“Lost” postglacial littoral environments in SE Italy: Anthracological evidence at Grotta delle Mura

•We present new anthracological data from a littoral cave (GdM) in south Adriatic sea.•The sequence cover Late Pleistocene–Early Holocene period in Southeastern Italy.•The coastal vegetation during the LGM occupied a large extension of land facing GdM.•The submerged platform appears to have been an area of persistence of tree taxa.•We suggest a littoral dynamic of vegetation during the rise of sea-level.

Research on charcoal remains from prehistoric caves located in the south Adriatic-Sea coast reveals the regional palaeovegetation composition and its strong relationship to rapid changes of the eustatic sea level, during the last glacial–interglacial cycle and early Holocene. We intend to characterize biogeographical conditions mechanically disturbed by the glacial–interglacial transgressive eustatic level, which destroyed the trees and shrubs managed by prehistoric Adriatic human populations. Thus it appears that some ligneous taxa, such as deciduous taxa (Quercus, Prunoideae, etc.) and the genus Pistacia, may be considered markers of the rapid eustatic changes within this littoral environment.