Adattabilità antropica ed evoluzione dei sistemi fluviali nell’area del delta padano meridionale tra la tarda Età romana e l’inizio del Medioevo

Despite several studies have already focused on the palaeogeographical reconstruction of the Po Delta, many questions remain unanswered. Indeed it is not easy to locate on the ground the few data known from ancient sources, while medieval and modern alluvial transformations hide previous landforms and fluvial traces. Starting from a reanalysis of existing palaeogeographical reconstructions and known archaeological data from the southern Delta, it was possible to frame the new geoarchaeological data collected north of Ravenna. Interpreting the different geological layers identified in coring PCR02, carried out near the archaeological site of Butrium, it was possible to reconstruct landscape changes at the local level and hypothesize ones occurred at a broader scale. Especially for the latter, this was possible thanks to XFR analysis on targeted samples and 14C dating of the change from lagoonal to marshy environment recognized in the core. Contextualizing these data with historical, archaeological and geological knowledge, it was possible to suggest a phase of coastline progradation that must have happened within the 2nd or 3rd century AD. This change may be linked to a new southern branch of the Po river, possibly flowing not so far from Ravenna, but that only future investigation may be able to map