Chapter 22. The geoarchaeology of ancient Mediterranean harbours in a deltaic context

Introduction In geoarchaeology, an ancient harbour is defined and studied in terms of its outer structure and its content (Fig. 1). The outer structure corresponds to the harbour structures of breakwaters and wharves. The content consists of a volume of sediments accumulated at the bottom of the basin and a volume of water when the basin is in use. Viewed as a geological container the harbour consists either of a hard substratum, when the harbour is carved into the rock, as with the cothons o..