Interaction of Geohazards and Settlements through the Past Millennium, Banda Aceh, Indonesia
Abstract
Geo-archaeological fieldwork conducted between 2010-2012 around Banda Aceh, Indonesia revealed stratigraphic evidence for one (possibly two) historic tsunami occurring in the decades after 1366±3. Between 2015 - 2017 we conducted an extensive landscape archaeology survey in 43 coastal villages spanning over 40 km to see if these past tsunamis impacted coastal settlement. In the first major systemic survey of its kind in Indonesia, we found and documented 995 archaeological sites ranging from the late 10th to 20th centuries CE, containing over 5,000 carved gravestones, and 50,000 ceramic sherds. The distribution of ceramic material suggests seven discrete areas of cultural activity before the 14th century CE tsunami. Our working hypothesis is that six of these sites were villages of local inhabitants who utilized imported ceramics. These started at the end of the 10th century and have evidence for activity through present day. However, detailed analysis of the chronology of the ceramics material strongly suggests that there was a notable reduction of activity between 1360 and 1450 CE (Figure 2), supporting the hypothesis that coastal settlements were disrupted by the historic tsunami. The distribution of ceramic material after 1500 CE across the survey area shows a gradual repopulation of pre-tsunami sites, as well as a significant expansion of activity starting at the end of the 16th Century, for all areas but Lamreh. The density of settlements increases during the late-Ming and Qing period, which corresponds to the rise of the Acehnese sultanate and the formation of the urban center of Banda Aceh, when the coastal settlement patterns closely resembled the areas devastated by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. This poster is a detailed accompaniment
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2017
- Bibcode:
- 2017AGUFMNH23A0237S
- Keywords:
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- 3225 Numerical approximations and analysis;
- MATHEMATICAL GEOPHYSICS;
- 4332 Disaster resilience;
- NATURAL HAZARDS;
- 4341 Early warning systems;
- NATURAL HAZARDS;
- 4564 Tsunamis and storm surges;
- OCEANOGRAPHY: PHYSICAL