La progradazione costiera nella regione del delta dell’Ermo e la colonizzazione greca nell’area fra Smirne e Cuma eolica

An impressive network of oxbows and dry riverbeds ploughing the flat land around Menemen (Aegean Turkey) proves that in the last three millennia the lower course of the Hermus river - today's Gediz çayı - underwent many changes, mostly gradual (an effect of "meander dynamics" and coastal progradation), in part sudden and dramatic. A good amount of historical evidence (literary sources, ancient inscriptions, old maps, archaeological findings, etc.) seems to suggest that the present delta region was in origin a gulf, facing an island or archipel (corresponding to the hill system between Panaztepe and Üçtepeler). The considerable silting at the Hermus mouth(s) progressively filled the whole area, while the river changed its orientation from an east > west ("Maltepe Mecra [mecra = branch]") to a north-east > south-west axis ("Değirmentepe Mecra"). This seems to be confirmed also by the topographical and chronological distribution of ancient sites all over the area.