Palaeoenvironment and anthropogenic activity in the southeastern Mediterranean since the mid-Holocene: The case of Tell es-Safi/Gath, Israel

Anthropogenic activity was expressed at localized sites and for a limited time, in two locations only. One location is the siege trench that surrounds Tell es-Safi/Gath, where sedimentation occurred shortly after the destruction of the site by Hazael, king of Aram Damascus (ca. late 9th century BCE), and in the same locality during the Byzantine period. The other location is the 2nd order valley close to the archaeological site, where enhanced sedimentation rates occurred shortly after site destruction. In addition, these results suggest that the small basin valleys underwent aggradation that continuously recorded the local environmental history, whereas the large drainage basins underwent cut and fill processes related to the regional environmental history in a less continuous record.