Managing the marshes: An integrated study of the centuriated landscape of the Pontine plain

Abstract

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Fodder for Change: Animals, Urbanisation, and Socio-Economic Transformation in Protohistoric Italy

“…Agriculture was not excluded from this re-organisation of the natural and social landscape. From the late seventh century BC, increasing numbers of small settlements and construction of hydraulic works in the hinterland of urban centres demonstrate an intensification of agricultural production and natural resource exploitation (Cifani 2002;de Haas 2017;Zifferero 2017), and archaeological remains attest to increasing investment in, and the commercialisation of, agricultural products (Barker 1988;Bergamini 1991;Perkins 2012). Within this context, animal management also evolved.…”

“There's more than meets the eye”: Developing an integrated archaeological approach to reconstruct human–environment dynamics in the Pontine marshes (Lazio, Central Italy)

“…7 m in width can be interpreted as one of the main arteries of the system and constitutes the continuation of the canal mapped earlier during geophysical surveys around Ad Medias (see above; also, Tol et al, 2014, pp. 124–126; de Haas, 2017). Throughout the mapped areas there are additional linear features (areas A and B; southern margin of subarea E), all of the much smaller dimensions (most measuring between 1 and 1.3 m in width) that run either parallel (cf.…”

“…Although archaeological research within the PRP was already done here in the 1980s and 1990s (P. Attema, 1993), over the last 15 years the Pontine marshes have become the focus of a wide range of archaeological studies (Cassieri, van Leusen, Feiken, Anastasia, & Tol, 2011; de Haas, 2011, 2017; Feiken, Tol, & van Leusen, 2012; Tol, de Haas, Armstrong, & Attema, 2014), often also paying attention to environmental aspects, and it is here that the discussed pilot project was carried out. In parallel, studies on the Late Quaternary geology of the marshes were boosted by the discovery of tephra from the Somma–Vesuvius Avellino pumice eruption that occurred during the Early Bronze Age (Sevink et al 2011).…”

“…As a follow‐up, we conducted a small series of corings on these features, confirming their identification as ancient canals and ditches. Moreover, the fills of these ditches and canals proved to contain palaeoecological evidence suitable to reconstruct past land use and environmental conditions (de Haas, 2017). The identification and investigation of such subsurface elements is, therefore, clearly essential for a better understanding of the history of this rural landscape, but as they do not have a material correlate on the surface they would have been completely missed if our research relied purely on information from field surveys.…”

Aquatic Plant Diversity in Italy: Distribution, Drivers and Strategic Conservation Actions

“…Among Mediterranean countries, Italy is the richer in water resources, it counts 69 natural lakes equal to or larger than 0.5 km 2 , 183 artificial basins larger than 1 km 2 , and more than 230 rivers and streams of particular relevance: 58 exceeding 100 km in length, and 75 with average daily discharges greater than 10 m 3 s -1 . Nevertheless, since Roman age almost all of the national wetland complexes and the riverine landscapes have been progressively reclaimed, and transformed into productive lands, especially in lowlands ( Barone et al, 1985 ; de Haas, 2015 ). Recent estimates indicate a total area occupied by wetlands (including ponds and small shallow lakes < 3 ha) and riverscapes of about 6,000 km 2 , just over the 2% of the national territory, compared to the pristine wetland area in Roman age estimated to 30,000 km 2 (equal to the 10.0% of the area).…”