Paleoenvironmental reconstruction of the Sant’Imbenia area during the Middle Holocene (Sardinia, Italy)

The area of Sant’Imbenia is located on the northwestern coast of Sardinia in the Porto Conte bay delimited by the calcareous promontories of Capo Caccia to the west and Punta Giglio to the east. Pleistocene slope deposits with interbedded beach sediments (Tyrrhenian, MIS 5.5), fill karst cavities developed in the carbonatic Mesozoic substratum. Given this geomorphic setting, Porto Conte Bay has always represented a safe landing place since Middle Holocene, as showed by numerous prehistoric and historic settlements next to the coast. In particular, the Nuragic village (Bronze Age) of Sant’Imbenia attested a midpoint of cultural and commercial exchanges from Middle Bronze Age to Early Iron Age when it was abandoned for unknown reasons. In this paper, we present the preliminary results of a multidisciplinary research aimed to outline the paleoenvironmental evolution of the area around Sant’Imbenia site and to identify the causes that determined its abandonment. Geomorphological analysis coupled with stratigraphic and paleontological studies of three cores and 14C datings allowed to underline that during Holocene this area represented transitional coastal environments, characterized by wetlands and brackish lagoons evolved into marshland during the Roman Period.