Middle and late Holocene sea-levels along the Israel Mediterranean coast — evidence from ancient water wells

✍ Scribed by YAACOV NIR

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1997
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 766 KB
• Volume: 12
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0267-8179
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-1417(199703/04)12:2<143::aid-jqs297>3.0.co;2-7

✦ Synopsis

During the course of a study of historical water wells along the Israeli shore, which has been in progress since 1984, an innovative method for investigating sea-level fluctuations was developed. Eighteen ancient water wells were re-dug, 14 by the author, and four by archaeologists. Most of the re-dug wells are found at archaeological sites located a very short distance inland from the present shoreline. Evidence of ancient ground-water levels found in the wells directly reflects on historic eustatic sea-level changes, and the rate at which the end of the post-glacial transgression advanced. A critical question concerns the durability and life span of these wells, as the true age is very important for the accurate reconstruction of a sea-level curve. The Pre-Pottery Neolithic well of Atlit-Yam, which is the oldest known well in the world (ca. 8000 yr old), enabled the most accurate sea-level reconstruction for early Holocene times. Sea-level rise during that period of the Atlit-Yam site was of the order of 20 mm yr Ϫ1 at the beginning, slowing to 6-8 mm yr Ϫ1 at the abandonment of this site at ca. 7.5 ka BP, when it was flooded by the advancing and rising sea. After reaching its present level, sea-level fluctuations for the past 2.5 millennia were not greater than 1.5 to 2 m.