Lena A., Rossi V., Palmieri M., Marchesini M.
EUT Edizioni Università di Trieste “West&East” II (2017): 42-62
The work aims to present the first results of the analysis and identification of vegetal and malacological remains – integrated with data from a micropalaeontological analysis – performed on some sediments of the harbour of the archaeological site of Magdala, on the western coast of the Lake of Galilee (Israel). The research at the site, which was carried out by means of a transdisciplinary approach, has shed a new light on the history of the city and on the geological history of this portion of the coast. As no geoarchaeological studies on specifically lacustrine ancient harbours are available to date, Magdala represents a case study of pivotal importance. The results of the analysis on the materials waterlogged in the harbour sediments – which can be considered a bio-archive – have contributed considerably to the palaeonvironmental reconstruction. The data that emerges from this preliminary study gives a reasonably clear and well delineated picture of the agrestic environment of Galilee in the Late Hellenistic and Roman period, a period In which the city of Magdala and its harbour achieved their greatest prosperity providing reliable evidence for the existence of a local and regional trade network at this moment of its history.
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