Multispecies Archaeology: Abandonment and Resurgences in the Apuan Alps (Tuscany, Italy)

The Research Seminar Series in Archaeology and Environmental archaeology invites you to a seminar with Claudia Sciuto, MAPPA lab, Department of Civilizations and Forms of Knowledge, University of Pisa, Italy. Sciuto will speak on the topic of "Multispecies Archaeology: Abandonment and Resurgences in the Apuan Alps (Tuscany, Italy)".

Abstract: The Apuan mountain range, especially the Versilia side, has experienced significant depopulation since the Second World War. This process has triggered a series of ecological processes related to the reoccupation of spaces by plants and animals. Traces of farming, husbandry, pastoralism and other activities, outline the knots of a new geography of cohabitation and collaboration between humans and non-humans. Research conducted by the MAPPA lab team combines theoretical and methodological experimentation aimed at studying local ecologies and their dynamics, using a multiscale and multiproxy approach.

The regressive study of landscape transformation, read through changes in land use/cover, is managed through the digitisation of cadastre parcels, and comparison with aerial photographic data from various decades of the 20th and 21st centuries. In the field, a qualitative survey of plant species is carried out to describe the progression of ecological series in relation to the chronology of abandonment. Finally, archaeobotanical analyses on sediment samples collected in areas interpreted as charcoal kilns allow the integration of cartographic/cadastral and survey data with information on forest management practices.

More about Claudio Sciuto

About the seminar series

The Research Seminar Series in Archaeology and Environmental Archaeology presents and discusses current research in archaeology and environmental archaeology.
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