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Holocene environmental evolution of the costal sector in front of the Poseidonia-Paestum archaeological area (Sele plain, southern Italy)

  • Land Sea Interaction in Campania (Italy)
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Abstract

The Sele river plain is located along the western Tyrrhenian margin of the southern Apennine Chain and is confined seaward by a straight sandy coast formed during the Last Interglacial and the Holocene. The coastal plain is characterised by beach-dune ridges which interfinger landwards with lagoon and fluvio-palustrine deposits. This belt, which progressively grew up, represents the evolution of a barrier–lagoon system alternatively shifting landwards and seawards. The knowledge on the Holocene evolution of the Sele river coastal plain, along the coast of the Poseidonia-Paestum archaeological area, was improved by the drilling of two new cores and the collection of several archaeo-tephro-stratigraphic data. The area experienced the Holocene marine transgression which cut high cliffs in the travertine deposits. During the second half of the Holocene, the shoreline shifted seawards and a lagoon–beach bar system (Fossa Lupata-Laura) formed. The archaeological remains (VI cent. b.c.) and the Agnano Monte Spina tephra layer (4.1 ky BP) constrain chronologically this morpho-sedimentary system. After the VI cent. b.c., and mostly after the deposition of the 79 a.d. tephra layer, the shoreline shifted seawards and an additional beach ridge formed, while the flat area at the back (Fossa Lupata) was rapidly aggraded and dried up.

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Aknowledgements

Authors wish to thank the Soprintendenza Archeologica of Avellino-Salerno (Paestum Office), in particular, Dr. Marina Cipriani for having kindly granted the permission for the coring within the Porta Marina archaeological area, and Dr. Alfonso Santoriello of the Salerno University (Beni Culturali Department) for the interpretation of the ceramic materials of the cores.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie per l’Ambiente e il Territorio, Università del Molise, C.da Fonte Lappone, 86090, Pesche, IS, Italy

    Vincenzo Amato & Carmen Maria Rosskopf

  2. Dipartimento di Scienze per l’Ambiente, Università di Napoli Parthenope, Centro Direzionale, Isola C4, 80143, Naples, Italy

    Pietro Patrizio Ciro Aucelli & Gerardo Pappone

  3. Istituto per l’Ambiente Marino Costiero, CNR, Calata Porta di Massa, 80133, Naples, Italy

    Bruno D’Argenio & Luciana Ferraro

  4. Istituto di Geoscienze e Georisorse, CNR, Via Moruzzi 1, 56124, Pisa, Italy

    Simone Da Prato

  5. Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università degli Studi “Federico II” di Napoli, Largo S. Marcellino 10, 80138, Naples, Italy

    Paola Petrosino

  6. Dipartimento ARBOPAVE, Università degli Studi “Federico II” di Napoli, Via Università 100, 80055, Portici, Italy

    Elda Russo Ermolli

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  1. Vincenzo Amato
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  2. Pietro Patrizio Ciro Aucelli
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  3. Bruno D’Argenio
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  7. Paola Petrosino
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  8. Carmen Maria Rosskopf
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  9. Elda Russo Ermolli
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Correspondence to Vincenzo Amato.

Additional information

This paper is an outcome of the FISR project Vulnerability of the Italian coastal area and marine Ecosystem to Climate changes and their role in the Mediterranean carbon cycles (VECTOR), subproject Vulnerability of Coastal environments to climate changes (VULCOST) on Land–sea interaction and costal changes in the Sele River plain, Campania.

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Amato, V., Aucelli, P.P.C., D’Argenio, B. et al. Holocene environmental evolution of the costal sector in front of the Poseidonia-Paestum archaeological area (Sele plain, southern Italy). Rend. Fis. Acc. Lincei 23, 45–59 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12210-011-0161-1

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