The geographies of ancient Ephesus and the Artemision in Anatolia

This study is a sedimentologic and geomorphologic analysis of ancient geographies of the floodplains and delta of the Kucuk Menderes (ancient Cayster River) around the city of Ephesus and the Artemision in Aegean coastal Anatolia. The authors emphasize the interrelationship of archaeological dating and structure, and historical comment in interdisciplinary analysis of ancient geographies and their paleoenvironments. In some cases, the historical literature is specific and factual. In other cases, legend from prehistory may provide important clues to the reconstruction of ancient environments as related to archaeological and historical settings. Ephesus and the closely related Artemision, or Temple of Diana of the Ephesians, offer a chance to link the disciplines of geology, physical geography, archaeology, history, and epigraphy in a composite of paleoenvironmental/paleogeographical interpretations of geomorphology over the past three millennia. Holocene sea-level rise and marine transgression provide the raised paralic settings of the harbors of Ephesus and the Artemision. The settings of the harbors were altered by continuing progradation of the ancient Cayster River delta-floodplain over the past three millennia. This research shows how interdisciplinary research greatly enhances our understanding of the ancient geographies of Ephesus and the Artemision. (c) 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.