Roman Neapolis discovered underwater in Tunisia

[Roma_Victrix]

Major Roman ruins discovered underwater in Tunisia: Streets, monuments and about 100 fermentation tanks found in the Mediterranean, confirming a theory about Neapolis.

Roman ruins stretching over 20 hectares have been discovered off the coast of northeastern Tunisia, confirming "with certainty" a theory that the city of Neapolis was partly submerged by a tsunami in the 4th century AD.

This is a remarkable find. It's also a reminder about the horrible consequences of mother nature. Still, this should yield some very interesting finds and tell us more about Roman cities at the time.

[sumskilz]

The thing about getting submerged by a tsunami is the wave comes in, but it also goes right back out. It doesn't just come in and stay. Seems to me, an earthquake is more likely to drop a whole city below sea level. Is there something I'm missing here?

[Roma_Victrix]

Interesting point. I'm not an archaeologist and I don't know very many details about the site, but this is a worthy question to ask. Perhaps a better news source could explain?

[sumskilz]

Interesting point. I'm not an archaeologist and I don't know very many details about the site, but this is a worthy question to ask. Perhaps a better news source could explain?

If Mounir Fantar was talking out his ass to the press about stuff he doesn't really understand, he wouldn't be the first excavation head to have done so. Without knowing any details about the site, here's what I think happened... Tunisia is close to the edge of the African Plate where it meets the Eurasian Plate. The African Plate is being subducted under the Eurasian Plate. There are some small cross faults that are being folded there, but generally speaking, the African Plate is being forced under the Eurasian Plate, meaning tectonic movements can lead to earthquakes that will drop the altitude of regions on the African side. So I bet the material culture of the finds cuts off at about the time of the tsunami which is already well documented, so they're thinking the tsunami may have also sunk the city, but that's a stupid explanation. The fact of the matter is that major earthquakes produce tsunamis, so most likely the earthquake that dropped the city below sea level also produced a tsunami as a shock wave. It's possible Mounir Fantar isn't a complete fool, and that the media simply misunderstood the explanation given.