Der Arbeitskreis für Unterwasserarchäologie der Österreichischen Gesellschaft für Ur- und Frühgeschichte läd Sie herzlich zu dem Vortrag "Pile dwellings south of the Alps - From sedimentary archives to landscape reconstructions" auf das Institut für Urgeschichte und Historische Archäologie der Universität Wien ein.
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Abstract:
The development of a widespread agricultural landscape in Northern Italy has its origin at the beginning of the Bronze Age (around 4150 cal. BP), when the archeological evidence testifies to a shift from temporary and scattered settlements to a dense network of long-lasting villages. While Neolithic and Copper Age subsistence patterns are often difficult to detect in the archaeological and palaeoenvironmental record, the establishment of the Bronze Age communities marks the first largescale transformation of the landscape documented in the area.
This phenomenon is particularly evident in the Garda Lake region, where relatively scattered Neolithic and Copper Age finds are followed by a dense network of Bronze Age dwellings. Currently about fifty Bronze Age sites are known in the area, mostly located on the shores of Garda Lake and in the many basins scattered along the adjacent moraine amphitheater. The reasons behind this increased anthropic pressure on the landscape, as well as the preference for damp locations, are yet to be clearly understood and constitute only part of the questions arising from the archaeological record.
These complex human-environment interactions are being tackled through an in-depth multiproxy analysis of sedimentary archives of both natural and anthropic origin. Among the many available tools, palynology currently plays a major role in reconstructing human influence on the landscape. Pollen, spores, and other microscopic objects trapped in sediments reflect the vegetation surrounding a study site. Therefore, the analysis of their relative trends through different stratigraphic layers provides an insight on species expansion/decline due to natural competition or anthropic pressure. The systematic application of this methodology on the Garda Lake region enabled the identification of a consistent pattern of land exploitation at the onset of the Bronze Age, finally beginning to fill a visible environmental gap in the archaeological narrative.
