Archaeological indicators of sea level change and land movements in recent millennia: examples from the Mediterranean

Abstract

Recent results indicate for the central Mediterranean significant variations of the relative sea level change in 2000 years, suggesting that the observed signal can be addressed to eustatism and global isostatic adjustment. The average modern eustatic sea level rise at 1-2 mm year recorded by tide gauges, has not been always constant since the roman time, but likely started 100-150 years ago. Here we show an overview on the late Holocene sea level change and vertical rate of land movements in the Mediterranean, as shown by archaeological markers, geological, geomorphologic and biological data.