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Hypereia and the Phaeacians
When Odysseus (Odyssey , vii.93 ff.), is laid to the famous palace of king Alcinoos (Phaeacia, in Greek, means the ‘shining land’), an interesting archaeoenvironmental story begins to unravel. King Nausithous, head of Phaeacians’ race, led out of Hypereia when giant stones (‘the gifts of Mars’) were hurled upon their land (Odyssey, vi.3 & ix.110; Pausanias, 8.28.1; Strabo, 13.1.25; Souidas, s.v. ‘Kyklopes’). This may be a part of a terrible destruction all over Eastern Mediterranean. In fact, many scholars locate the birthplace of Phaeacians in Sicily, where the peaceful inhabitants had to confront the Cyclops who symbolized the catastrophic natural forces. Ancient writers hold , also, various key items of information for us. Pausanias (7.24.5 ff.), when describing the catastrophe of Helike in 373 B.C., knew an analogy from his homeland. I t was the mythical city of Tantalis on mount Sipylos (N.W. of Ermos river), 48 km. east of Smyrna, which disappeared into a chasm (? the city of Zippasla in the Hittite texts).
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One-eye Cyclops, Etna and Cyclopia
In Greek mythology a Cyclops, or Kyklops, is a member of a primordial race of giants, each with a single eye in the middle of his forehead. There are two distinct groups of Cyclopes. The connection between the two groups has been debated in antiquity and by modern scholars. In Hesiod’s Theogony, Zeus releases the Cyclopes, Brontes (thunderer), Steropes (flasher) and Arges (brightener), the sons of Uranus and Gaia, from Tartarus, and receives his characteristic weapon, the thunderbolt, from them. they were strong, stubborn, and “abrupt of emotion”. In one of the most famous passages of Homer’s Odyssey (book ix.162 ff. See also Apollodorus, E 7.7), the hero Odysseus encounters the Cyclops Polyphemus, the son of Poseidon and Thoosa, who lives with his fellow Cyclopes in a distant country. Another member of this group of Cyclopes was Telemus, a seer. This tale from the Odyssey is more humorously told in the only surviving satyr play, entitled Cyclops by Euripides. The Sicilian Greek poet Theocritus wrote two poems circa 275 BC concerning Polyphemus’ love for Galatea, a sea nymph. 1.London 1947.7-14.18: Classical ca. 410 B.C. - 400 B.C.; Lucanian Red Figure; Calyx krater; Side A: the blinding of Polyphemos [Vase] (4.18). Cyclops Painter FIGURE A Homer placed the cave of Polyphemus, who captured Odysseus and his comrades, on Etna’s slopes. Etna (its name derives from the Greek word aitho, or “I burn”), towers above Catania, on the eastern coast of Sicily. Its geological characteristics indicate that it has been active for more than two-and-a-half million years. For the ancient Greeks, the mountain housed the workshop of Hephaestus, otherwise known as Vulcan, the god of fire and metalwork. Another myth said that Typhon, a 100-headed monster who was the son of earth goddess Gaia, was trapped under Mount Etna by Zeus after he tried to rebel, and he has been spitting out his angry flames ever since. Kyklops in Greek also means “circle-eyed”. This word may have started with an ordinary real two-eyed people who in battle painted circles round their eyes to look fearsome; later the word was misinterpreted. Furthermore, it is possible that the rare but occasional birth of malformed children affected by cyclopia, a rare congenital cephalic disorder, could have inspired the legend. Cyclopia is a rare (40:10,000 in embryos) form of holoprosencephaly and is a congenital abnormality (birth defect) characterized by the failure of the embryonic prosencephalon to properly divide the orbits into two cavaties. Cyclopia is also known as synophthalmia, which is the fusion of the eyes” One-eyed creatures are not confined to the realm of Greek epic; such mutants can actually be found in nature. Defects in a gene called “sonic hedgehog” (which was, indeed, named after the videogame) can, among other things, cause the two cerebral hemispheres of the brain to fuse, resulting in the development of a single, central eye. FIGURES B, C, D Western false hellebore is a native perennial herb 1-8 feet tall, with erect, unbranched, very leafy stems; the leaves are broad, large, alternate and three-ranked, sheathing the stem, somewhat folded, strongly parallel veined. Flowers are in large panicles at top, white to greenish with the three sepals and three petals alike. Veratrum belong to the Liliaceae family and are broad-leaved perennials that grow from thick, fibrous rootstocks. The star-shaped flowers of V. californicum are white in color; those of V. viridae tend to be pale green. The fruits are three-chambered capsules that contain numerous brown, winged, flat seeds. Fifty species of Veratrum are
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A. Laupi , K. Kyriakopoulos , C. Sideris 3 and S. Papamarinopoulos
Massive underwater volcano discovered off Sicily
An underwater volcano has been discovered just off the shores of Sicily. The volcanic structure, which incorporates peaks previously thought to be separate volcanoes, was named Empedocles after the Greek philosopher who named the four classic elements of earth, air, fire and water. The legend speaks of the philosopher who died by throwing himself into Mount Etna, the nearby Sicilian volcano. The identification of Empedocles came during research into the submerged volcanic island of Ferdinandea just 40km off Sicily’s southern coast, now thought to be a part of Empedocles. Ferdinandea lies in a volcanic area known as the Campi Flegrei del Mar di Sicilia (Phlegraean Fields of the Sea of Sicily), which lies between Sicily and Tunisia in the Mediterranean Sea. Many submarine volcanoes (seamounts) exist in the region, as well as some volcanic islands such as Pantelleria. Volcanic activity at Ferdinandea was first reported in the region during the First Punic War (264-241 B.C.), and the island has appeared and disappeared four or five times. Since the 17th century several eruptions have been reported. Ferdinandea’s most recent appearance as an island was in July 1831. During its brief life, the French geologist Constant Prévost was on hand with an artist to witness it that July; he named it île Julia, for its July appearance, and reported in the Bulletin de la Société Géologique de France. The King of Naples sent Italian ships to the nascent island to claim it for the Bourbon crown, while the French Navy also made a landing and called the island Giulia. Spain also declared its territorial ambitions. In 2002, renewed seismic activity around Ferdinandea led volcanologists to speculate that a new eruptive episode could be imminent, and the seamount might once more become an island. Despite the fact that Malta is just less than 60 km to the south of Sicily, this discovery poses no threat to the people of Malta.
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ODYSSEUS’ JOURNEYS IN THE ARCHAEO-ENVIRONMENTS OF WESTERN MEDITERRANEAN REGION
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Centre for the Assessment of Natural Hazards and Proactive Planning-NTU of Athens, alaoupi@otenet.gr 2
Dept. Geology and Geoenvironment, University of Athens, ckiriako@geol.uoa.gr, and sideriscos@geol.uoa.gr 3 Deprt. of Geology , University of Patras papamar7@upatras.gr ABSTRACT
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From the land of the Cyclops Ulysses (Odyssey, x. 1 – 76; Apollodorus E 7.10; Hyginus, 125 ; Ovidius Metamorphoses 14.223-232) came to the kingdom of Aeolus, custodian of the winds, who welcomed him and his companions. Homer’s description of the island of Aeolia and the other geographical evidence led many scholars to identify it with Malta. But some scholars maintain that Lipari or Stromboli is Aeolia. In the Tyrrhenian Sea, north of Sicily and south of Naples, are some small islands which are called after the main one the Lipari islands or the Aeolian islands. Lipari (Roman Lipara, ancient Greek Meligunis) is the largest of a chain of seven islands in a volcanic archipelago that straddles the gap between Vesuvius and Etna., in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the north coast of Sicily. It is generally accepted that the island was created by a succession of four volcanic movements, the most important of which was the third one, presumably lasting from 20.000 BC to 13.000 BC. A further important phenomenon should have happened around 9.000 BC. The last recorded eruptions occurred in the fifth century CE, when the airborne pumice covered Roman villages on the island. The volcanos are considered inactive, though steaming fumaroles may still be seen. As a result of the volcanic origins, the island is covered with pumice and obsidian. Pumice mining has become a large industry on Lipari, and the pale pumice from Lipari is shipped internationally. Aeolus is described as the son of Hellen (ancestor of the Hellenes) as the founder of the Aeolian or Eastern-Greek ethnic group. In the Odyssey he ties up adverse winds in a leather bag which he gives to Odysseus to assure a safe home-voyage, later myths refer to him as controller or king of the winds, in which role he persists through the ages. Magical control of the winds only becomes important when seafaring is an critical part of a nation’s life. Information of images 1. Aiolos gives Odysseus the bag of winds. 17th century etching Theodor van Thulden (1606 - 1669). Fine Art Museum San Francisco 2. Wind and geopotential height at 850-mb level. ECMWF analysis at 1200Z, 1 July 1985 3.a. TOMS Data, 21 July 2002: shows data from the “Total Ozone Mapping pectrometer (TOMS)” on 21 July 2002. The data are color-coded to reveal levels of optical thickness, red being quite high, and gray at a lower level. Yellow areas depict a moderate level of dust in suspension. b. SeaWifs Image, 21 July 2002, 1200Z: a true color SeaWifs satellite image on the same day showing an area of raised dust in the same location as the TOMS data. Dust is also evident over the waters of the western Mediterranean. 4. NAAPS Aerosol Forecast and 3000 m Winds, 24 July 2002, 1200Z: the surface analysis for 24 July indicates some probable strengthening but little movement of the easterly wave over west Africa. Aloft, however, near the 700 mb level, a very strong anticyclonic circulation is revealed.
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The aim of this poster is to highlight the Homeric Odyssey journey around the central- west Mediterranean area. Also describe and focus on the geographical itineraries, the environmental setting and the palaeo-anthropological & socioeconomic background of the seafaring in the Mediterranean Sea during the Bronze Age. It is well known that the Mediterranean Sea is a mid-latitude semi-enclosed sea, or almost isolated oceanic system. A shallow submarine ridge (the Strait of Sicily) between the island of Sicily and the coast of Tunisia divides the sea in two main subregions (which in turn are divided into subdivisions), the Western Mediterranean and the Eastern Mediterranean. Severe environmental turbulence natural phenomena (earthquakes, impact episodes, volcanic eruptions, drought or flood, epidemics), wars and conflicts, collapse of the main cultural centers and the constant human need for expansion, change and exploration triggered several population’s flows to the Western Mediterranean. The volcanic structures are quite complex showing a variety in geomorphological features, volcanicity’s expression and intensity and ecological surroundings. Stromboli, Etna, Vesuvius, Campi Flegrei, Lipari islands, the extincted volcanoes of Sardinia, the underwater volcano of Ferdinandea of the Sicilian sea, which lies between Sicily and Tunisia in the Mediterranean Sea, are among the most prominent examples of the volcanic landscapes encountered by prehistoric travellers. The mythological tales set in the Phlegraean Fields, apart from the Gigantomachy and its archaeoenvironmental interpretation, deal also with three heroes: Heracles, Ulysses and Aeneias. Homer’s description of the island of Aeolia and the other geographical evidence led many scholars to identify it with Malta. But some scholars maintain that Lipari or Stromboli is Aeolia. Lipari is the largest of a chain of seven islands in a volcanic archipelago that straddles the gap between Vesuvius and Etna, in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the north coast of Sicily. Its position has made the harbor of Lipari strategic. In Neolithic Times Lipari was, with Sardinia, one of the few centers of the commerce of obsidian. In the Odyssey, Aeolus is described as the controller or king of the winds. So, his role is pivotal in some major trade routes, as he may symbolize the priest who performs windmagic or the prehistoric king who has the power to manipulate naval trade routes. Moreover, Ulysses had been warned by both Tiresias and Circe of the two monsters Scylla and Charybdis. In Greek mythology, Scylla was a sea monster who lived underneath a dangerous rock at one side of the Strait of Messina, opposite the whirlpool Charybdis. The Song of the Sirens presents, equally, something of a puzzle. Legends of sirens (acoustically) tempting or deafening seafarers, abound around Malta. Perhaps Sirens were persons, possibly the best singers with the strongest voices. Illustrations show the similarities of the Hagar Qim Temple compound layout on Malta, when compared to a typical 800 MHz wireless antenna pattern, highlighting the unusual acoustics encountered in the temple complexes of Malta. In one of the most famous passages of Homer’s Odyssey, the hero Odysseus encounters the Cyclops Polyphemus, a member of a primordial race of giants, each with a single eye in the middle of his forehead, who lives with his fellow Cyclopes in a distant country. Homer placed the cave of Polyphemus, who captured Odysseus and his comrades, on Etna’s slopes. Apart from various geoarchaeological and palaeontological interpretations, it is possible that the rare but occasional birth of malformed children affected by Cyclopia, a rare congenital cephalic disorder, could have inspired the legend. Mycenaean sailors undertook reconnaissance missions and regular trading voyages to the edges of the known world. Fragments of Mycenaean pottery found in Spain, Libya, Sicily, Sardinia, Southern Italy, and even, discovered most recently, in the central Italian city of Florence, permit us to map their journeys. Furthermore, the Sea People (Peleset, Tjeker, Shekelesh, Denien = people of the isles, Weshesh, Lukka, Ekwesh - ?the Ahhiyawa of the Hittite texts & Sherden) firslty appeared in some Eastern Mediterranean texts of 14th cent. B.C., mirror only a tiny part of the past sea migrations. The sea people were not mentioned by ancient Greek historians but they do by Plato and are called by him atlantes in his famous Kritias document.
LIPARI ISLAND - AEOLOS KINGDOM
THE FLEGREAN FIELDS AND THE REALM OF ADES
The mythological tales set in the Phlegraean Fields deal with three heroes: Heracles, Ulysses and Aeneias. 1. The myth of Heracles in the Phlegraean Fields is mainly related to two episodes: the Gigantomachy and the construction of the coast road between lake Lucrinus and the sea. In ancient times, the remains of the wild boar of Erymanthus were believed to be kept in the temple of Apollo at Cumae. The capture of this wild boar had been one of the twelve labours performed by the hero. 2. Baia includes the vast area between the promontory of Miseno and the Lake of Lucrino. Its name derives from the place where Baios, a helmsman of Ulysses got buried. In the Campi Flegrei the ground is subsiding and the ancient Roman ruins are disappearing below the waves. There the Homeric hero descended into Hades and spoke with the deads. 3. The mythical Cumaean Sibyl was consulted by Aeneias when he was fleeing Troy (according to Virgil) to give him instructions to descend to the underworld. The entry to the underworld (Hades) was at the nearby volcanic crater of Avernus. The Cumaean Sibyl was the priestess presiding over the Apollonian oracle at Cumae, a Greek colony located near Naples, Italy. The underworld realms of Hades (Odyssey, v, x & xi) call to mind firstly that there are more than 24.000 linear kilometers of caves underlying the greater part of Europe, and also that during the various glacial periods these caves were the home of man as well as a variety other animals. The world of Hades is also drawn graphically from the world of the caves. “Ghosts” live there, the spirits of the dead, too. But when Homer calls the “forceless heads of the dead” which flit by Odysseus in his underworld venture, may have been referred to the flight of sonar-guided bats. The “hateful” example of Styx (Gr.’styg’=”hate”), are the dead, unoxygenated waters which flow beneath the earth. Cerberus of the three mouths is probably nothing more than the triple echo of the sounds of cave-dwellers calling out to each other in the infernal darkness. Lacking physical understanding of sound waves, reflection and echoes, ancient men would naturally infer a real agent, so that a muted, echoing roar would be taken as the sound of the Dog of Hell. The less known river, Pyriplegithron “the burning, fiery one”, may show knowledge of underground coal-gas or methane conflagrations, spontaneously combusted. (www.middlebury.edu/ ~harris)
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The Song of the Sirens presents something of a puzzle, since music is generally thought to bepleasing and soothing, not threatening anddestructive. The evidence concerning the appearance of the Sirens may be twofold: On the one hand they are said to be birdlike with the faces of women. Sailors in the last two centuries have averred that they actually saw mermaids, fish with womens’ heads, which modern oceanographers explain as visual phenomena (the way porpoises and seals might have looked to the eyes of sex-starved men too long at sea). Late Archaic (ca 500 - 480 BC) Attic Red Figure Stamnos. British Museum, London E440. Beazley Archive Number: 202628. The Siren Painter Side A: Odysseus bound to the mast of his ship listens to the deadly song of the Seirenes. One of the bird-shaped maidens, casts herself from her perch in despair. It has been suggested, at various times, that ancient humans had knowledge and use of unseen powers, forces and energy fields. There is no question, that as it has always existed, the EM Spectrum is a naturally occurring part of our environment, comprised of a continuous sequence of electromagnetic energy arranged according to wavelength or frequency, as generated by particle motion (vibrations) and pulses created from many sources. Turning his attention to the ancient temples of Malta, Slovakian researcher Dr. Pavel Smutny explains that complexes were used probably as generators of high frequency acoustic waves. Purposes were (maybe) to arrange a communication channel among various islands. Legends abound around Malta of sirens (acoustically) tempting or deafening seafarers. Sirens were persons, possibly the best singers with the strongest voices, namely obese or thick women, such as some modern opera stars. Many statues of just such woman have been discovered everywhere on Malta including temples, standing on pedestals in the middle of complexes. The oval multi-chambered configuration of the Maltese temples would allow signals formed from groups of air particles, before output, to be amplified in a second parallel opposite oval spaces of the temple. This would be analogous with a resonator.
8 distributed throughout Europe and North America. Both grow in mountainous areas where moist or swampy conditions exist. 60 toxic steroidal alkaloids have been isolated from Veratrum species. Many have potent hypotensive properties. Three of the alkaloids are teratogenic (jervine, cyclopamine and cycloposine). 45 grams of root/rhizome given twice daily for three days to ewes beginning on day 29 of gestation induced typical limb deformities in lambs. In fact, the word “hellebore” is from the Greek elleboros. The scientific name is from the Latin veratrum, both terms were used in antiquity for unknown poisonous plants. Later, those in the Lily family were given the Latin name veratrum; and those in the Buttercup family the Greek name, helleborus. Thus, “true” hellebores are Ranunculaceae and “false” hellebores are Liliaceae. All are poisonous, although potentially with therapeutic value. FIGURES E, F, G
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The Sea People, Sardinia and the Myceneans
Sardinia (Sardegna in Italian, Sardigna or Sardinna in the Sardinian language) is the second largest island in the Mediterranean Sea (Sicily is the largest), between Italy, Spain and Tunisia, south of Corsica. It forms part of Italy. Broadly speaking, three separate geological zones can be distinguished, an eastern and a western mountainous zone and a central zone that was originally submerged and was filled mostly with limestones, marls, and some sandstones; Ologocene and Pliocene-Pleistocene volcanoes are both attested in the central zone, the former contributing trachytes and trachytic tuffs, the latter, extensive basaltic plains. There are also some older and younger alluvial plains and Aeolian dunes in various regions. Although there are very few high mountains, Sardinia is in fact a mountainous region, characterized by much-eroded high plains and plateaux and by steep and abrupt slopes. FIG A In 1979 human remains were found that were dated to 150.000 B.C. The first men to settle in Gallura and Northern Sardinia probably came from Italian peninsula, possibly Tuscany. The central region may have been populated by people arriving from the Iberian Peninsula through the Balearic Islands. In Prehistory Sardinia’s inhabitants developed a trade in obsidian and this activity brought Sardinians into contact with most of the Mediterranean people. Desiccated grapes, recently found in several locations, were DNA tested and proved to be the oldest grapes in the world, dating back to 1200 B.C.. The Cannonau wine is made with these grapes and may qualify as the mother of all the European wines. From Neolithic times until the Roman Empire, the Nuragic civilisation took shape on the island. Still today, more than 9,000 Nuraghe survive. At the beginning of the nuragic age ca 1500 B.C. the island was first called Hyknusa (latinized Ichnusa) by the Mycenaeans and later by the Euboians, probably meaning island (nusa) of the Hyksos, the people who had just been expelled by Ahmose I of Egypt circa 1540 B.C. Sandalyon was its second name, probably due to its shape, recalling a footprint. Last and present name has been Sardinia, for the Shardana (Sharden by the Phoenicians), whose invasion on Egypt was defeated by Ramesses III ca 1180 BC., coming from the Eastern Mediterranean.
Scylla & Charybdis
«..And after that Odysseus came to two ways. On the one side were the Wandering Rocks, and on the other side two huge cliffs, and in one of them was Scylla, a daughter of Crataeis and Trienus or Phorcus, with the face and breast of a woman, but from the flanks she had six heads and twelve feet of dogs». Ulysses had been warned by both Tiresias and Circe of the two monsters Scylla and Charybdis. In Greek mythology, Scylla was a sea monster who lived underneath a dangerous rock at one side of the Strait of Messia, opposite the whirlpool Charybdis. Terrible and horrible freak of the sea, she devoured the unfortunate seamen, when the heavy sea threw their ship into her cave. The other terror, Charybdis, was a gulf nearly on a level with the water. Thrice each day the water rushed into a frightful chasm, and thrice was disgorged. Any vessel coming near the whirlpool when the tide was rushing in must inevitably be engulfed; not Neptune himself could save it. The roar of the waters as Charybdis engulfed them gave warning at a distance, but Scylla could nowhere be discerned. The myth of Scylla and Charybdis, is first known by Homer in his epic poem Odyssey (xii, 55 - 126 / 201 - 259, 426 / 446. See also Apollodorus, E 7.20 ff.). Homer also mentions the former passage of the Argo between the Wandering or Clashing Rocks (Apollodorus A.9.22). It has been suggested that the story of the Wandering Rocks is a confused reminiscence of some sailor’s story of floating icebergs. The crossing of all the Straits in the imaginary of the ancients, has always constituted a initiatory test for the hero, called to challenge the adverse strengths of the nature and open new horizons of knowledge. The navigation of the Straits of Messina has represented a situation of serious danger for the sailors, with their objective difficulties for the rapid and irregular tides, for the winds that exhale there violent and sometimes in conflict among them, for the oceanic depths of some lines of sea and for the richness of the varieties of the fish fauna that includes. Scylla and Charybdis offer the opportunity to expose relative thesis both to the genesis of the Straits (a flood of the sea that demolished the edge of earth that united Sicily to the continent) and to the explanation of the sea vortexes (Charybdis is with the whirling sea that swallow the boats and drag her, making to resurface her up to the beaches of Taormina). Information of images Fig. B. Greek Mythology, Ekdotiki Athenon, Athens, 1986, vol. 2, The Gods, p. 250 “ Scylla “ Melian Relief . B’ quarter of 5 th cent. B.C. ( 475 - 450 B.C. ). London British Museum B 374
Sirens – Malta’s temples & the field of Radio Archaeology
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FIG B,C
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The names of the moving groups demonstrate the turbilence that shook the circum-Mediterranean region. The earliest mention of the Sea Peoples proper is in an inscription of the Egyptian pharaoh Merneptah (1213 B.C. - 1204 B.C.), although mention of individual groups does occur earlier (i.e. Denien, during the reign of Amenhotep III, and Shardana, as mercenaries to Ramses II). Merneptah states that in the fifth year of his reign, he defeated an invasion of an allied force of Libyans and the Sea People, killing 6.000 soldiers and taking 9.000 prisoners. About 20 years later, another haraoh, Ramses III ( ca. 1196 - 1070 B.C.), was forced to deal with another invasion of the Sea Peoples.
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Generally, many names appeared in those texts, the Peleset, Tjeker, Shekelesh, Denien = people of the isles, Weshesh, Lukka, Ekwesh - ?the Ahhiyawa of the Hittite texts and Sherden Some have connected the name ‘Teresh’ to the Hittite city Taruisas, Troy. The seafaring Etruscans may simply have sought brides from among their client or host populations, accounting for the mitochodrial DNA. At the other end of the spectrum of possibilities, perhaps some Trojans emigrated to Etruria, accounting for the different names. In an effort to resolve the contradictions, a team of geneticists from different universities in Italy and Spain undertook the first genetic studies of the ancient Etruscans, based on mitochondrial DNA from 80 bone samples taken from tombs dating from the 7th century to the 3rd century BC in Etruria. The results are enlightening but also contradictory. This initial genetic study of the Etruscans finds that they were more related to each other than to the population of modern Italy; i.e., they qualify as a partially distinct genetic pool, or “people.” FIG D
Genetic substratum of W. Mediterranean Y-chromosome (mrDNA) variation was analyzed in a sample of 1127 males from the Western Mediterranean area. Some populations from Northeastern Europe and the Middle East were also studied for comparison. All Y-chromosome haplotypes were included in a genealogic tree consisting of 17 haplogroups, several of which displayed distinct geographic specificities. One of the haplogroups, HG9.2, has some features that are compatible with a spread into Europe from the Near East the Neolithic period. However, the current distribution of this haplogroup would suggest that the Neolithic gene pool had a major impact in the eastern and central part of the Mediterranean basin, but very limited consequences in Iberia and Northwestern Europe. Two other haplogroups, HG25.2 and HG2.2, were found to have much more restricted geographic distributions. The first most likely originated in the Berbers within the last few thousand years, and allows the detection of gene flow to Iberia and Southern Europe. The latter haplogroup is common only in Sardinia, which confirms the genetic peculiarity and isolation of the Sardinians. Overall, this study demonstrates that the dissection of Y-chromosome variation into haplogroups with a more restricted geo-graphic distribution can reveal important differences even between populations that live at short distances, and provides new clues to their past interactions. Rosaria Scozzari et al. , 2001. Human Y-Chromosome Variation in the Western Mediterranean Area: Implications for the Peopling of the Region. Human Immunology 62, pp. 871–884. American Society for Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics
The term Mediterranean derives from the Latin mediterraneus, ‘inland’ (medius, ‘middle’ + terra, ‘land, earth’), in Greek “mesogeios”. The Mediterranean Sea has been known by a number of alternative names throughout human history. It was, for example, commonly called Mare Nostrum (Latin, Our Sea), and occasionally Mare Intestinum by the Romans. The many seas The Mediterranean Sea is a mid-latitude semi-enclosed sea, or almost isolated oceanic system. Many processes which are fundamental to the general circulation of the world ocean also occur within the Mediterranean, either identically or analogously. The Mediterranean Sea exchanges water, salt, heat, and other properties with the North Atlantic Ocean. The North Atlantic is known to play an important role in the global thermohaline circulation, as the major site of deep- and bottom-water formation for the global thermohaline cell (conveyor belt) which encompasses the Atlantic, Southern, Indian, and Pacific Oceans. The salty water of Mediterranean origin may affect water formation processes and variabilities and even the stability of the global thermohaline equilibrium state.
The many names The Mediterranean Sea has an average depth of 1.500 m. and the deepest recorded point is 5267 m. in the Calypso Deep in the Ionian Sea. The coastline extends for 46. 000 km. A shallow submarine ridge (the Strait of Sicily) between the island of Sicily and the coast of Tunisia divides the sea in two main subregions (which in turn are divided into subdivisions), the Western Mediterranean and the Eastern Mediterranean. The Western Mediterranean covers an area of about 0.85 million km2 and the Eastern Mediterranean about 1.65 million km2. The Physical Oceanography of W. Mediterranean There are strong affinities and relationships between Mediterranean and Atlantic faunas. Endemic species remain a biogeographical problem. Species always become smaller in size eastward where theyoccupy a progressively deeper habitat. Thus, the existing deep Mediterranean Sea appears to be younger than any other deep-sea constituent of the World
Ocean. The Mediterranean comprises 0.82 % of the surface of the World Ocean and 0.35 % of its volume. Coastal and shelf areas of the Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is composed of two morphologically different shelf areas: the first is narrow with a steep continental slope and the second is a river dominated shelf area with a gentle sloping continental shelf break. The first kind is normally found all along the Mediterranean coastlines with the exception of the river delta areas, particularly the Nile, the Rhone (Gulf of Lions), the Po (North Adriatic Sea) and the Ebro, the Sicily Strait area and the Gulf of Sirte. Information of image A. R. Robinson, W. G. Leslie, A. Theocharis & A. Lascaratos , 2001. Mediterranean Sea Circulation. Academic Press : 1. Mediterranean seas, 2.Temperature and currents during summer in Mediterranean.