Abstract. Thapsus was one of the Roman Empire's largest harbors and is situated next to
an easily defended promontory on Tunisia's coast in northern Africa. It was
provided with a huge stone and cement breakwater mole that extended almost 1 km into the sea. We examined sedimentological and micropaleontological
proxies from 14C-dated core material and shifts in microfauna and
macrofauna community structure to infer patterns of sediment dynamics and
the chronology of events that shaped the coastal evolution in the Dzira
Lagoon at Thapsus over the past 4000 years. The sedimentological and faunal record of environmental changes reflect a sequence of events that
display a transition from an open to a semi-closed lagoon environment. At
around 4070 cal yr BP and again between 2079 and 1280 cal yr BP, the data reveal two transgressive events and a deposition of sandy sediments in
a largely open marine lagoon environment. The transgressive sands overlay
marine carbonate sandstones that are upper Pleistocene in age. A gradual
closure of the lagoon from 1280 cal yr BP until today is indicated by
decreasing species richness values, lower abundances of typical marine taxa,
and increasing percent abundances of fine-grained sediments. The
environmental transition from an open to a closed lagoon setting was also
favored by the construction of an extensive harbor breakwater mole, changes
in longshore current drift patterns, and the formation of an extensive
sand spit.