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5 septembre 2022
- handle: 10670/1.bjtxg3
- hal: hal-03919207
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Ainos Hebros River Deltas Paleoenvironmental changes Greek archaeology Antiquity / ancient timesSujets proches
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Anca Dan et al., « Ainos : archaeology and geoarchaeology », HAL-SHS : histoire de l'art, ID : 10670/1.bjtxg3
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The archaeological research started in Ainos in 1971-1972, under the direction of Arfif Erzen;it continued during 1978-1993, with the participation of Sait Bașaran, who directed theresearch from 1994 until 2019. During these decades, Ainos transformed itself from a simpletoponym, known from some ancient literary and epigraphic texts, published from the 19 thcentury onwards, to one of the best known archaeological sites in European Turkey. Thenearby Hoça Keșme, discovered by Sait Bașaran and his family and excavated by MehmetÖzdoğan, is now the most important Neolithic site in SE Europe. Ainos’ Greek, Roman andEarly Byzantine funerary zones (the so-called Çakıllık, the Su Terazisi and the Taşaltınecropoleis), excavated in very difficult conditions, due to the rising water table, have filledtwo rooms with exceptional finds in the Edirne Museum. Enez’s Kale (“Acropolis”) revealedthe traces of the oldest Greek habitation and is now open to the public, with a fully restored“Fatih” or “Hagia Sophia” Mosque.Sait Bașaran put Ainos on the map of the studies on Thrace, publishing or co-publishingnearly all the important historical and archaeological studies about this area. He opened hisexcavation to international and interdisciplinary projects, supported by the DeutscheForschungsgemeinschaft (SPP Häfen; 2012-2017) and by the French National ResearchFoundation and the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Mission d’Ainos; 2017-2021), whichmade significant progress in identifying Ainos’ topography, in particular the harbours andtheir chronology, from Greek Antiquity to late Ottoman times. Geoelectric profiles combinedwith geomagnetic and georadar surveys gave hints for the shape of two ancient harbourbasins, besides several other anchoring points. The sediment cores in the basins as well as onformer beaches show the evolution of the ancient maritime gulf south of Ainos into the Taşaltıand Dalyan lagoons. Through geochemical analyses, combined with the study of pollen andmicrofauna, our team was able to reconstruct the ecological history of these lagoons, and toidentify and date the human actions which transformed them first into harbours and later intosimple fishing basins.In this paper, we present a survey of the most important archaeological and geoarchaeologicalfinds and hypotheses concerning Ainos: after a general presentation of the historical andarchaeological data about the city (with a particular focus on the Roman time), we try toreconstruct the city’s connectivity, by discussing the Roman roads and harbour evidence,including the preliminary results of the 2021 campaign.