Lecture | Geoarch@Leiden
Revealing the desert’s flourishing past
- Date
- Monday 18 November 2019
- Time
- Location
-
Van Steenis
Einsteinweg 2
2333 CC Leiden - Room
- Mediterranean Room
Magnetometer prospection at Charax Spasinou, Iraq
This talk will present preliminary results of a geophysical survey at Charax Spasinounear Basra in southern Iraq. This Hellenistic city between the rivers Tigris and Eulaios was an important harbour in the Persian Gulf area and a major trading point between India and Babylonia, supplying goods further up to the Mediterranean. Since 2016 the site has been investigated through magnetometer prospection, remote sensing, surface survey and limited excavations in order to reconstruct the city´s layout and chronology and to document its state of preservation for purposes of conservation and site management. This research shed new light on the florescent period of the city, but also on the potential of magnetometer prospection on multi-phase sites.
