Living coastscapes: landscape, resources, and political strategies in the northern Tyrrhenian Sea (Pecora River Valley, central Italy)

In the Central Mediterranean basin, fluvial and alluvial dynamics played a central role for the evolution of coastal plains between sea and higher ground, producing variety of wetland areas. The Pecora river valley, in the Maremma region (south-western Tuscany, central Italy), was focus of multidisciplinary research connecting ecological processes and archaeological sources in a Mediterranean wetland to determine how humans and environment interacted. Off-site geo- and biostratigraphic records involved different “biodiverse” proxies, to detect climatic fluctuations and anthropogenic activities: sedimentary, bio-stratigraphic (pollen and micro-charcoal) and geochemical investigations on sediment cores; facies and sediment charcoal analysis from Pecora river palaeochannel; geomorphological and stratigraphical analysis of the river catchment. Excavated sites, fieldwork surveys, and bioarchaeological study, were considered on-site records of local human activities. Upstream valley marshy environments and small lagoon on the coast influenced range of settlement, land management, and resilience strategies in the last 3200 years. The river Pecora was characterized by natural gravel-sand meandering course at ca 2500 years BP. Q. cerris forest, much larger and extended, covered slopes and floodplain, while the distal valley reach had mostly open landscape, exploited for grazing resources into territory with specific vocation (salt and iron). Human-induced fires and land use driven changes in tree biodiversity, ensuring agricultural exploitation. From ca 1300 years BP (Early Middle Ages), hydraulic works and fire episodes contributed to upstream wetland reclamation and to vegetation clearing of swamplands, inducing braided gravel-bed fluvial phase and new arable lands. The resulting landscape depended on political strategies of the Medieval authorities and represented considerable impulse for new land usage determining permanent change in physical and biological environment, with definitive success of local cultural landscape until the modern era. Research within funded European Research Council nEU-Med Project (Host Institution University of Siena, PI prof. Richard Hodges, Grant agreement 670792).