Coastal changes in the eastern Tavoliere Plain (Puglia, Italy) during the Late Holocene: natural or anthropic?

This paper reports a study carried out in an area in the vicinity of Coppa Nevigata archaeological site. The settlement, inhabited from the Early Neolithic to the Iron Age, was situated on the shores of a broad lagoon extended some 40 km from the Manfredonia to the Ofanto river mouth. This lagoon evolved into a marshland (now extensively reclaimed) that, in the area near to the site, took the name of "Palude Frattarolo". The data obtained from analysis of two sediment cores were integrated with archaeological information to reconstruct a complex sequence of past environments. The evolution of a lagoon-wetland environment was traced since the Late Neolithic. Previous analysis of data from sediment cores drilled near the margin of the settlement had suggested that throughout the Bronze and Iron Ages the wetland was subjected to several rapid changes due to anthropogenic activities. In contrast two other cores, obtained in the middle of the former basin, show a progressive closing of the lagoon environment. We show that studies carried out in different sampling areas of this basin, could produce very different data. If these sites were considered separately the data could lead researchers to draw inaccurate conclusions about the past natural changes that occurred in the physical environment.