Coastal Margin Evolution and Postulated “Basin-Shipyard” Area at Ancient Locri-Epizephiri, Calabria, Italy

Environmental settings on the Ionian coastal plain and inner shelf seaward of Locri-Epizephiri in Calabria, Italy, differed markedly before, during, and following settlement by the Greeks. Sediment core analyses and geophysical surveys in this study support recent archaeological findings and the hypothesis that the margin may once have served as a harbor and/or shipyard. The subsurface Holocene stratigraphy records that (1) the shoreline advanced to a maximum landward position before Greek settlement, then regressed offshore to what is now the inner shelf before once again migrating landward. These marked coastal shifts were triggered primarily by land uplift and probable subsidence offshore along this structurally active Calabrian Arc segment. Associated with this are: (2) a sediment fining-upward sequence in Greek–Roman time that indicates only partial protection of the coastal area, and (3) possible presence of subsurface structures seaward of the city wall in a sector now positioned about 200 m offshore.