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Submerged archaeological sites along the Ionian coast of southeastern Sicily (Italy) and implications for the Holocene relative sea-level change

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Giovanni Scicchitano ,
Fabrizio Antonioli ,
Elena Flavia Castagnino Berlinghieri ,
Andrea Dutton  and
Carmelo Monaco
Giovanni Scicchitano
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Scienze Geologiche, Università di Catania, Corso Italia, 55, 95129 Catania, Italy
Fabrizio Antonioli
Affiliation:
ENEA — Special Project Global Change, via Anguillarese 301, 00060 S. Maria di Galeria, Roma, Italy
Elena Flavia Castagnino Berlinghieri
Affiliation:
Corso di Laurea in Beni Culturali, Università di Catania, sede distaccata di Siracusa, Italy
Andrea Dutton
Affiliation:
Research School of Earth Sciences, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia
Carmelo Monaco*
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Scienze Geologiche, Università di Catania, Corso Italia, 55, 95129 Catania, Italy
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail address:[email protected] (C. Monaco).
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Abstract

Precise measurements of submerged archaeological markers in the Siracusa coast (Southeastern Sicily, Italy) provide new data on relative sea-level change during the late Holocene. Four submerged archaeological sites have been studied and investigated through direct observations. Two of them are Greek archaic in age (2.5–2.7 ka) and are now 0.98–1.48 m below sea level; the other two developed during the Bronze age (3.2–3.8 ka) and are now 1.03–1.97 m below sea level. These archaeological data have been integrated with information derived from a submerged speleothem collected in a cave located along the Siracusa coast at − 20 m depth. The positions of the archaeological markers have been measured with respect to present sea level, corrected for tide and pressure at the time of surveys. These data were compared with predicted sea-level rise curves for the Holocene using a glacio-hydro-isostatic model. The comparison with the curve for the southeastern Sicily coast yields a tectonic component of relative sea-level change related to regional uplift. Uplift rates between 0.3 and 0.8 mm/yr have been estimated.

Keywords

Submerged archaeological sitesSoutheastern SicilyRelative sea levelHolocene
Type
Original Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 70 , Issue 1 , July 2008 , pp. 26 - 39
Copyright
University of Washington

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