EXAMINING THE ARCHEOSEISMIC ACTIVITY OF THE ARCHEOLOGICAL SITE OF SARDIS IN WESTERN TURKEY

The archaeological site of Sardis is built across active normal faults of the south boundary of the Gediz Graben system in western Turkey. The site contains archaeological remains and structures ranging from the Lydian, Persian, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman, and other cultures. Some of these structures show evidence of earthquake damage, but little research has been conducted to constrain individual seismic events. Historical accounts indicate that Sardis and twelve other sites within 150 km were completely destroyed in the 17 CE earthquake. The goal of this study is to document paleoearthquakes at the archaeological site of Sardis and compare these with data collected from a trench excavated across the active fault located away from the site. Two paleoseismic trenches were excavated across a large fault scarp that separates Holocene and historical sediment from the mountain range that is mapped as Plio-Quaternary clastic rocks located off the archaeological site. In these trenches evidence for several ancient earthquakes was documented based on colluvium wedge development along three different faults. In addition to these obvious paleoseismic structures, the trenches included channel deposition representing at least three different events of increased velocity possibly caused by the downward movement of these normal faults. Organic material was collected from both trenches for radiocarbon analyses to help constrain the timing of the paleoearthquakes. The third trench was located on the archaeological site of Sardis where members of the Archaeological Exploration of Sardis, sponsored by the Harvard Art Museums and Cornell University, re-exposed a trench in Field 55 that contained three open fissures that terminate 1.25 m below the ground surface. Ceramic dating suggests that the fissures were buried some time after the 7th century CE. Radiocarbon and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) samples were collected from the layers offset and capping the fractures in order to date the most recent earthquake rupture.