In the 13th century the city of Venice had around 100,000 inhabitants. The data set consists of more than 850 acoustic survey lines for a total of about 1100 km (Fig. 1b). The acoustic survey was carried out with a 30 kHz Elac LAZ 72 single-beam echosounder with a DGPS positioning system mounted on a small boat with an average survey speed of 3–4 knots. The survey grid is composed of parallel lines mainly in the north-south direction with a spacing of 50 m and some profiles in the east–west direction. The sampling frequency was 50 Hz, with 500 samples (10 ms) recorded for each echo signal envelope and the pulse length of the SBE was 0.15 ms. The pulse

repetition rate was 1.5 pulses s−1. Data http://www.selleckchem.com/products/z-vad-fmk.html were collected between 2003 and 2009. During the acquisition, we changed the settings to obtain the best information over the buried structures visible in the acoustic profiles. We used the highest transmitting power together with suitable amplification of the signal in order to achieve the maximum penetration of the 30 kHz waves (5 cm wave length in the water) in the lagoon sediments. The gain value was set between 4 and 5 (scale from 1 to 10). These settings

provided a 6–7 m visibility of the sub-bottom layers. A more detailed description of the method used to acquire the profiles can be found in Madricardo LBH589 et al., enough 2007 and Madricardo et al., 2012. Numerous sediment cores were extracted in the central lagoon

(Fig. 1b) with an average recovery of about 8.5 m, permitting the definition of all the features identified in the acoustic profiles. Most of the cores crossed acoustic reflectors interpreted as palaeochannels and palaeosurfaces. Five cores were used in this study: SG24, SG25, SG26, SG27, SG28. The cores (core diameter 101 mm) were acquired using a rotation method with water circulation. Each core was split, photographed, and described for lithology, grain size (and degree of sorting), sedimentary structures, physical properties, Munsell color, presence of plant remains and palaeontological content. Moreover, we sampled the sediment cores for micropalaeontological and radiometric analyses. The quantitative study of foraminifera distribution patterns is very important for palaeoenvironmental reconstruction. The organic content was composed of crushed mollusc shells mixed with abundant tests of benthic foraminifera. We classified at least 150 foraminiferal specimens from each sample according to the taxonomic results of Loeblich and Tappan (1987), in order to identify the biofacies corresponding to different environmental conditions. Percent abundance was used for statistical data processing. Through analyses of the sediment cores, we identified the diagnostic sedimentary facies that are described in detail in Madricardo et al. (2012).