We produced a new suite of sea-level data which allowed assessing the Holocene evolution of the Bonifacio Strait, a key coastal sector of the Mediterranean Sea which experienced significant morphological changes since the Last Glacial Maximum. Squeezed between Corsica and Sardinia islands, this strait connects the two major basins of the western Mediterranean. Due to its peculiar geographic and morphological setting, the Bonifacio Strait is affected by extreme meteomarine conditions characterized by severe winds, waves, and currents.

The millennial sea-level changes were reconstructed through multiproxy investigations made of sediment coring and underwater beachrock sampling carried out on both sides of the strait. These data provided fresh insights into the timing of the progressive opening of the Bonifacio Strait which followed the Last Glacial Maximum when Corsica and Sardinia were connected forming the largest Mediterranean island. Major palaeogeographic changes occurred before ~7 ka BP. Since that period, the significant decrease of the northern ice-sheet melting triggered a significant sea-level stabilization which induced only minor modifications in the palaeogeography of the strait. In the late Holocene, the isostatic-related subsidence became the dominant factor controlling the sea-level changes which rose with rates ≤0.35 mm a⁻¹ in the last four millennia.

Our data have also an important archaeological implication because they indicate that the Bonifacio Strait has not represented a significant geographical barrier along the early Neolithic migration path which connected mainland Italy to northern Corsica and finally to Sardinia. This further confirms the ability of early Neolithic communities to navigate not also across large sea stretches but also maritime areas characterized by extremely complex meteomarine conditions.

我们制作了一套新的海平面数据，可以评估Bonifacio海峡的全新世演化，该海峡是地中海的一个重要沿海地区，自上次冰川期以来，其形态发生了重大变化。这条海峡被科西嘉岛和撒丁岛群岛挤压，连接了地中海西部的两个主要盆地。由于其特殊的地理和形态环境，波尼法西奥海峡受到极端的气象天气条件的影响，气象条件以强风，浪潮和洋流为特征。

通过对海峡两岸进行的沉积物取心和水下滩涂采样的多次代理调查，重建了千年海平面的变化。这些数据为Bonifacio海峡逐步开放的时间提供了新的见解，随后在科西嘉岛和撒丁岛相连形成最大的地中海岛屿时，出现了最后一次冰川最大爆发。主要的古地理变化发生在〜7 ka BP之前。自那段时期以来，北部冰盖融化的显着减少触发了海平面的显着稳定，这仅引起了海峡古地理的微小变化。在全新世晚期，与等静压有关的沉陷成为控制海平面变化的主要因素，海平面变化以≤0.35mm a ^-1的速率上升 在过去的四千年中。

我们的数据也具有重要的考古意义，因为它们表明，博尼法西奥海峡沿新石器时代早期的迁移路径（代表将意大利大陆与科西嘉岛北部并最终与撒丁岛相连）没有代表重要的地理障碍。这进一步证实了新石器时代早期社区不仅能够在宽阔的海域中航行，而且还能在以极端复杂的气象气象条件为特征的海上航行。