Human settlements in the Mediterranean and the sea level changes from 12 ka to the present

Understanding past sea-level change plays an important role in determining the underlying causes, and also allows the extrapolation of past sea levels to locations and epochs for which there are no instrumental data. A compilation of global sea-level estimates based on deep-sea oxygen isotope ratios at millennial-scale resolution or higher was published since ‘70. These global sea level curves do not take in account isostasy and tectonics. Observed sea level change can be reconstructed from dated fossils, coral reef terraces, speleothems, emerged and forming terraces on coastal areas, archaeological and other markers well connected with sea level. Because of the lack of coral reefs in the Mediterranean sea, results on late Quaternary sea level changes have been difficult to obtain in comparison with typical sites such as Barbados, the Huon Peninsula, Tahiti, Florida and others. On the contrary the very low tidal range of Mediterranean seas offers a good opportunity to produce precise observations and considerations on climatic change. As regard the last highstand (Holocene), sea level change is the sum of eustatic, glacio-hydro-isostatic, and tectonic factors. The first is time-dependent while the latter two also vary with location. This means that at the same time slices the relative sea level (the sum of 3 different movements) should be different in different coastlines. Coastal settlements and maritime installations built in antiquity provide important insights into sea-level changes during past millennia. Reconstructions of historical sea-level change using archaeological coastal sites are particularly effective in the Mediterranean (continua...