The Baelo Claudia Tsunami Archive (SW Spain)—Archaeological Deposits of High-Energy Events

Over the past decades, substantial progress has been made in tsunami research. Be that as it may, little is still known about tsunami deposits and their related depositional mechanisms in coastal areas in historical and archaeological contexts. In particular, the Phoenician, Greek and Roman trade and military networks along the Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts, with their cities, harbours and additional facilities, are susceptible to serving as archives for extreme wave events. The ruins of the Roman city of Baelo Claudia, located on the Bay of Bolonia Bay (southern Spain), offer a unique environment for studying historical tsunamis in the Gulf of Cadiz. Baelo Claudia suffered at least two earthquakes in Roman times, namely, in the first and fourth centuries CE. The latter, associated with a tsunami, led to the city’s destruction and subsequent decline. Accordingly, three tsunami deposits in Baelo Claudia, dated to ca. 4000 cal BP (2000 BCE), ca. 400 CE and 1755 CE, the last corresponding to the Lisbon tsunami, are described here. The multi-disciplinary research conducted on the sedimentary, archaeological and palaeontological records has revealed event deposits, together with major landscape changes in the environs of the bay after tsunami landfall. Furthermore, the significant archaeoseismic damage detected in recently excavated buildings has been dated to the end of the fourth-century CE. The results presented here serve to supplement the earthquake and tsunami record of coastal Iberia.