Venice is globally recognized as a floating city, yet recent scientific findings indicate that the ground it occupies was once located many miles inland. Over the course of 10,000 years, significant fluctuations in sea levels have fundamentally reshaped the coastline of the northern Adriatic, submerging vast areas where human ancestors once lived.
Samuele Ongaro from the University of Southampton led a team that integrated seismic data with sedimentary cores extracted from coastal basins across northern Italy, Slovenia, and northern Croatia. By analyzing this information, the researchers modeled historical sea-level changes to reconstruct the region's past landscapes.
The study, published in Quaternary Science Reviews, demonstrates that the current Venice lagoon was formerly dry land stretching more than 30 miles from the coast. Additionally, the area now known as Trieste was previously characterized by hills overlooking swamps and lagoons.
Beginning just over 10,000 years ago, sea levels rose intermittently, with rates reaching up to 25mm per year at times. These rapid environmental shifts compelled Mesolithic hunter-gatherer populations to adapt their hunting and fishing strategies. The most profound transformations occurred in three distinct phases, followed by a period of relative stability over the last 6,000 years. This stabilization facilitated the establishment of settlements and the emergence of farming in the landscape familiar today.
Sources: The Guardian Science.