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This study focuses on the evolution of three ancient Greek (Archaic and Classical periods) and Roman sites built on the Crati Delta as it was actively accreting seaward. Sybaris, Thuri and Copia, successively emplaced on the delta coast along the Gulf of Taranto, NE Calabria, were active from early 8th to 1st century BC. Analysis of sediment facies in two cores at Casa Bianca in the easternmost Sybaris archaeological park records the delta margin’s evolution in time and space: up-core late Holocene sequences are from shallow marine to coastal to landward delta, identical to landward facies distributions of marine shelf to coast to deltaic on the modern Crati coastal margin. Long-term rates of seaward delta migration are ~1.0 m/yr, and subsidence from 0.9 to 1.7 mm/yr. The study does not provide evidence of fluvial sandy conglomerates deposited directly above any of the 3 sites in this sector during the almost 700 year period, leaving unproven Strabo’s account of purposeful fluvial channel deviation over Sybaris and its destruction by Crotoniates. Rather, importance of the 3 sites diminished primarily by natural events leading to their successive separation from the coast and away from accessible ship landing sites displaced to the east. This handicap diminished shore access, essential to navigation and trade, of these once powerful population centers.
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