Don't Worry, It's Just a Name
November 17, 2015 3:35 PM   Subscribe

According to ancient texts, Athenians and Spartans clashed at the isle of Kane in 406 BC, one of the last battles of the Great Peloponnesian War. Some 100 ships were sent to the bottom of the Aegean Sea as a result of the prolonged, hard-fought naval battle. Archaeologists have long debated the location of Kane, but none of the islands in the Aegean seemed to fit the descriptions. At long last, thanks to artifacts and core samples, the location of Kane has been identified, as has the reason it took so long to find it: It isn't an island anymore.
posted by Hot Pastrami! (6 comments total) 29 users marked this as a favorite
 
Oops, I neglected to include: previously.
posted by Hot Pastrami! at 3:37 PM on November 17, 2015 [1 favorite]


Map view in case you're interested. You can see from this view how this was once an island but its now definitely not.

This is an amazing discovery.
posted by Joey Michaels at 3:42 PM on November 17, 2015 [2 favorites]


The coast line in that part of the world has changed quite dramatically even during historic times. At the time of the Trojan War, the sea came right up to Troy (modern "Hisarlik"). Now it's 5 km inland.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 3:59 PM on November 17, 2015


Outstanding title there.
posted by Pope Guilty at 4:20 PM on November 17, 2015 [2 favorites]


I've tended to think of sea level rise as a modern problem, but during the ice age, there was a lot more coastal land because the water was locked in ice. England wasn't separate from the rest of Europe for example.

A lot of early archaeological sites are long lost to the ocean, (not just in Europe, but every continent) since the homes of the coastal dwellers at that time are now underwater.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 4:59 PM on November 17, 2015 [6 favorites]


Pope Guilty: "Outstanding title there."

METAFILTER JOKES EXPLAINED: This is a Simpsons reference.
posted by Chrysostom at 6:51 AM on November 18, 2015 [3 favorites]


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