  Short Gamma-Ray Bursts (SGRBs) are produced by the coalescence of compact
binary systems which are remnants of massive stars. GRB 160410A is classified
as a short-duration GRB with extended emission and is currently the farthest
SGRB with a redshift determined from an afterglow spectrum and also one of the
brightest SGRBs to date. The fast reaction to the Neil Gehrels Swift
Observatory alert allowed us to obtain a spectrum of the afterglow using the
X-shooter spectrograph at the Very Large Telescope (VLT). The spectrum shows
several absorption features at a redshift of z=1.7177, in addition, we detect
two intervening systems at z=1.581 and z=1.444. The spectrum shows ly-alpha in
absorption with a column density of log N(HI)=21.2+/-0.2 cm$^{-2}$ which,
together with FeII, CII, SiII, AlII and OI, allow us to perform the first study
of chemical abundances in a SGRB host galaxy. We determine a metallicity of
[X/H]=-2.3+/-0.2 for FeII and -2.5+/-0.2 for SiII and no dust depletion. We
also find no evidence for extinction in the afterglow spectral energy
distribution (SED) modeling. The environment has a low degree of ionisation and
the CIV and SiIV lines are completely absent. We do not detect an underlying
host galaxy down to deep limits. Additionally, we compare GRB 160410A to GRB
201221D, another high-z short GRB that shows absorption lines at z=1.045 and an
underlying massive host galaxy.
