Holocene Sea-Level Changes Based on Submerged Archaeological Sites off the Northern Carmel Coast in Israel

Abstract

A series of submerged archaeological sites found on the continental shelf between Haifa and Atlit indicate a continuous marine transgression between 8000 and 1500 yr B.P. The sites are embedded in the upper part of a marshy clay that fills the trough between the coastal aeolianite (kurkar) ridge and a ridge now submerged some 1000 to 1500 m to the west. The submerged prehistoric sites belong to two main chronological units: Prepottery Neolithic B (8000 yr B.P.) and late Neolithic (ca. 6500 yr B.P.); these were found at depths of 12 to 8 m and 5 to 0 m, respectively. Bronze Age and Byzantine anchors were found at depths of 5 to 3 m and 4 to 1.8 m, respectively. As the archaeological materials are firmly dated, we can reconstruct the rate of marine transgression from 8000 yr B.P. to the present and the eastward movement of settlements through time as related to the transgression.