Ecology meets archaeology: Past, present and future vegetation‐derived ecosystems services from the Nuragic Sardinia (1700–580 BCE)

Abstract

Incorporating archaeology within the ecosystem services (ES) framework can offer decision‐makers lessons from the past and a broader sustainability perspective. Given the claimed archaeology‐ES link, the island of Sardinia (Italy) offers an unparalleled opportunity where a unique archaeological heritage occurs in an area of high biodiversity value. More than 5000 nuraghi, megalithic edifices distinctive of the Nuragic civilization (1700–580 BCE), are still present on the island. By crossing the map of Vegetation Series (VS) with nuraghi occurrences, we aimed at acquiring a long‐term perspective on the interactions between Nuragic people and the vegetation as ES provider, so as to enrich our understanding of the past and the present, and potentially inform future practice for the region of Sardinia. A VS is here intended as a hypothesis of a succession of plant communities that can potentially succeed each other over time in a particular land unit. The vegetation‐derived ES represented a driving force in the land occupation strategies of the Nuragic people, who preferred, for their settlements, the mesophiluos cork oak VS and secondary the deciduous broad‐leaved ones, which, with fresh climatic conditions on fertile substrates and gentle slopes on effusive magmatic rocks, can provide land for grazing and agriculture. Conversely, the Nuragic land occupation strategies shaped the VS, transforming the landscape into agro‐silvo‐pastoral systems. Our results suggest that the origin of the present agro‐silvo‐pastoral landscapes (i.e. Pascolo arborato/Dehesa) in Sardinia could be traced back to the Nuragic civilization. The interaction between humans and vegetation in Sardinia is ancient, reciprocal and dynamic. This interaction is crucial for the survival of the present agro‐silvo‐pastoral landscapes that represent important suppliers of provisioning, regulating and cultural ES. Among others, these landscapes are a good example of intimate and sustainable relationships between people and nature and provide a marked sense of place and identity for Sardinia inhabitants. This transdisciplinary approach linking plant ecology with archaeology offered archaeology a better understanding of the environmental settings and subsistence of the Nuragic civilization and provided plant ecology with a long‐term perspective on human‐vegetation interactions. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

Dissecting glial scar formation by spatial point pattern and topological data analysis

“…PPA allows to determine the distribution patterns of objects in a given observation window through different metrics. It has multiple applications in ecology (Malavasi et al 2023), epidemiology (Scarpone et al 2020), and cancer biology (Maisel et al 2022; Kaufmann et al 2021). Conversely, TDA uses the tools of algebraic topology to extract patterns from complex data sets or point clouds, which may be difficult to see using traditional methods.…”

From the visual connections of the nuraghi of Sinis to the submerged nuragic city of Conca Illonis in the pond of Cabras.

“…Tutt'oggi gli archeologi dibattono sulla loro funzione tendendo a inquadrarli prevalentemente come linee di demarcazione tra "cantoni" in grado di dividere il RA Giuseppe Sanna territorio in diversi ambiti di dominio (Lilliu, 1998;Cicilloni, 2009), cioè come dei progetti di occupazione volti alla trasformazione produttiva del territorio, evolutisi poi in sistemi insediativi policentrici spesso accompagnati da un adiacente insediamento (Usai, 2018;Del Vais, 2016). Solo recentemente con l'avvento dei programmi informatici GIS ha preso sempre più piede l'avanzare di studi che combinassero le mappe digitali dei terreni (DTM) con le preesistenze archeologiche in modo da relazionarle alla morfologia territoriale (Cicilloni, 2019;Vargiu 2015;Usai 2011), alla vegetazione dell'epoca (Malavasi, 2023), o ancora sfruttare le funzioni del programma GIS traducendo in distanze, diagrammi e schemi i rapporti tra le architetture (Cicilloni, 2014;Castangia 2021;Cicilloni 2015a;Cicilloni 2015b;Panico 2017;Fois 2014;Merella 2014;Cicilloni 2018;Matta 2020;Velli 2021). Da questa consapevolezza parte la proposta di una metodologia che utilizzi la strumentazione GIS e le ortofoto disponibili nel geoportale della Regione Sardegna (www.…”