Ancient Tyre and its harbours: 5000 years of human-environment interactions

The exact location and evolution of Tyre's ancient harbour areas have been matters of scholarly conjecture since the 16th century. Here, we use geoscience techniques to precisely relocate the ancient northern harbour, the city's principal transport hub during antiquity, and reconstruct its geomorphological evolution (Marriner, N., Morhange, C., Boudagher-Fadel, M., Bourcier, M., Carbonel, P., 2005. Geoarchaeology of Tyre's ancient northern harbour, Phoenicia. Journal of Archaeological Science 32, 1302-1327.). While a natural anchorage is inferred during the Bronze Age, we expound the increasing weight of anthropogenic forcings from the Iron Age onwards, culminating in a technological apogee during the Byzantine period (Hohlfelder, R.L., 1997. Building harbours in the early Byzantine era: the persistence of Roman technology. Byzantinische Forschungen Internationale Zeitschrift für Byzantinistik 24, 367-389.). Using coastal stratigraphy and underwater archaeological data (El Amouri, M., El Helou, M., Marquet, M., Noureddine, I., Seco Alvarez, M., 2005. Mission d'expertise archéologique du port sud de Tyr, sud Liban: résultats preliminaries. Bulletin d'Archéologie et d'Architecture Libanaises, Hors-Série 2, 91-110; Frost, H., Recent observations on the submerged harbour works at Tyre. Bulletin du Musée de Beyrouth 24, 103-111; Noureddine, I., Helou, M., 2005. Underwater archaeological survey in the northern harbour at Tyre. Bulletin d'Archéologie et d'Architecture Libanaises, Hors-Série 2, 111-128) we demonstrate that Poidebard's (1939. Un grand port disparu, Tyr. Recherches aériennes et sous-marines, 1934-1936, Librairie Orientaliste Paul Geuthner, Paris) Egyptian harbour is in reality a drowned quarter of the ancient city. Informed hypotheses are proposed for a possible second anchorage at Tyre, and it is demonstrated that presently drowned portions of the sandstone ridge served as outer harbours during the Bronze and Iron Ages. Stratigraphic data in the vicinity of Tell Mashuk, Chawakir and Rachidiye are also presented and discussed.