Excavaciones arqueológicas en la ciudad griega de Emporion (2018–2021) y el proyecto Groundcheck »Ampurias’ Future – Learning from the Past. Sea Level Development and Climate Change from 5500 BC until AD 2100«

Informe preliminar

Abstract

Between 2019 and 2021, the Madrid Department of the German Archaeological Institute (DAI Madrid) and the Empúries branch of the Museu d’Arqueologia de Catalunya (MAC Empúries) carried out a diachronic and multidisciplinary research project in Empúries (l’Escala, Girona) and its surroundings. The work is part of a cooperation agreement between these two institutions, which since 2020 has been receiving a particular impulse from the DAI project »Groundcheck – Cultural Heritage and Climate Change«. The research is still ongoing; this article offers a first account of the results and insights gained so far. We would like to highlight the data about Emporion, particulary the first Greek settlement in the vicinity of the beach for which it was possible to determine phases and subphases beginning in the third quarter of the 6th century BC as well as the nearly complete ground plan of a Greek house from the third quarter of the 6th century BC. Geophysical-bathymetric tests identified rock formations, which once served to protect the buildings on the coast against the open sea. Geological and geographical studies, together with earlier geo-archaeological research, enabled us to reconstruct the palaeolandscape of the region from the Neolithic onwards and to visualise scenarios from the most important historic-cultural phases of the last 7500 years by means of an interactive 3D model; taking the 2021 calculations of the IPPC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) into account, it was also possible to make a prognosis about future floodings as a result of the rising sea level and the increasing number of storm surges.