New geoarchaeological data on the recent evolution of the Terni basin, Central Italy

The multidisciplinary study conducted on four archaeological sites located in the Terni basin is the result of a multi-year collaboration between the Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici dell’Umbria and the Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra. A lake occupied the Terni basin up to historical time with an evolution that influenced the development of the human settlements in the area from the Bronze Age.The new data from this research leads a better understanding the interactions between the natural environmental of the Terni basin and the human settlements so that we can make an informed integrated interpretation of its paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic evolution from the Middle Holocene to the present time.The different stratigraphical sequences observed, from few to over ten meters in thickness, have been studied using a multidisciplinary approach based on geological, mineralogical-petrographical and paleontological evidence with pollen and archaeological data.