Maritime Cultural Heritage, Coastal Change and Threat Assessment in Syria

K Westley; Nicolas Carayon; Jafar Anbar; Colin Breen; Lucy  Blue

doi:10.1007/s11457-022-09339-y

Maritime Cultural Heritage, Coastal Change and Threat Assessment in Syria

K Westley, Nicolas Carayon, Jafar Anbar, Colin Breen, Lucy Blue

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)

116 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Syria’s coastal and nearshore zone contains a significant, but under-researched, record of maritime cultural heritage (MCH) ranging from prehistory to the present. This is exemplified by a lack of underwater investigations, but also limited investigation of key onshore maritime sites such as ports and harbours. There is also a lack of specialist in-country management regarding maritime cultural heritage research and protection. This situation has been worsened by the ongoing conflict (since 2011), which has reduced (already limited) field investigation. To assist in the advancement of Syrian maritime archaeology, this paper presents a baseline assessment which makes use of a geospatial database generated from satellite imagery as well as both published and grey literature. This assessment reviews past coastal environment changes affecting the Syrian littoral, and then highlights past disturbances and potential future threats impacting the MCH. This is done through analysis of all coastal/nearshore sites documented to date and showcased in more detail using two case studies: Tabbat al-Hammam and Ras Ibn Hani. This enables discussion of the current state of Syrian maritime archaeology and suggests ways forward for its future management and investigation.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	353–373
Number of pages	21
Journal	Journal of Maritime Archaeology
Volume	17
Issue number	3
Early online date	13 Sept 2022
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s11457-022-09339-y
Publication status	Published (in print/issue) - 13 Sept 2022

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
We thank former EAMENA project members Jenni Bradbury and Bob Bewley for their advice and assistance in integrating the HFF Syria Benchmarking project with EAMENA. We are also grateful to the current EAMENA and MarEA teams for their continued assistance (particularly database-related), and to Naseem Raad for his thoughts on Classical harbours. Some sites used in this assessment were documented by EAMENA colleagues and the team at the Archaeology Informatics Lab at Durham University. We thank two anonymous reviewers for their helpful and insightful recommendations which improved the paper. Finally, we thank the Honor Frost Foundation for generously supporting the original Syria Benchmarking project and the Arcadia Fund for supporting MarEA.

Funding Information:
To assist in the development of a framework for future investigation and protection of Syria’s maritime cultural heritage, this paper presents an up-to-date baseline assessment. It incorporates a review of past climate and environmental changes affecting the Syrian coast, heritage documentation through remote sensing, and a threat assessment exercise following the methodologies of the Maritime Endangered Archaeology (MarEA) project (Andreou et al. ) as well as an initial assessment funded by the Honor Frost Foundation (HFF) (Westley et al. ) . Two case studies (Tabbat al-Hammam, Ras Ibn Hani) are presented and followed by a discussion on the present state of Syrian maritime archaeology and the outlook for its future management and investigation.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, The Author(s).

Funding Information:
We thank former EAMENA project members Jenni Bradbury and Bob Bewley for their advice and assistance in integrating the HFF Syria Benchmarking project with EAMENA. We are also grateful to the current EAMENA and MarEA teams for their continued assistance (particularly database-related), and to Naseem Raad for his thoughts on Classical harbours. Some sites used in this assessment were documented by EAMENA colleagues and the team at the Archaeology Informatics Lab at Durham University. We thank two anonymous reviewers for their helpful and insightful recommendations which improved the paper. Finally, we thank the Honor Frost Foundation for generously supporting the original Syria Benchmarking project and the Arcadia Fund for supporting MarEA.

Funding Information:
To assist in the development of a framework for future investigation and protection of Syria’s maritime cultural heritage, this paper presents an up-to-date baseline assessment. It incorporates a review of past climate and environmental changes affecting the Syrian coast, heritage documentation through remote sensing, and a threat assessment exercise following the methodologies of the Maritime Endangered Archaeology (MarEA) project (Andreou et al. ) as well as an initial assessment funded by the Honor Frost Foundation (HFF) (Westley et al. ) . Two case studies (Tabbat al-Hammam, Ras Ibn Hani) are presented and followed by a discussion on the present state of Syrian maritime archaeology and the outlook for its future management and investigation.

Funding Information:
We thank former EAMENA project members Jenni Bradbury and Bob Bewley for their advice and assistance in integrating the HFF Syria Benchmarking project with EAMENA. We are also grateful to the current EAMENA and MarEA teams for their continued assistance (particularly database-related), and to Naseem Raad for his thoughts on Classical harbours. Some sites used in this assessment were documented by EAMENA colleagues and the team at the Archaeology Informatics Lab at Durham University. We thank two anonymous reviewers for their helpful and insightful recommendations which improved the paper. Finally, we thank the Honor Frost Foundation for generously supporting the original Syria Benchmarking project and the Arcadia Fund for supporting MarEA.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, The Author(s).

Funding

Funding Information: We thank former EAMENA project members Jenni Bradbury and Bob Bewley for their advice and assistance in integrating the HFF Syria Benchmarking project with EAMENA. We are also grateful to the current EAMENA and MarEA teams for their continued assistance (particularly database-related), and to Naseem Raad for his thoughts on Classical harbours. Some sites used in this assessment were documented by EAMENA colleagues and the team at the Archaeology Informatics Lab at Durham University. We thank two anonymous reviewers for their helpful and insightful recommendations which improved the paper. Finally, we thank the Honor Frost Foundation for generously supporting the original Syria Benchmarking project and the Arcadia Fund for supporting MarEA. Funding Information: To assist in the development of a framework for future investigation and protection of Syria’s maritime cultural heritage, this paper presents an up-to-date baseline assessment. It incorporates a review of past climate and environmental changes affecting the Syrian coast, heritage documentation through remote sensing, and a threat assessment exercise following the methodologies of the Maritime Endangered Archaeology (MarEA) project (Andreou et al. ) as well as an initial assessment funded by the Honor Frost Foundation (HFF) (Westley et al. ) . Two case studies (Tabbat al-Hammam, Ras Ibn Hani) are presented and followed by a discussion on the present state of Syrian maritime archaeology and the outlook for its future management and investigation. Publisher Copyright: © 2022, The Author(s). Funding Information: We thank former EAMENA project members Jenni Bradbury and Bob Bewley for their advice and assistance in integrating the HFF Syria Benchmarking project with EAMENA. We are also grateful to the current EAMENA and MarEA teams for their continued assistance (particularly database-related), and to Naseem Raad for his thoughts on Classical harbours. Some sites used in this assessment were documented by EAMENA colleagues and the team at the Archaeology Informatics Lab at Durham University. We thank two anonymous reviewers for their helpful and insightful recommendations which improved the paper. Finally, we thank the Honor Frost Foundation for generously supporting the original Syria Benchmarking project and the Arcadia Fund for supporting MarEA. Funding Information: To assist in the development of a framework for future investigation and protection of Syria’s maritime cultural heritage, this paper presents an up-to-date baseline assessment. It incorporates a review of past climate and environmental changes affecting the Syrian coast, heritage documentation through remote sensing, and a threat assessment exercise following the methodologies of the Maritime Endangered Archaeology (MarEA) project (Andreou et al. ) as well as an initial assessment funded by the Honor Frost Foundation (HFF) (Westley et al. ) . Two case studies (Tabbat al-Hammam, Ras Ibn Hani) are presented and followed by a discussion on the present state of Syrian maritime archaeology and the outlook for its future management and investigation. Funding Information: We thank former EAMENA project members Jenni Bradbury and Bob Bewley for their advice and assistance in integrating the HFF Syria Benchmarking project with EAMENA. We are also grateful to the current EAMENA and MarEA teams for their continued assistance (particularly database-related), and to Naseem Raad for his thoughts on Classical harbours. Some sites used in this assessment were documented by EAMENA colleagues and the team at the Archaeology Informatics Lab at Durham University. We thank two anonymous reviewers for their helpful and insightful recommendations which improved the paper. Finally, we thank the Honor Frost Foundation for generously supporting the original Syria Benchmarking project and the Arcadia Fund for supporting MarEA. Publisher Copyright: © 2022, The Author(s).

Keywords

Maritime archaeology
remote sensing
satellite imagery
historic environment management

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access to Document

10.1007/s11457-022-09339-yLicence: CC BY

Maritime Cultural Heritage_Final versionFinal published version, 6.61 MBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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title = "Maritime Cultural Heritage, Coastal Change and Threat Assessment in Syria",

abstract = "Syria{\textquoteright}s coastal and nearshore zone contains a significant, but under-researched, record of maritime cultural heritage (MCH) ranging from prehistory to the present. This is exemplified by a lack of underwater investigations, but also limited investigation of key onshore maritime sites such as ports and harbours. There is also a lack of specialist in-country management regarding maritime cultural heritage research and protection. This situation has been worsened by the ongoing conflict (since 2011), which has reduced (already limited) field investigation. To assist in the advancement of Syrian maritime archaeology, this paper presents a baseline assessment which makes use of a geospatial database generated from satellite imagery as well as both published and grey literature. This assessment reviews past coastal environment changes affecting the Syrian littoral, and then highlights past disturbances and potential future threats impacting the MCH. This is done through analysis of all coastal/nearshore sites documented to date and showcased in more detail using two case studies: Tabbat al-Hammam and Ras Ibn Hani. This enables discussion of the current state of Syrian maritime archaeology and suggests ways forward for its future management and investigation.",

keywords = "Maritime archaeology, remote sensing, satellite imagery, historic environment management",

author = "K Westley and Nicolas Carayon and Jafar Anbar and Colin Breen and Lucy Blue",

note = "Funding Information: We thank former EAMENA project members Jenni Bradbury and Bob Bewley for their advice and assistance in integrating the HFF Syria Benchmarking project with EAMENA. We are also grateful to the current EAMENA and MarEA teams for their continued assistance (particularly database-related), and to Naseem Raad for his thoughts on Classical harbours. Some sites used in this assessment were documented by EAMENA colleagues and the team at the Archaeology Informatics Lab at Durham University. We thank two anonymous reviewers for their helpful and insightful recommendations which improved the paper. Finally, we thank the Honor Frost Foundation for generously supporting the original Syria Benchmarking project and the Arcadia Fund for supporting MarEA. Funding Information: To assist in the development of a framework for future investigation and protection of Syria{\textquoteright}s maritime cultural heritage, this paper presents an up-to-date baseline assessment. It incorporates a review of past climate and environmental changes affecting the Syrian coast, heritage documentation through remote sensing, and a threat assessment exercise following the methodologies of the Maritime Endangered Archaeology (MarEA) project (Andreou et al. ) as well as an initial assessment funded by the Honor Frost Foundation (HFF) (Westley et al. ) . Two case studies (Tabbat al-Hammam, Ras Ibn Hani) are presented and followed by a discussion on the present state of Syrian maritime archaeology and the outlook for its future management and investigation. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2022, The Author(s). Funding Information: We thank former EAMENA project members Jenni Bradbury and Bob Bewley for their advice and assistance in integrating the HFF Syria Benchmarking project with EAMENA. We are also grateful to the current EAMENA and MarEA teams for their continued assistance (particularly database-related), and to Naseem Raad for his thoughts on Classical harbours. Some sites used in this assessment were documented by EAMENA colleagues and the team at the Archaeology Informatics Lab at Durham University. We thank two anonymous reviewers for their helpful and insightful recommendations which improved the paper. Finally, we thank the Honor Frost Foundation for generously supporting the original Syria Benchmarking project and the Arcadia Fund for supporting MarEA. Funding Information: To assist in the development of a framework for future investigation and protection of Syria{\textquoteright}s maritime cultural heritage, this paper presents an up-to-date baseline assessment. It incorporates a review of past climate and environmental changes affecting the Syrian coast, heritage documentation through remote sensing, and a threat assessment exercise following the methodologies of the Maritime Endangered Archaeology (MarEA) project (Andreou et al. ) as well as an initial assessment funded by the Honor Frost Foundation (HFF) (Westley et al. ) . Two case studies (Tabbat al-Hammam, Ras Ibn Hani) are presented and followed by a discussion on the present state of Syrian maritime archaeology and the outlook for its future management and investigation. Funding Information: We thank former EAMENA project members Jenni Bradbury and Bob Bewley for their advice and assistance in integrating the HFF Syria Benchmarking project with EAMENA. We are also grateful to the current EAMENA and MarEA teams for their continued assistance (particularly database-related), and to Naseem Raad for his thoughts on Classical harbours. Some sites used in this assessment were documented by EAMENA colleagues and the team at the Archaeology Informatics Lab at Durham University. We thank two anonymous reviewers for their helpful and insightful recommendations which improved the paper. Finally, we thank the Honor Frost Foundation for generously supporting the original Syria Benchmarking project and the Arcadia Fund for supporting MarEA. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2022, The Author(s).",

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N2 - Syria’s coastal and nearshore zone contains a significant, but under-researched, record of maritime cultural heritage (MCH) ranging from prehistory to the present. This is exemplified by a lack of underwater investigations, but also limited investigation of key onshore maritime sites such as ports and harbours. There is also a lack of specialist in-country management regarding maritime cultural heritage research and protection. This situation has been worsened by the ongoing conflict (since 2011), which has reduced (already limited) field investigation. To assist in the advancement of Syrian maritime archaeology, this paper presents a baseline assessment which makes use of a geospatial database generated from satellite imagery as well as both published and grey literature. This assessment reviews past coastal environment changes affecting the Syrian littoral, and then highlights past disturbances and potential future threats impacting the MCH. This is done through analysis of all coastal/nearshore sites documented to date and showcased in more detail using two case studies: Tabbat al-Hammam and Ras Ibn Hani. This enables discussion of the current state of Syrian maritime archaeology and suggests ways forward for its future management and investigation.

AB - Syria’s coastal and nearshore zone contains a significant, but under-researched, record of maritime cultural heritage (MCH) ranging from prehistory to the present. This is exemplified by a lack of underwater investigations, but also limited investigation of key onshore maritime sites such as ports and harbours. There is also a lack of specialist in-country management regarding maritime cultural heritage research and protection. This situation has been worsened by the ongoing conflict (since 2011), which has reduced (already limited) field investigation. To assist in the advancement of Syrian maritime archaeology, this paper presents a baseline assessment which makes use of a geospatial database generated from satellite imagery as well as both published and grey literature. This assessment reviews past coastal environment changes affecting the Syrian littoral, and then highlights past disturbances and potential future threats impacting the MCH. This is done through analysis of all coastal/nearshore sites documented to date and showcased in more detail using two case studies: Tabbat al-Hammam and Ras Ibn Hani. This enables discussion of the current state of Syrian maritime archaeology and suggests ways forward for its future management and investigation.

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KW - remote sensing

KW - satellite imagery

KW - historic environment management

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DO - 10.1007/s11457-022-09339-y

M3 - Article

SN - 1557-2285

VL - 17

SP - 353

EP - 373

JO - Journal of Maritime Archaeology

JF - Journal of Maritime Archaeology

IS - 3

ER -

Maritime Cultural Heritage, Coastal Change and Threat Assessment in Syria

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

Keywords

UN SDGs

Access to Document

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Cite this