Ancient harbours and Holocene morphogenesis of the Ras Ibn Hani peninsula (Latakia, Syria)

International audienceRas Ibn Hani peninsula, a wave-dominated tombolo (800 × 1000 m) on the Syrian coast, provides evidence for significant Holocene changes that can be linked to geological inheritance, rising post-glacial sea level, sed- iment supply and human impacts. Initial development of Ras Ibn Hani's coastal system began ~8000 years ago when shallow marine environments formed in a context of rising post-glacial sea level. Following relative sea-level stabilization ~6000 cal yr BP, beach facies trace the gradual formation of a wave-dominated sand- bank fronted by a ~2300×~500 m palaeo-island whose environmental potentiality was attractive to Bronze Age societies. A particularly rapid phase of tombolo accretion is observed after ~3500 cal yr BP characterised by a two- to fourfold increase in sedimentation rates. This is consistent with (i) a pulse in sediment supply probably driven by Bronze Age/Iron Age soil erosion in local catchments, and (ii) positive feedback mecha- nisms linked to regionally attested neotectonics. Archaeological remains and radiocarbon datings confirm that the subaerial tombolo was probably in place by the Late Bronze Age. These data fit tightly with other eastern Mediterranean tombolo systems suggesting that there is a great deal of predictability to their geology and stratigraphy at the regional scale