IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jlands/v13y2024i8p1198-d1449752.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Marine Environments in Front of the Ancient City of Pompeii (Southern Italy) at 79 CE: New Insights for the Unknown Location of the Harbour

Author

Listed:
  • Giuseppe Aiello

    (Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, dell’Ambiente e delle Risorse, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, 80126 Napoli, Italy)

  • Vincenzo Amato

    (Dipartimento di Bioscienze e Territorio, Università degli Studi del Molise, 86090 Pesche, Italy
    Parco Archeologico di Pompeii, 80045 Pompei, Italy)

  • Valeria Amoretti

    (Parco Archeologico di Pompeii, 80045 Pompei, Italy)

  • Diana Barra

    (Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, dell’Ambiente e delle Risorse, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, 80126 Napoli, Italy
    Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Osservatorio Vesuviano di Napoli, 80124 Napoli, Italy)

  • Mauro Antonio Di Vito

    (Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Osservatorio Vesuviano di Napoli, 80124 Napoli, Italy)

  • Domenico Maria Doronzo

    (Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Osservatorio Vesuviano di Napoli, 80124 Napoli, Italy)

  • Andrea Infante

    (Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, dell’Ambiente e delle Risorse, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, 80126 Napoli, Italy)

  • Antonino Russo

    (Parco Archeologico di Pompeii, 80045 Pompei, Italy)

  • Domenico Sparice

    (Parco Archeologico di Pompeii, 80045 Pompei, Italy
    Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Osservatorio Vesuviano di Napoli, 80124 Napoli, Italy)

  • Gabriel Zuchtriegel

    (Parco Archeologico di Pompeii, 80045 Pompei, Italy)

Abstract

A multidisciplinary study, including geomorphological, stratigraphic, paleontological and archaeological methods and techniques, allowed for a detailed exploration of coastal landforms and environments in front of the ancient city of Pompeii (southern Italy). The famous site of Pompeii sits on a small volcanic hill in the alluvial-coastal plain of the Sarno River, very close to the ancient paleoshoreline. When the Roman city was buried during the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE, pyroclastic fall and flow deposits covered the urban centres and ancient coastal landforms. In this study, 83 new boreholes were carried out up to a depth of 10 m. Some of them (15) were analysed for their sedimentological, stratigraphical and paleontological characterisation, in order to reconstruct the sedimentary environments in 79 CE. The data collected allow for new hypotheses to be formulated regarding the paleoshorelines, as well as the 79 CE coastal landforms and environments. In particular, litho-stratigraphic and fossil assemblages highlight the presence of shallow marine environments in a large back-ridge depression, named Masseria Curati, that is located just outside the city walls. This hypothesis opens new insights on the unknown location of the harbour of the Roman city.

Suggested Citation

  • Giuseppe Aiello & Vincenzo Amato & Valeria Amoretti & Diana Barra & Mauro Antonio Di Vito & Domenico Maria Doronzo & Andrea Infante & Antonino Russo & Domenico Sparice & Gabriel Zuchtriegel, 2024. "Marine Environments in Front of the Ancient City of Pompeii (Southern Italy) at 79 CE: New Insights for the Unknown Location of the Harbour," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-21, August.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:13:y:2024:i:8:p:1198-:d:1449752
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/13/8/1198/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/13/8/1198/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:13:y:2024:i:8:p:1198-:d:1449752. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.