A First Pompeii: the Early Bronze Age village of Nola–Croce del Papa (Palma Campania phase)

Livadie, Claude Albore

doi:10.1017/s0003598x00091675

Cited by 11 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…In fact, the inferred yearly production for one hectare of agricultural land would have been a few hundred kilograms of cereals, which probably is just enough for one person, as estimated on the basis of land carrying capacity and minimal need for survival (25,26). In fact, available archaeological evidence for an extensive use of land for crops (10,15,21,27), as well as paleobotanical data (28), are consistent with our paleonutritional analyses of the human victims' bones and unequivocally indicates that the local diet was mainly based on cereals.…”

Section: Interdisciplinary Field and Laboratory Evidencesupporting

confidence: 87%

“…Indeed, starting in the Neolithic Age, the Campanian plain experienced a spread of agriculture and growth in population that, because of technical innovations, culminated in the Bronze Age demographic explosion that is also recognized in the rest of southern Europe (21,22). The tens of Old Bronze Age sites discovered in the area (10) clearly testify to an extensive distribution of human settlements and a widespread exploitation of land resources at the time of the eruption, as confirmed by archaeological evidence of farming and animal husbandry (10,15). All these findings allow us to put the stages of the tragedy into the following sequence: (i) sudden en masse evacuation, (ii) widespread devastation of the land and loss of human life, (iii) an early sporadic and tentative reoccupation, and (iv) a final long-lasting abandonment of settlements.…”

Section: Interdisciplinary Field and Laboratory Evidencementioning

confidence: 95%

“…The sequence of surge clouds spread outward onto the volcano slopes and the surrounding plains reaching a maximum distance of Ϸ25 km in the northwest, the prevalent propagation direction, burying land and villages (2,10,14,15). This phase of the eruption likely lasted no more than few Because of the stratospheric winds, fallout lapilli and ash were deposited east-by-northeast of the volcano, whereas the surge clouds flowed down the volcano slopes in a prevalent NNW direction.…”

Section: Interdisciplinary Field and Laboratory Evidencementioning

confidence: 99%

“…3A) (15). Scenes of everyday life, frozen by the volcanic deposits, testify that people suddenly left the village: the moulds of four huts, with pottery and other objects left inside; skeletons of a dog and nine pregnant goat victims found in a cage; and footprints of adults, children, and cows filled by the first fallout pumice.…”

Section: Interdisciplinary Field and Laboratory Evidencementioning

confidence: 99%

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The Avellino 3780-yr-B.P. catastrophe as a worst-case scenario for a future eruption at Vesuvius

Mastrolorenzo

Petrone

Pappalardo

et al. 2006

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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A volcanic catastrophe even more devastating than the famous anno Domini 79 Pompeii eruption occurred during the Old Bronze Age at Vesuvius. The 3780-yr-B.P. Avellino plinian eruption produced an early violent pumice fallout and a late pyroclastic surge sequence that covered the volcano surroundings as far as 25 km away, burying land and villages. Here we present the reconstruction of this prehistoric catastrophe and its impact on the Bronze Age culture in Campania, drawn from an interdisciplinary volcanological and archaeoanthropological study. Evidence shows that a sudden, en masse evacuation of thousands of people occurred at the beginning of the eruption, before the last destructive plinian column collapse. Most of the fugitives likely survived, but the desertification of the total habitat due to the huge eruption size caused a social-demographic collapse and the abandonment of the entire area for centuries. Because an event of this scale is capable of devastating a broad territory that includes the present metropolitan district of Naples, it should be considered as a reference for the worst eruptive scenario at Vesuvius.archeoanthropology ͉ Bronze Age ͉ volcanic catastrophe ͉ volcanology P linian eruptions are highly destructive volcanic events that produce severe and long-lasting damage over thousands of squared kilometers of the territory surrounding volcanoes (1-4). Studies of the occurrence of plinian eruptions in densely populated areas reveal that most of the people who lived in the affected zones survived (3, 5). However, because of the habitat devastation and their inability to rehabilitate their homeland (5-7), many victims suffer social-economic crises and health status decline (3,5,8). Strong eruption precursors commonly alert the people days to months before the cataclysmic event; in the early phases of a plinian eruption, the slow escalation of the phenomena could allow them to escape from the volcano and flee beyond the lapilli fallout zone. The success of the evacuation depends mainly on its timeliness, because the early phase of a plinian eruption may not be lethal, even close to the volcano (2). Nevertheless, in most cases, the emplacement of billions of cubic meters of ash and lapilli in the form of a continuous blanket from decimeters to meters thick retards or prevents the recovery of the social-economical structure for decades to centuries, even tens of kilometers away from the vent (3, 9, 10).An extraordinary case that sheds light on such catastrophic consequences of an eruption is the Bronze Age Avellino plinian event at Vesuvius, dated by 14 C to Ϸ3780 yr B.P. (2, 10, 11). The eruption produced Ϸ4 km 3 of phonolitic ash and lapilli, a large subaqueous debris-flow avalanch in the gulf of Naples (12), and was even reported to have caused a global climatic disturbance (13). This event started with a moderate-sized explosive phase followed by a plinian column that in a few hours rose to 36 km in the stratosphere and, driven by westerly winds, produced a lapilli fallout covering thousands...

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Section: Interdisciplinary Field and Laboratory Evidencesupporting

confidence: 87%

Section: Interdisciplinary Field and Laboratory Evidencementioning

confidence: 95%

Section: Interdisciplinary Field and Laboratory Evidencementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Interdisciplinary Field and Laboratory Evidencementioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

The Avellino 3780-yr-B.P. catastrophe as a worst-case scenario for a future eruption at Vesuvius

Mastrolorenzo

Petrone

Pappalardo

et al. 2006

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…1800 BCE, Vesuvius covered a village, has revealed humans living in close proximity to their farm animals, and in conditions that were highly unsanitary according to modern standards (see Turfa 2012, 156-158 with references. Prehistoric Nola-Croce del Papa: Mastrolorenzo et al 2006; Albore Livadie and Vecchio 2005;Albore Livadie 2002). The problem with equating the "Caeretan plague" with any of the significant zoonoses lies in the neurological symptoms in which victims "would suffer strokes and become twisted and crippled" (Purvis 2009, 92).…”

Section: Identification Of the Diseasementioning

confidence: 99%

The Plague of Caere (c. 535 BCE): Airborne Botulism?

Harrison

Turfa²

2015

MRAJ

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An unusual "plague" that occurred in late 6 th-century BCE Italy, at Caeremodern day Cerveteri, located approximately 50-60 kilometres north-northwest of Rome, may have been a rare instance of airborne botulism following an atrocity on the Etruscan seashore, to judge from highly specific details furnished in the surviving account by the historian Herodotus. We have revisited the information available and compared the documented symptoms with likely causes. The hypothetical diagnosis we suggest is that of airborne botulism. In conclusion, an examination of the symptoms and possible modes of transmission in this unique event merits further consideration in the light of modern discoveries of terrorist activities and possible consequences of large-scale human disasters.

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The Lakeside Settlement of Sovjan (Southeastern Albania) During the Bronze Age in the Light of New Chronological Data

Touchais,

Oberweiler,

Lera

2024

Natural Science in Archaeology

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While preparing the final publication of the excavations carried out on the prehistoric lakeside settlement of Sovjan (1993–2006), during the last years, we have undertaken (1) the complete re-examination of the stratigraphic data, (2) the detailed study of the pottery of the Bronze and Iron Age levels, and (3) the realisation of new absolute dates, by radiocarbon and even more so by dendrochronology. The latter is based on the analysis of a series of wood samples taken during the partial reopening of the excavation trench in 2018. From all these data, the relative and absolute chronological sequence of Sovjan could be completed, corrected, and updated, and the successive phases of human occupation synchronised with environmental change. As the most significant updates concern the Bronze Age, the present paper focuses on the definitive chronological sequence of this period and summarises the main related data.

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A First Pompeii: the Early Bronze Age village of Nola–Croce del Papa (Palma Campania phase)

Cited by 11 publications

References 0 publications

The Avellino 3780-yr-B.P. catastrophe as a worst-case scenario for a future eruption at Vesuvius

The Avellino 3780-yr-B.P. catastrophe as a worst-case scenario for a future eruption at Vesuvius

The Plague of Caere (c. 535 BCE): Airborne Botulism?

The Lakeside Settlement of Sovjan (Southeastern Albania) During the Bronze Age in the Light of New Chronological Data

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