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Document Details :

Title: From 'Isauria' to Lydia
Subtitle: Revising the Epicenter of the 1213 Philadelphia Earthquake. An Issue in Historical Seismology
Author(s): GUIDOBONI, Emanuela
Journal: Le Muséon
Volume: 131    Issue: 3-4   Date: 2018   
Pages: 415-436
DOI: 10.2143/MUS.131.3.3285655

Abstract :
This note shows that one may relocate the epicenter of the 1213 earthquake, as based on one direct source edited by R. Röricht in Regesta Regni Hierosolymitani (1893). The source in question was acritically accepted in two Catalogues of historical seismology and in an important article by Halfter. It proved necessary to return to the original manuscript and use palaeography to clarify the place name on which previous interpretations were based. The destructive 1213 earthquake was first placed at Philadelphia in the region of 'Isauria' (present-day south-east Turkey). Thanks to palaeographic analysis of that place name, the event is here interpreted as involving the area of Lydian Philadelphia, in western Turkey, an area well-known for earthquakes since ancient times. The note illustrates the process and importance of proper toponymy in historical seismology when it comes to pinpointing epicenters.

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