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Relocating Odysseus' homeland

Nature Geoscience volume 2, pages 455–458 (2009)Cite this article

Homer's Ithaca had been viewed as a work of poetic licence and imprecise geography. However, as recent research shows the island's form may have been disguised over the past two millennia by catastrophic rockfalls, co-seismic uplift events and relative sea-level change.

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Figure 1: The modern geography of the Ionian islands.
Figure 2: The geological setting of the Thinia valley.
Figure 3: Geological structures of the Thinia valley and the Gulf of Livadi.

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Acknowledgements

The support of the Institute of Geology and Mineral Exploration (IGME), Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Culture, and the Dimarcheions of Paliki and Argostoli is acknowledged. The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) is thanked for financial support. Fugro and their staff are acknowledged for their substantive geophysical and technical support of the project. Additional thanks are given to the main collaborators, R. Bittlestone and J. Diggle. Fugro geoscientists, S. Thomson, S. Poulter, D. Taliani, G. Hodges, A. Dyson and D. Kilcoyne, and Edinburgh University students, K. Hunter, N. Taylor, D. Taylor, C. Boddy and C. Duguid are all acknowledged for their help and support in geophysical data collection and analysis.

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  1. John R. Underhill is at the Grant Institute of Earth Science, School of Geosciences, University of Edinburgh, The King's Buildings, West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JW, Scotland, UK. jru@staffmail.ed.ac.uk,

    John R. Underhill

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Underhill, J. Relocating Odysseus' homeland. Nature Geosci 2, 455–458 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo562

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