Holocene landscape reconstruction of the Southern Sinis Peninsula area (Central-Western Sardinia, Italy): Geoarchaeological approach)

From the ecological point of view Sardinia has always been very important, because of its geographical position at the centre of the western Mediterranean sea. This condition as well as their characteristic geomorphological features influenced both ecosystems and the development of ancient societies from prehistoric age. This paper presents some preliminary results of our multidisciplinary research project focusing on the relationship between cultural dynamics and environmental variations through the time, with particular attention to the transitional and coastal ecosystems. The geographic area considered is the gulf of Oristano, a western central Sardinia area where both continental and sedimentary coastal sequences are present. These stratigraphic sequences represent a very important archives from the archaeological and environmental point of view. For thousands of years they have continued to accumulate a large amount of information, allowing to preserve useful data essential for our project. In particular, environmental features and anthropic dynamics occurred in the hinterland of the gulf of Oristano were examined in a diachronic perspective to understand geo-morphological and environmental phenomena that have affected settlement choices of human groups from prehistory to ancient history. Preliminary results indicate that variations in sea level and climate have influenced the choices of settlement in this territory.