Palaeoshoreline reconstruction and underwater archaeological potential of Liman Tepe: A long-occupied coastal prehistoric settlement in western Anatolia, Turkey

Rising post-glacial sea levels had a major influence on the prehistoric settlement of the Aegean coastal zone. At Liman Tepe, an important Chalcolithic-Bronze Age coastal settlement on the south coast of the Bay of Izmir, archaeological evidence suggests a Neolithic (ca. 9600-5500 BCE) presence, but no settlement has been discovered on land. Sea levels during the Neolithic period were between 6 and >20 m below present and there is high potential for discovery of submerged prehistoric sites. Marine sediment coring and geophysical investigations (bathymetry, sub-bottom seismic profiling; >600 line-km) were conducted over a 4-km2 inshore area to assess the underwater archaeological potential. Multi-proxy sediment analysis (sedimentary facies, micropalaeontology, micro-XRF geochemistry) was conducted on 20 cores to reconstruct the relative sea level (RSL) history and coastal palaeogeography. Palaeoshoreline positions were estimated by back-stripping of the decompacted sediment thickness from a digital bathymetric model (DBM).