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1 Department of Archaeology, Gregory Building, University of Glasgow, Lillybank Gardens, Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK
2 Department of Civil Engineering, University of Patras, Patras, Greece
This paper presents a brief historical overview of the development of archaeoseismology from the observations of Lanciani at ancient sites in Rome, of Kritikos in Athens, Evans at Knossos and Blegen at Troy, to the emergence in the last years of the twentieth century of archaeoseismology as a distinct sub-discipline of palaeoseismology. Some current issues are explored, beginning with major seismic events such as that in AD 365 in the Eastern Mediterranean whose effects were geographically widespread but uneven in their destructive severity; generalizations are hard to come by, and each case has to be examined on its own merits. The need to examine the suitability of building methods and materials in areas of seismic risk is emphasized. Finally, the contribution of seismic events to destruction horizons in two contrasting cases in the prehistoric Aegean is considered: at Mycenaean centres in the Argolid in the 13th–12th centuries BC, and in the Peloponnese at the end of Early Bronze II.
