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Abstract: The results of stratigraphic and tephrostratigraphic analyses of several pyroclastic levels, collected along the coastal sector of the Cilento region (southern Italy), are presented. Some of these levels are here described for the fist time, others, already known in literature, were reconsidered in order to better understand their stratigraphic position and to point out the possible volcanic sources. The main outcrops are located along the southern coast of the Campania region (Cilento coast). All pyroclastic layers are interbedded within coastal or continental successions younger than the substage 5e of the Last Interglacial (<130 ka) or cover erosional coastal morphologies belonging to the same period. Only in one site the sampled tephra can be considered older. As a consequence, the age range for their emplacement is constrained to the last 200 ka. The results of SEM-EDS analyses on well preserved glass fragments indicate a composition falling between the trachyte and phonolite fields of the TAS plot, as typical of Phlaegrean Fields products. By comparing their composition with those of the main tephra marker layers recorded in southern Italy, the correlation of the Cilento pyroclastic layers with well known eruptive episodes was hypothesised. In summary, four different eruptions were recognised. The first one is testified by a pyroclastic layer, not correlated with a terrestrial counterpart, covered by a Middle Pleistocene alluvial fan, the second one is the eruptive event emplacing the X-6 marker tephra layer, and dates around 107 ka, the third is the Campanian Ignimbrite eruption (39 ka), and the last one is testified by the layers correlated with the Y-3 tephra (about 30 ka). These pyroclastic layers can be useful tools for stratigraphic correlations of Late Quaternary successions in southern Italy. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Coastal areas are very dynamic environments where natural and man-induced modifications often interact. This is the case of the Graeco-Roman town of Elea-Velia, along the Cilento coast of southern Italy. The town was founded in the 6th century BCE on a hilly promontory bounded by two profound gulfs and assumed a prominent role in maritime commercial routes in the Graeco-Roman period. It declined in the Late Antiquity and was abandoned in the Middle Ages also due to serious landscape changes. In this study, the integration of geomorphology, borehole stratigraphy and analysis of archaeo-stratigraphical trenches was used to detail the relationship between geological and archaeological evidence. The huge amount of collected data allowed providing chronological constraints to the landscape modification occurred before and after the town foundation. The main environmental changes consisted in enhanced coastal progradation and alluvial fan deposition that mainly affected the lower quarters of the town. The results of this study suggest that alluvial flooding was one of the main causes of the Elea-Velia decline and subsequent abandonment. The increasing disruption of slope stability was driven by the neglect in the management of the hillslopes behind the town during periods of social-economic crisis, but a concomitant climate forcing cannot be excluded. To the final abandonment also contributed the declining of harbour activities and the consequent decreased relevance of Elea-Velia as a maritime centre. [Display omitted] • The town of Elea-Velia was built on a promontory bounded by two gulfs. • Severe landscape modification occurred since the foundation of the town. • Coastal progradation caused the shifting of the coast from the town. • Man induced alluvial flooding caused the burial and abandonment of Elea-Velia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]