Publication Date:
2021-07-14
Description:
New data on the ancient landscape of Naples (southern Italy) during the middle and late Holocene from
geo-archaeological excavations associated with public transport works were used to reconstruct the hill
and coastal environment to the west of the ancient Graeco-Roman polis, where remains of human settlements
date to the late Neolithic. The rich stratigraphic and archaeological records that emerged from
the digs and from previous boreholes were measured and analysed by combining sedimentary facies
analysis, tephrostratigraphy and archaeological data. Between the 5th and 4th millennia BP, a rocky
profile with a wave-cut platform cutting across pyroclastites emplaced from the surrounding volcanoes
was predominant in the coastal landscape. During the 3rd millennium BP, this rocky coast was progressively
replaced by a sandy littoral environment primarily due to marine deposition, with a coastline
located some hundred meters inland with respect to the modern one. The sedimentary record of the
Greek and Roman periods indicates short-term fluctuations of the coastline, leading to the establishment
of a backshore environment towards the end of the 6th century AD, when prograding river mouths and
lobes of debris flows contributed to the advancing trend of the shoreline. The frequent archaeological
remains from these periods indicate a stable settled area since Roman times. The shoreline was still
subject to short-lived fluctuations between the 12th and 16th centuries, and attained its present position
during the modern era with man-made reshaping of its profile. The construction of Relative Sea Level
curves for two coastal sites reveals that the persistence of the foreshore environment in the Naples
coastal strip during the 5th and 4th millennia BP was controlled by the counterbalancing effect of either
the concurrent eustatic sea level rise or subsidence. On the other hand, the morpho-stratigraphic record
for the last two millennia shows a significant correlation between sedimentation rate and settlement
history, accounting for the dominant role of the anthropogenic forcing-factor in late Holocene landscape
history. In particular, land mismanagement during Late Antiquity seems to have triggered a slope
disequilibrium phase, exacerbating soil erosion and increasing the sediment accumulation rate in both
foothill and coastal areas. Nonetheless, the environmental changes of the Chiaia coast during the last
2000 years clearly show volcanicetectonic perturbations influencing coastline development up to the
modern era.
Description:
Published
Description:
107-119
Description:
3.5. Geologia e storia dei vulcani ed evoluzione dei magmi
Description:
3.10. Storia ed archeologia applicate alle Scienze della Terra
Description:
JCR Journal
Description:
reserved
Keywords:
study
;
Naples coastline
;
the last 6000 years
;
04. Solid Earth::04.04. Geology::04.04.03. Geomorphology
;
04. Solid Earth::04.04. Geology::04.04.10. Stratigraphy
;
04. Solid Earth::04.08. Volcanology::04.08.05. Volcanic rocks
Repository Name:
Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV)
Type:
article
