MEDFLOOD meeting, Athens

 

As part of the MEDFLOOD project, Dr Jonathan Benjamin and Dr Andrew Bicket of Wessex Archaeology Coastal & Marine have been collaborating on this inter-disciplinary consortium of scientists working with Quaternary sea-level change in the Mediterranean. The aim of the project is to compile a database of relative sea level reference points from geological, sedimentological and archaeological markers (Holocene and MIS 5e). The project is aimed at crowd-sourcing sea level data from researchers. This database will then be used to help investigate future flooding in the Mediterranean basin. The project is sponsored by INQUA. 

 

The inaugural meeting was held in Rome last year, with the second meeting and field trip held in Greece at various locations around the Saronic Gulf, south of Athens. This was attended by Dr Andrew Bicket who presented a summary of our experience of working with similar relative sea level databases in the UK and the influence they have on investigating submerged prehistory and palaeogeography. He also presented new relative sea level data from recently published collaborative research work from Amarynthos, Euboea and ancient Avlis, Boeotia. In the midst of presentations on various practical and scientific issues involved in this kind of project a number of field visits were made to inundated archaeological sites such as villas, harbour installations, and other coastal features. This was helped along by some excellent weather and seafood!