Geomorfologia del territorio dell’antica Luni per la ricostruzione del paesaggio costiero in età romana

Geomorphological features of the ancient city of Luni (La Spezia) territory: a tool for reconstructing the area coastal landscape in Roman times. The port of the Roman colony of Luni, from which the marbles quarried in the Apuan Alps, used to build most of the monuments in Rome, were delivered, was never precisely localized, although it is supposed to be located inside the present day coastal plain built by the Magra River since the Early Middle Ages. In this paper an original detailed geomorphological survey of the area is presented, together with the results of some laborato- ry analyses aimed at characterizing the sedimentary bodies mapped in the field. The data obtained, related to the current reconstructions of the environmental features of the site, enabled us to constrain within relatively definite land strips the location of the coastline in Roman Times. In such areas, therefore, archeological research should be focused to identify the city harbour structures.