Antonioli, Fabrizio

Mastronuzzi, Giuseppe

Orrù, Paolo E.

Solinas, Emanuela

Spano, Pier Giorgio

Zucca, Raimondo

English

UniCA Open Journals

Mediterranean Geoarchaeology WorkshopShaping the Mediterranean basin: island, coastlines and cultures across timeCagliari, 14-15 May 2015The monumental submerged Punic harbour of Malfatano and associated Piscinnì  quarries: sea level changes and geoarchaeological approachPaolo E. ORRÙ  1, Fabrizio ANTONIOLI2, Giuseppe MASTRONUZZI3, Emanuela SOLINAS4, Pier Giorgio SPANO5, Raimondo ZUCCA51 Dipartimento Scienze Chimiche e Geologiche – Università di Cagliari, ITALY2 ENEA UTMA, Rome, ITALY3 Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra e Geoambientali, Università di Bari "Aldo Moro", Bari, ITALY4 AIA Sub – Associazione Italiana Archeologi Subacquei, Rome, ITALY5 Dipartimento di Storia, Scienze dell’Uomo e della Formazione, Università di Sassari, Sassari, ITALYThe Ria of Malfatano is the site of one of the most important maritime structures from the Punic-Roman times in the Mediterranean, whereby the bay’s two opposing monumental structures have been preserved between - 7 and - 2 meters due to the rising sea levels, this work, through stratigraphic, palaeontological and geochronological data, aims to trace the bay of Capo Malfatano evolution in relation to the sea level rise during the last 4 ky. Piscinnì’s quarries because of the proximity of coastline to the basement didn’t have access from land, thus it is likely that the placement of the material was done by means of floats, as for the loading of materials from the quarry. However, we may assign the date of the structure to the Carthaginian age. Considering the military strategy adopted by Carthage from their second treatise with Rome in the middle of IV century B.C., it is eminently possible to envisage a military function of this port basin (V-III century B.C.; 2400±100 ky BP). Piscinnì quarries provided an extremely selective quality of  construction  material,  sandstones  and  micro-conglomerates  with  strong  carbonatic  cementation,  a lithotype that  can  easily  and quickly  be  worked and which has good geo-mechanical.  Using  a  high  resolution terrain model has been possible to estimate the total extracted volume of about 120,000 m3, for coastal quarries and about 30.000 m3 for submerged quarries area; only a small proportion, estimated at 25,000 m3 was used for the realization of the crowning work of the breakwater at the entrance of  Capo Malfatano bay. There is also an extensive use of sandstone in the Bithia settlement, where, from the Phoenician tombs in the necropolis to the buildings found in the acropolis area in Torre di Chia to the Punic sanctuary of Bes.

The monumental submerged Punic harbour of Malfatano and associated Piscinnì quarries: sea level changes and geoarchaeological approach

https://ojs.unica.it/index.php/MGW/article/download/1464/1268

The monumental submerged Punic harbour of Malfatano and associated Piscinnì quarries: sea level changes and geoarchaeological approach

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