A Reevaluation of the Fourth - Sixth Century C.E. Settlement at Leukos, Karpathos (Greece) in Light of New Geological Data (15 min)

Presenters

Michael Nelson, Queens College; and Karen Kleinspehn, University of Minnesota

Abstract

The fourth to sixth century C.E. seaside settlement of Leukos was initially surveyed and partially excavated in the 1970s. At that time, a three-aisled basilica was uncovered, and today, its submerged apse provides an iconic background for the annual rush of beachgoers and their cameras. The original excavator explained the submerged apse as the result of rising seawater over the centuries. In 2015, my colleagues and I published our archaeological survey of the Leukos area and reconstructed a settlement clustered about its three sandy bays that would have been suitable for beaching ships. Unfortunately, we too accepted the explanation of the submerged apse and rising seawater.

In 2021, my coauthor and I surveyed the site again, but with a focus on the underlying geology, and documented signs of seismic activity in relationship to the archaeological remains. The results were nothing less than eye-opening and included a barrel-vaulted structure whose walls had been sheared off when the ground beneath fell away and a kiln that dropped about 1.5 m from its original elevation. Dating of two fault zones that contain artifacts including an ashlar block and pottery fragments indicate fault activity in the fourth and eighth–tenth centuries C.E. Archaeological remains also sit within another fault zone in which bedrock had liquefied during intense seismic activity resulting in the rupture of cobbles both in bedrock and in archaeological remains. Consequently, we introduce a new tool, ruptured cobbles, to identify past seismic activity among archaeological remains. Faulting appears to have reconfigured the shorelines of Leukos, and rising seawater did not submerge the basilica’s apse, but the underlying bedrock both dropped and tilted. Thus, the new geological data require a new reconstruction of the settlement and offer a new potential explanation for its abandonment.