The Harvesting Memories Project: Historical ecology and landscape changes of the Sicani Mountains in Sicily

Abstract

The Harvesting Memories project aims to investigate the historical landscape dynamics in an inner area of the Sicani Mountains district in Western Sicily (Contrada Castro, Corleone-Palermo). The interdisciplinary approach of the project allowed us to combine and integrate methods from different disciplines such as historical ecology, landscape archaeology, archaeobotany and GIS-based spatial analysis. In this paper some results have been summarized. The comparison between land mosaic change during the last 60 years, the relationship between site catchment area and land suitability and the correlation between archaeobotanical and phytosociological data. This approach underlined the relevance of the historical ecology for understanding landscape trajectories and planning strategy of suitable development of rural areas.

Historical Ecology, Archaeology and Biocultural Landscapes: Cross-Disciplinary Approaches to the Long Anthropocene

“…Recently (2015-2022), a synergy between archeology and landscape ecology, declined as a "middle-earth" between landscape archaeology and historical ecology, has inspired the Harvesting Memories Project [1]. This project concentrates on the Sicani Mountains as a case study, analyzing a schedule of long-term human-environment interactions with an interdisciplinary and multi-methodological approach thanks to: surveys [2]; archaeological excavations [3]; multi temporal land use changes [4]; vegetation dynamic studies [5]; archaeobotanical and archaeozoological analyses [6] and geological raw material catchment area studies [7].…”

Continuity, Resilience, and Change in Rural Settlement Patterns from the Roman to Islamic Period in the Sicani Mountains (Central-Western Sicily)

“…In 2015, a comprehensive archaeological and ecological study project commenced. It focused on a section of the southern part of the municipality of Corleone, specifically in the Castro and Giardinello districts [29,45]. This project encompassed the archaeological excavation (2017-2021) of the rural early medieval site of Contrada Castro [27,28,30].…”