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Rapid Delta Growth in Historical Times at Ephesus and Miletus—The Examples of the Küçük and the Büyük Menderes Rivers

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Landscapes and Landforms of Turkey

Part of the book series: World Geomorphological Landscapes ((WGLC))

Abstract

Postglacial sea-level rise led to the development of extended marine gulfs in the grabens of the western margin of the Anatolian Plate. During the last seven millennia, these marine indentations have silted up due to the continued progradation of the deltas of major rivers. Good examples of this geomorphological metamorphosis from ria coasts to delta–floodplains are the Küçük Menderes (Cayster, Kaystros) and the Büyük Menderes (Maiandros, Maeander) valleys, with Ephesos and Miletos, respectively, as the most prominent ancient cities. This article outlines the spatio-temporal scenarios of these fundamental landscape changes. They are based on geoarchaeological criteria, archaeological evidence and information from literary sources.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Geography, University of Cologne, Albertus-Magnus-Platz, 50923, Cologne (Köln), Germany

    Helmut Brückner

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  1. Helmut Brückner
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Correspondence to Helmut Brückner .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Physical Geography (LGP, UMR 8591), CNRS, Universities of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and Paris 12 U-Pec, Meudon, France

    Catherine Kuzucuoğlu

  2. Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey

    Attila Çiner

  3. Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey

    Nizamettin Kazancı

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Brückner, H. (2019). Rapid Delta Growth in Historical Times at Ephesus and Miletus—The Examples of the Küçük and the Büyük Menderes Rivers. In: Kuzucuoğlu, C., Çiner, A., Kazancı, N. (eds) Landscapes and Landforms of Turkey. World Geomorphological Landscapes. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03515-0_13

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