terrestrial and marine resources involving plant cultivation, livestock husbandry, hunting, gathering and fishing. The Atlit-Yam site provides the earliest known evidence for an agro-pastoral-marine subsistence system on the Levantine coast. |
| Megalithic Installations
|
||
A ritual installation of megaliths was found at the Atlit-Yam site. It consists of seven stones (1-2.1 m long), six of which are still standing upright, forming a circle (diameter ca. 2.5 m) open to the northwest. The bases of the standing stones are covered with gray travertine attesting to the presence of fresh water in the past. Close to the standing stones to the west, a few flat stone slabs (0.7-1.2 m long) were found lying horizontally. On some of them were hewn shallow cup-marks. It is suggested that these features formed part of a ritual structure, perhaps associated with a fresh-water spring that may have existed at the site. Another installation consists of three oval stones (1.6-1.8 m), two of which are circumscribed by grooves forming schematic anthropomorphic figures.
|
| Stone-built well from Atlit-Yam | ||
The well was excavated down to its bottom (5.5 m below sea bottom, 15.5 m below sea-level); the sediments fill contained animal bones, stone, flint, wood and bone artifacts, in addition to charcoal and waterlogged botanical remains. The finds indicate that in its final stage, it ceased to function as a water-well and was used instead as a desposal pit. The change in function was probably related to salinization of the water due to a rise in sea-level. The wells from Atlit-Yam had probably been dug and constructed in the earliest stages of occupation (the end of the 9th millennium BP) and were essential for the maintenance of a permanent settlement in the area.
|
The Israel Antiquities Authority writes:
“Megalithic Installations…. A ritual installation of megaliths was found at the Atlit-Yam site. It consists of seven stones (1-2.1 m long), six of which are still standing upright, forming a circle (diameter ca. 2.5 m) open to the northwest. The bases of the standing stones are covered with gray travertine attesting to the presence of fresh water in the past. Close to the standing stones to the west, a few flat stone slabs (0.7-1.2 m long) were found lying horizontally. On some of them were hewn shallow cup-marks…. It is Another installation consists of three oval stones (1.6-1.8 m), two of which are circumscribed by grooves forming schematic anthropomorphic figures.”
I have been able to decipher this megalithic structure as a Planisphere of the Heavens:
The megalithic structure at Atlit-Yam shows the heavens from Scorpio to Canis Minor (it could be Canis Major if Canis Major was seen as being within the Milky Way), specifically including those star groups, as well as Sagittarius, Ophiuchus, Corona Borealis, Boötes, Virgo, Leo, Gemini, Auriga, Perseus, Cassiopeia, Cepheus, Cygnus, Aquila, Ursa Major and Draco. All of the stars represented are WITHIN the elllipse of the Milky Way and the outer wall of the megalithic structure represents that Milky Way.
Rivaling Atlantis? The Top 10 Submerged Cities Around the World
It’s the kind of myth that has always had the power to fascinate people: a beautiful, wealthy and sophisticated ancient city is swallowed up by forces beyond man’s control, destroyed by the sea and earthquakes. There are examples around the world of these mythical submerged cities. We not only have Atlantissomewhere in the Atlantic Ocean, but in Taiwan there’s the legend of the submerged Mudalu, in Wales there is a drowned city called Cantre’r Gwaelod and a similar story tells the tale of Ys, a drowned city off the coast of Brittany in France. They are all myths that continue to intrigue us with their combination of mystery, apocalypse and sobering element of possibility.
The Atlantis scenario still resonates in the 21st century; as our own technology, engineering and architectural abilities give (some of) us the impression that our city-bound lives are almost immune to the forces of nature, there are plenty of examples from history of once thriving cities and communities that have succumbed to the sea.
It’s a threat that is becoming even more real in the 21st century. With sea levels predicted to rise between 28-43cm this century (IPCC 2007 estimate) and many major cities around the world currently on or below sea level, there’s a likelihood that in a few centuries there will be several more submerged cities for the archaeologists of the future to explore.
Much of Rotterdam is already several metres below sea level and depends on some of the biggest and most advanced sea barriers ever built. Other cities such as Maputo in Mozambique cannot afford to build adequate sea defences (according to this BBC report). Meanwhile Venice seems to be sinking steadily, New Orleans has already seen the devastating results of a breech in its levées after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and other major cities such as New York and London are also at risk from predicted sea rises.
So there seems to be little that humans can do to prevent nature having its way and even some of our most iconic cities could eventually become no more than adventure playgrounds for fish. If past evidence is anything to go by, this isn’t such a far-fetched possibility. To see what they would have to contend with, take a look at this top 10 list of ancient cities now providing havens for scuba divers and snorkellers.
1. Heracleion and Cleopatra’s Palace, Alexandria, Egypt
Perhaps the most grand and famous of all drowned cities,Heracleion was the port city of Alexandria, Egypt. It was the port of pharoahs and emperors dating back to the 12th century BC, while the living quarters of Cleopatra have been discovered nearby.
Heracleion was named after Hercules, who is believed to have visited the city along with Helen of Troy. But in the eighth century disaster struck and Heracleion was hit by earthquakes and floods, which destroyed the city, submerging it – along with Cleopatra’s Palace – in the Mediterranean. In 2000 the site was re-discoveredby a team of French underwater archaeologists, who have since found hieroglyphic tablets of stone, gold jewellery, amulets, coins and plates. The temple of Amun has been discovered as well as colossal statues dating from the late pharaonic period. A team led by French underwater archaeologist Franck Goddio has also found the site believed to be Cleopatra’s palace, which was abandoned soon after her suicide in 31 BC.
2. Baiae and Portus Julius, Italy
Baiae was one of the ancient Roman towns that overlooked the Bay of Naples. Once the seaside playground of rich Romans (an ancient St Tropez), many emperors spent time at their villas there.
Baiae was connected to one of the Roman empire’s biggest naval bases, Portus Julius, built in 37-36 BC and home to the Classis Misenensis, Rome’s formidable fleet.
Portus Julius and Baiae were built on a tract of volcanic land that was given to seismic movements, known as the Phlegraean Fields.
With time the volcanic activity meant that part of the land subsided, with the result that Roman villas, much of the structure of the port and other structures are now only visible to scuba divers or visitors on a glass-bottomed boat.
3. Dian Kingdom, China
The Dian people lived in China’s Yunnan province between the fifth century BC and the first century AD. They lived around Dian Lake (or Kunming Lake), at an altitude of almost 2km above sea level.
The Dian were accomplished artisans and produced bronze vessels and sculptures, which typically depicted scenes of hunting, dancing and other every-day activities and included wild animals such as tigers and oxen. Their territory included Lake Fuxian, partially in Yunnan province, where ancient ruins have been discovered beneath the surface.
It has been suggested these could be the remains of the capital city of the Dian people, which was destroyed by an earthquake and flood that killed all of the city’s inhabitants in 110 AD.
4. Pavlopetri, Greece
The Mycenaean town of Pavlopetri, off the southern coast of Greece near the modern town of Neapolis, is several metres under water.
Although the Mycenaean period dated from 1600-1100 BC, Pavlopetri dates back to the Neolithic period according to ceramics that have been found at the site, making it the oldest known submerged town. Pavlopetri was an important trading hub in the eastern Mediterranean until it became submerged abruptly around 1000 BC.
5. Caesarea Maritima, Israel
Caesarea Maritima(renamed Caesarea Palaestina in 133 AD) was a city and port built by Herod the Great during 25-13 BC. Herod used complex building techniques and hydraulic concrete to build a massive harbour for his city jutting out into the sea.
It was a bold construction that made an impressive entrance to the Roman city in the eastern Mediterranean – it was the largest artificial harbour built in the open sea at the time it was built during the first century.
But as with many superlative man-made structures (eg., the Titanic, the Channel Tunnel), Herod’s moles soon ran into problems. They had been built so quickly that some of the concrete used inside them hadn’t been properly mixed and this weakened the arms of the harbour. There was a tsunami during the first and second centuries AD and furthermore the harbour lay on a seismic fault line, which would have caused subsidence. The harbour had subsided and was abandoned by the sixth century AD.
In 2006 an underwater museum opened in Caesarea Maritima offering snorkelling and scuba diving tours of Herod’s harbour.
6. Atlit-Yam, Israel
It wasn’t just cities from the classical Greek and Roman periods that were consumed by the Mediterranean – Neolithic settlements have also been found on the sea bed. Off the Carmel coast in Israel, about 15km south of Haifa, between 200-400m out to sea and at a depth of up to 12m, are the remains of a settlement that is about 8,000 years old. Atlit-Yam covers an area of about 40,000 square metres and includes seven stone megaliths at a ritual site (six of them still upright), stone water wells, stone walls, foundations for rectangular buildings, paved areas and burials sites. Sixty-five human skeletons have been found at the site (according to the Israel Antiquities Authority) – some of which showed signs of inner-ear disease caused by diving in cold water. Animal remains at the site include many types of fish bones, wild animals and some, such as cattle, which were semi-domesticated.
Atlit-Yam is the earliest known site on the Levantine coast that shows a society based on agriculture, domesticated animals and marine hunting. It would have been a complex economy, using diverse resources for survival. This would have come to an end somehow – who knows how or when – when sea levels rose and left Atlit-Yam many metres below the surface. Nearby are five other submerged Neolithic settlements from the Wadi Rabah culture.
7. Dunwich, UK
Until the the 15th century Dunwich, on the coast of East-Anglia in England, was a thriving city, a centre for Medieval trade that rivalled even London in terms of its prosperity at that time. But the city was cut off in its prime by coastal erosion and surging tides. Most of Dunwich is now no more than a ruin on the sea bed.
Four hundred houses were destroyed by the storms of 1328 and 1348, along with priories, churches and a windmill.
While archaeologists are unsure of the whereabouts of all these structures, a project is under way to map the coastal area with acoustic imaging technology.
8. Dolichiste and Simena, Turkey
Kekova is an island about half a kilometre off the southern coast of Turkey, south-west of Antalya. It was the site of the ancient cities of Dolichiste and Simena, which were part of ancient Lycia – but little is left of the cities except for submerged ruins off the island’s coast.
Lycia was a region of Anatolia and established a Lycian League of ancient cities in 168 BC, with its capital at Patara. The Romans under Claudius annexed Lycia to the empire in around 43 AD. The cities of Simena and Dolichiste are mentioned by Ptolemy and Pliny and date back to the fourth century BC.
They were destroyed by an earthquake in the second century AD, which submerged the land they were built on, plummeting them into the sea. At Simena, fountains, staircases and houses, as well as the ancient port, are all visible under water. Part of ancient Simena was also on the main land and this part has a small ancient amphitheatre, baths dedicated to the emperor Titus and the remains of numerous ancient sarcophagi.
9. Mahabalipuram, India
Mahabalipuram in India’s Tamil Nadu province is a UNESCO World Heritage site even though part of the city is thought to be under water.
During the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 large sandbanks were washed away from Mahabalipuram’s beach, uncovering walls, statues of lions, elephants, horses and deities, and temples from the Pallava period of the seventh to ninth centuries AD.
Eighteenth century travellers to the area wrote about seven temples that were on Mahabalipuram’s shoreline. These structures could now be submerged and an archaeological investigation is being carried out by the Archaeological Survey of India.
At its height, Mahabalipuram was a city ruled by the Pallava dynasty, which rose to power during the sixth and seventh centuries. It was renowned for its architecture and carvings, which can still be seen in the city’s surviving ancient temples.
10. Yonaguni-Jima, Japan
Is there an ancient city off the coast of Japan’s most westerly island? Or were the geometric shapes, resembling steps and pyramids, under the ocean’s surface actually formed naturally by earthquakes, time and sea currents? These questions are still being debated with equal measures of scepticism and enthusiasm by archaeologists and geologists.
What’s not in doubt is that the Yonaguni Monument is quite spectacular, consisting of a geometric terraced structure 27 metres high with vertical walls, as well as a number of other structures resembling trenches, paths, platforms and megaliths. These could well be geological formations similar to the geometric, smooth shapes of Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland. If on the other hand the site was man-made (or at least man-enhanced), it could, controversially, suggest that people were living on Yonaguni 10,000 years ago.
The Yonaguni Monument shares its unclear city/rock formation status with several other sites around the world, which have also been described as the remains of amazing and inexplicable underwater cities. Some of these have caused controversy because they suggest advanced humans lived in places many millennia before they are believed to have arrived. Sceptics believe these ‘cities’ are actually natural rock formations. In the Gulf of Cambay in India, sonar has picked out geometric shapes over a wide area out at sea, while tests carried out on relics scooped from the bottom of the ocean at the site have been inconclusive. The Bimini Road in the Bahamas appears to be a man-made road stretching 15 kilometres under the sea (or is it a natural phenomenon?), while there were also reports in 2002 of a large city detected by imaging technology off the coast of Cuba.
But where is Atlantis? In ‘Atlantis – The Evidence’ airing tonight on BBC Two, historian Bettany Hughes argues that the origins of the Atlantis might lie with the Thera eruption inspiring Plato’s account of the mystical land, as the parallels between Atlantis and the Minoans are striking.
