How a Greco-Roman City used its Sea- and River-shores: the example of Ainos in Thrace

Overview & Synopsis

Before the closing of its lagoons and the progradation of the Hebros delta, Ainos took advantage of an almost insulate position, which made it one of the main hubs between the Greek Aegean and the Thracian hinterland. Annual Turkish archaeological excavations (since 1973) and international geoarchaeological research (since 2011) have revealed several components of the polis’ territory (necropoleis, roads, anchoring sites, fortifications) and offered information about the ecological impact of the Greek, Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman occupation on the natural environment. The campaigns of the last three years – organized through the cooperation of the German Universities of Cologne and Kiel with the French CNRS and the Turkish Ministry of Culture in the project LEGECARTAS (Lectures géoarchéologiques des cartes anciennes) – brought more light on the use of the city’s shores. We are now able to point to a precise location for the main harbour of the city (based on literary sources, geomorphological and geophysical evidence). We can also formulate scenarios for the use of the lagoons at the SE and NE of the city as fisheries and salines (by comparing them with other sites, studied by archaeologists on the shores of the Mediterranean and of the Atlantic, and by suggesting identifications with the names transmitted by ancient and medieval sources). This paper will present a short synthesis of these recent hypotheses, which can serve as a basis for the reconstruction of Ainos’ environmental history.