engleski

How to define the sea level change from the submerged archaeological remains? Example of the island of Vis (Croatia)

The correlation between the geomorphologic and archaeological markers is considered to be a very good method for the study of sea-level change. In order to trace the evolution of the Croatian shoreline during the late Holocene, we have been investigating and correlating different markers along the Croatian coast (Fouache et al. 2000, Faivre and Fouache, 2003 ; Fouache et al. 2005). For the archaeological marker we use the submerged remains which function, in the time of construction, was directly related to the sea, like port remains, fishtanks, salinas etc. The island of Vis represents a particularly interesting area for this kind of investigations due to the existence of the submerged antique port of Issa, which is very well preserved. The building technique and the size of the blocks seem to be the same as those used for the construction of the nearby Hellenistic city walls. This suggests that the harbour was built at the same time as the walls of the town, that is, in the 4th century BC (Čargo, 2003). The actual depths of the different parts of the submerged quay have been precisely mapped and measured with respect to the present mean sea level, applying corrections for tide and atmospheric pressure values at the time of the surveys. It is particularly important to take also into account the functional heights of the structures (Antonioli et al. 2007) related to the sea level at the time of construction. Only if the measuring procedure becomes precisely defined the measured values would be comparable all around the world and could be used as a precise sea level indicator. The obtained data from the Issa harbour were further compared with predictions derived from a glacio-hydro-isostatic model of Lambeck et al. 2006 associated with the Last Glacial cycle.

sea-level indicators; Issa harbour

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