Paleogeography and Geoarcheology Researches in Surroundings of the Baglararasi Mound (Cesme-Izmir)

WOS: 000434463300009The Aegean coasts of Anatolia have appropriate geographical setting during the historical ages and have emerged as suitable places for settlement. It was understood that 2nd and 3rd. Millennium BC settlements belong to Bronze Age and natural environment at the time was different from the present. Cesme Baglararasi plain is a NW-SE direction tectonic depression that was shaped by the alluvium of the Liman Creek and the colluvium from neighboring slopes. Liman Creek which has a very small drainage basin filled the shallow shore basin has 500 meters in width and 600 meters in length beginning from the bus station of Cesme to actual harbor towards the NW. The traces of the environmental changes are registered within the alluvium infill this depression. Therefore core drillings were done in Baglararasi alluvial plain to determine the paleogeographical-geoarchaeological characteristics of the surroundings of the mound in order to detect the past coast line and sea level positions and answer the archaeological questions. 10 core drillings carried out at the September 2016 in the surroundings of the Baglararasi mound. Grain size, hydrometer, calcimeter, microfossil and elemental analysis of drilling samples have been done. Preliminary results indicate that the interpretations of paleo-environments such as marine infills and coast-coastal swamp must be based on microfossil analysis and be done meticulously. According to results of the core drillings, Holocene stratigraphy of the fill can be identified in a chronostratigraphic order as: on the clay-sandstone basement is overlain by Holocene transgression fills (Early Holocene), coastal swamp (Middle Holocene), anthropogenic mound fills (Middle-Late Holocene) and alluvial-colluvial fills (Late Holocene). Starting of the 3th millennium BC, the settlement was closer to the coast which is consistent with the Bronze Age regression. During the 2nd Millennium BC, the settlement migrated inwards the land. The chemical analysis of a tephra layer, which is found within the cultural fills of the Bronze Age period, correlates well with the tephra emitted from Minoan volcanic eruption of Santorini. This layer is used as a key layer in chronostratigraphic interpretations