Late Holocene evolution of Tiber river delta and geoarchaeology of Claudius and Trajan Harbor,Rome

This study provides new information on the evolution of the Tiber delta during the late Holocene, and describes the record of sedimentation in the Port of Claudius and Trajan. The Tiber flowed into the Tyrrhenian Sea in the area of the Port of Claudius and Trajan between the 8th and 5th centuries B.C. The harbor basins excavated by the Romans during the 1st and 2nd centuries A.D. were filled with sediments containing saltwater fauna, then brackish‐water fauna, and finally by alluvial and marsh deposits. The Port of Claudius and Trajan was silted in as a consequence of episodes of alluviation that correlate with environmental events, possibly triggered by global climate changes. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.