People, climate and alluviation: theory, research design and new sedimentological and stratigraphic data from Etruria

Abstract

POPOLI, CLIMA ED ALLUVIONI: TEORIA, PROGETTO DI RICERCA E NUOVI DATI SEDIMENTOLOGICI E STRATIGRAFICI DALL'ETRURIAQuesto lavoro presenta il progetto di ricerca, i dati stratigrafici e la datazione preliminare (ceramica e paleomagnetica) di un nuovo studio sull'alluvione regionale in Etruria. Le mutevoli relazioni tra popolazione, uso della terra ed erosione nel Mediterraneo vengono discusse allo scopo di mettere in discussione alcune tradizionali ipotesi eco-demografiche. I risultati preliminari indicano un cambiamento da fiumi lateralmente mobili che erodevano e depositavano sabbia e ghiaia durante il periodo Romano, ad una rapida alluvione formata da silt sabbioso tra il tardo medioevo ed il periodo rinascimentale. Il silt sabbioso superficiale tende ad ispessirsi andando da nord a sud e si pensa che ciò sia più probabilmente dovuto all'intensificazione dello sfruttamento del suolo piuttosto che a variazioni climatiche fra diverse aree dell'Etruria.

Saints and Sinners: a tephrochronology for Late Antique landscape change in Epirus from the eruptive history of Lipari, Aeolian Islands

“…van Andel and Zangger, 1990;VitaFinzi, 1969). While universal and synchronous alluvial events are now largely discounted (Brown and Ellis, 1995), the idea of a dramatic post-Roman decline featuring widespread episodes of soil erosion and deposition has persisted, although such episodes are rarely well dated. To adequately assess the relationship between settlement, regional economies and landscape change, it is first necessary to constrain observed landscape changes within tight chronological frameworks that relate to the human timescales of historical and archaeological data.…”

Holocene demographic fluctuations, climate and erosion in the Mediterranean: A meta data-analysis

“…Palaeomagnetic and OSL dating of sediments from three adjacent catchments of a similar size, geology and relief; the Fiora, Marta and Treia (Brown and Ellis, 1996), is of particular interest as we can assume that these catchments experienced similar climatic conditions during the Holocene. The alluvial sequences of all three valleys show increased deposition at the beginning and end of the Roman period (2400 -1600 BP), which also coincides with both raised lake levels in lake Bolsena and increased population growth in S Etruria (Potter 1979;Brown and Ellis 1996). Then, there is clear evidence for erosion and extensive alluviation again during the medieval-Renaissance period (900 -300 BP) (Op cit.).…”

Envisioning Rome’s Prehistoric River Harbor: An Interim Report from the Forum Boarium

“…45 Ammerman 2013, 171. 46 Vita-Finzi 1969Brown and Ellis 1995;Brown 1997, 237-47. 47 Bozzano et al 2000 Tiber once flowed further east than its modern position, perhaps extending into the Forum Boarium valley as far as the modern Via Luigi Petroselli.…”