| 1. |
- Barba, A. C., et al.
(author)
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The Harvesting Memories Project: Historical ecology and landscape changes of the Sicani Mountains in Sicily
- 2022
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In: Ecocycles. - 2416-2140. ; 8:1, s. 51-60
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)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. © 2022 by the author(s)
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| 2. |
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| 3. |
- Morales, Jacob, et al.
(author)
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Agriculture and crop dispersal in the western periphery of the Old World: the Amazigh/Berber settling of the Canary Islands (ca. 2nd-15th centuries ce)
- 2023
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In: Vegetation History and Archaeobotany. - : SPRINGER. - 0939-6314 .- 1617-6278.
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The Canary Islands were settled ca. 1,800 years ago by Amazigh/Berber farming populations originating in North Africa. This historical event represents the last and westernmost expansion of the Mediterranean farming package in Antiquity, and investigating it yields information about crop dispersal along the periphery of the Mediterranean world around the turn of the first millennium ce. The current study focuses on archaeobotanical evidence recorded in a series of pre-Hispanic/Amazigh sites of the Canary Islands (ca. 2nd-15th centuries ce). It offers new, unpublished archaeobotanical findings and direct radiocarbon datings of plant remains from the different islands. The general goal is to gain a better grasp of how the first settlers of the Canary Islands adapted their farming activities to the different natural conditions of each island. The results suggest a shared crop package throughout the islands since at least the 3rd-5th centuries ce. This set of plants was likely introduced from north-western Africa and consists of Hordeum vulgare (hulled barley), Triticum durum (durum wheat), Lens culinaris (lentil), Vicia faba (broad bean), Pisum sativum (pea), and Ficus carica (fig). The crop package probably arrived in a single episode during the initial colonisation and was not followed by any other plants. Subsequent to the initial settling and until the arrival of the European seafarers, the islands remained isolated from each other and from the outside world, a condition that over time led to a decline in crop diversity in all of the islands except Gran Canaria.
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| 4. |
- Pasta, Salvatore, et al.
(author)
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The Impact of Climate, Resource Availability, Natural Disturbances and Human Subsistence Strategies on Sicilian Landscape Dynamics During the Holocene
- 2022
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In: From Hydrology to Hydroarchaeology in the Ancient Mediterranean: An Interdisciplinary Approach / edited by Giovanni Polizzi, Vincent Ollivier, Sophie Bouffier. - Oxford : Archaeopress Publishing. - 9781803273747 ; , s. 8-60
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Book chapter (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This paper presents a multidisciplinary summary of the most recent discoveries and hypotheses concerning factors driving the human subsistence economy and landscape shaping in Sicily during the Holocene. A number of scientific papers have recently pointed out the key role played by paleogeography, resource (water, food) availability and natural disturbances (volcanic eruptions, tsunamis) in local human activities. Modern anthropology and archaeology increasingly use biological remains (eg soils, bones, wood, plant macroremains, pollen) to better understand how human communities managed to survive and spread. Likewise, refined reconstructions of past human demographic fluxes and socio-economic structures may enable a better understanding of landscape dynamics. Specifically, this historical perspective on the management of natural resources allows the finding of past episodes of unsustainable land use (eg forest destruction, overgrazing), thus providing a useful basis for future nature protection and maintaining sustainable ecosystem services.
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| 5. |
- Perret, J., et al.
(author)
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Time to refine the geography of biodiversity hotspots by integrating molecular data: The Mediterranean Basin as a case study
- 2023
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In: Biological Conservation. - 0006-3207. ; 284
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Three decades ago, worldwide biodiversity hotspots were founded on the distributions of continental plants and vertebrates. Here, we question the timeliness of refining the geography of hotspots by basing their definition on more taxa, thanks to the molecular data available for hyper-diverse organisms such as insects, fungi and marine biota.To do so, we assess the temporal dynamic of molecular data acquisition and the geography of knowledge about lineages currently included or not into hotspot definition. Using the Mediterranean Basin hotspot as a case study, we examine the taxonomic and geographical facets of 175,828 DNA sequences distributed over 21,552 species, and 13,001 indexed biodiversity publications. We reveal a deeply fractured repartition of biodiversity research efforts within the hotspot regarding both barcoding efforts and publication activity, the northern side of the Mediterranean concentrating 84.16 % of the publications and 75.99 % of the public DNA sequences. In addition, 57.55 % of the sequences belong to lineages which were excluded from hotspots definition, with highly congruent geographical patterns among marine and continental lineages.Based on this analysis, we suggest 1) using the uneven geography of knowledge to rebalance sampling efforts towards poorly known regions within the Mediterranean hotspot, 2) handling the molecular corpus of orphan lineages to feed forthcoming multi-taxa biodiversity assessment initiatives, in order to 3) refine the geography of
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| 6. |
- Sineo, Luca, et al.
(author)
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Nuovi dati sulla paleoecologia del sito pleistocenico di San Teodoro (Acquedolci, Messina)
- 2022
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In: La Sicilia preistorica: dinamiche interne e relazioni esterne: atti del Convegno internazionale di studi: Catania-Siracusa 7-9 ottobre 2021.
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Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- La Grotta di San Teodoro (ST) è uno dei siti preistorici più importanti del Mediterraneo cen-trale. Da pochi anni il sito è oggetto di una ripre-sa delle attività di analisi stratigrafica, geologica, geochimica e paleontologia, alla luce di una colla-borazione tra il Parco Archeologico di Tindari e l’Università degli Studi di Palermo.
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| 8. |
- Speciale, Claudia
(author)
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Sicily and the process of Neolithisation: a review of the archaeobotanical data
- 2024
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In: Vegetation History and Archaeobotany. - 0939-6314. ; 33:1, s. 185-194
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This review paper analyses the first steps of the spread of domestic plants into Sicily. Despite being the biggest island of the Mediterranean and its central position, the process of arrival and diffusion of crops in Sicily is still poorly understood. Starting from the limited but significant record from Grotta dell'Uzzo, the plant macrofossil data are presented and discussed with some comparison with the pollen, zooarchaeological and obsidian data. The closest regions to Sicily, from where these domesticates may have come, are discussed. The arrival of domesticated plants in Sicily fits perfectly with the model of dispersal by sea. The introduction of crops was a slow process that covered the whole of the Neolithic period. The intention is to raise interest in this field and to inspire researchers to analyse more plant macro- and micro-remains from prehistoric archaeological contexts in Sicily.
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