Palaeoseismicity and pottery: Investigating earthquake and archaeological chronologies on the Hajiarab alluvial fan, Iran

Abstract

For millennia, humans have lived in locations that are highly vulnerable to large earthquakes, often out of strategic or cultural necessity and/or the proximity of these locations to resources necessary for survival. Despite the often catastrophic effects when large earthquakes occur, recent history reveals that human nature is to rebuild rather than relocate, implying that seismic activity is not a sufficient deterrent of population growth in tectonically vulnerable areas. In order to investigate whether this was the case for ancient civilisations, and thus perhaps a fundamental tenet of human behaviour, a palaeo-earthquake history was developed for the active Cheskin and Ipak Faults in nor..