Excavation notebook 10Jean-Christophe Sourisseau

RAPPORT DE REMI DALONGEVILLE (GEOMORPHOLOGUE) ET D'ABEL PRIEUR (MALACOLOGUE)

Understanding what happened in the environment of the site archaeological of Kition-Bamboula requires the study of a vast coastal sector, which has been walked over during the last three years. But it was only in 1992 that very favourable conditions (thinning of the coastal deposits) yielded some results.

Outside the site Throughout the whole sector of Larnaca bay, between Cape Greco and Cape Kiti, two sea levels at least, higher than the present one, existed in the region of Mazotos and of Kiti. - The oldest, which can be placed in the Bronze Age (probably Early Bronze), was dated thanks to tombs cut open by the retreat of the beach. It is probably this same level that is found in the sector of Epsilous, dated by 14C to 4830 ± 50 BP (that is, from 3370 to 3010 BC). It peaks at 2m or even more above the present sea level. - The most recent, still in the same sector, has been dated to 865 ± 45 BP (that is, from 1470 to 1522 AD). It rises up to 1m above the present sea level.

On the site itself In 1990 and in 1993, observations made on the site itself at Kition- Bamboula allow two different beaches to be distinguished: - The first, according to the notes of P. Sanlaville, appears against pillar 460 or nearby, at an (absolute) altitude of 1m. It is dated to 2290 ± 75 BP (that is 110 to 240 ap. J.-C.). - The second marine beach sequence was uncovered in 1993, at the bottom of a sounding made well north of pillar 460: between - 0,84m and - 0,23m (in absolute altitudes), we found two levels of Cardium separated by a horizon of organic matter in which Posidonia remains dominate. The 14C datings will be launched from the end of October. The upper part of this beach carried a Roman lamp which was dated to the 2nd c. AD. We already knew that the port of Kition-Bamboula no longer functioned at the time Roman but we do not know why. This discovery may provide an element of answer: the port was silted up, probably following a low relative sea level having abandoned its deposits. When one simply refers to the altitudes, these two beaches found in the archaeological area and those of Kiti (for the most recent episode) could be the same. But the dates do not agree. The boat ramps, when one extends their theoretical slope, allow a contemporary sea level of their use to be restored at about level 0. In any case, even if one knows that the draught of the boats of the type of those which were hauled up (triremes of 30m) was very slight (1m), the sea level in the Classical period must have stood much higher than in the Roman period.

Conclusions and programme to come The observations along Larnaca bay, the soundings carried out on the site and the archaeological data allow many oscillations of the shoreline in the last millennia to be reconstructed, but the data are not consistent, for the moment. The only means of achieving a rapid and complete understanding of the relative variations of the sea level is to carry out a certain number of corings in the port area.