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The ancient slipways and shipsheds of the Aegean: Accurate indicators of relative sea level change?

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Abstract

Ancient slipways are spread throughout the Aegean coastline, constitute an important part of Greek naval history and maritime tradition, and provide valuable evidence of the relative sea level (rsl) change from the period of their construction and use since their function required them to be situated at the water’s edge. Geoarchaeological surveys of rsl changes in several coastal sites either revealed unknown slipways or offered some fresh insights into the functional features of sites previously published. The slipways here presented, albeit covering a wide chronological range from the Classical period to Modern times, follow similar construction and functional principles. The contemporary measured depths of the seaward end of the rock-cut sloping floors are interpolated into the curves of the rsl rise for the Aegean and allow us to conclude that slipways are good sea level indicators and suggest their functional height with an uncertainty not exceeding the tidal range.

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The authors declare that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the paper.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the Hellenic Ministry of Culture, General Directorate of Antiquities and Cultural Heritage, Directorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities, Department for the Supervision of Greek & Foreign Scientific Institutions and Coordination of International Cooperation & Organisations for giving us permission to publish this article (ΥΠΠΟΑ 14.11.2022 Reg. No. 557982). We are grateful to Boris Rankov, Emeritus Professor of Ancient History at Royal Holloway University of London, for his insightful comments throughout the production of this MS. Three anonymous referees made important contributions on an earlier draft of this paper.

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  1. Department of Classics and Archaeology, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK

    Nikos Mourtzas & Eleni Kolaiti

  2. Society for the Study of Ancient Coastlines (AKTES NPO), Chalandri, Athens, Greece

    Nikos Mourtzas & Eleni Kolaiti

  3. Institute of Historical Research, National Hellenic Research Foundation, Athens, Greece

    Eleni Kolaiti

  4. Centre for the Study of Ancient Documents (CSAD), Faculty of Classics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    David Blackman

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We state that all the co-authors of this article have equally contributed to the conception, execution, acquisition of data, analysis and interpretation, and have drafted, written, reviewed and agreed on all versions of the article before submission. Figures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 and 19 were elaborated by Dr N. Mourtzas, Figs. 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25 and 26 were jointly elaborated by Dr E. Kolaiti and Dr N. Mourtzas, and Table 1 was produced by Dr E. Kolaiti.

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Mourtzas, N., Kolaiti, E. & Blackman, D. The ancient slipways and shipsheds of the Aegean: Accurate indicators of relative sea level change?. Med. Geosc. Rev. 6, 1–36 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42990-023-00112-4

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