From pedologic indications to archaeological reconstruction: deciphering land use in the Islamic period in the Baida district (north-western Sicily)

Within the frame of an in-depth study of the corpus of about 560 western Greek transport amphorae (6th–5th century BC) yielded from excavations at the necropolis of the Dorian-Chalcidian colony of Himera in North-western Sicily, one of the most interesting issues consists in the determination of their provenance. Based on archaeological considerations, nearly 100 items have been attributed to southern Campania, specifically to Poseidonia and Elea. The present paper proposes a detailed combined archaeological-archaeometric investigation of 16 samples discovered at Himera and one at Jerba (Tunisia), of presumed Campanian provenance, compared with 4 local reference samples from Poseidonia and 6 samples of western Greek amphorae found at Pithekoussai and Elea, attributed to Poseidonia by previous archaeometric analysis. All samples have been submitted to a macroscopic fabric examination according to the standard methods of FACEM (Fabrics of the Central Mediterranean) and to petrographic investigation (polarised light microscopy) and digital image analyses of microstructures. Our study points to a Campanian provenance of the investigated amphorae and their distinction in a large group from Poseidonia and a small group from Elea. The identification of a numerous assemblage of 5th century BC Poseidonian transport vessels at Himera substantially underlines an earlier hypothesis about its ‘Campanian connection’ and allows for the reconstruction of an important Tyrrhenian commercial axis.

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Movements and residence time of spiny lobsters, Palinurus elephas released in a marine protected area: an investigation by ultrasonic telemetry

Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom ◽

10.1017/s002531540601407x ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 86 (5) ◽

pp. 1101-1106 ◽

Cited By ~ 16

Author(s):

V.M. Giacalone ◽

G. D'Anna ◽

C. Pipitone ◽

F. Badalamenti

Keyword(s):

Marine Protected Area ◽

Marine Reserve ◽

Spiny Lobster ◽

Release Site ◽

Diel Activity ◽

Ultrasonic Telemetry ◽

Central Mediterranean ◽

Entire Duration ◽

Western Sicily ◽

North Western

Marine reserves and restocking initiatives are sometimes used as a tool to enhance spiny lobster stocks. In such initiatives it is crucial to follow the movement of lobsters once they are released at sea in restocking experiments.This paper presents the results of the application of an ultrasonic telemetry system to the monitoring of 11 lobsters (90±14 mm mean carapace length) released in the Capo Gallo-Isola delle Femmine Marine Reserve in north-western Sicily, central Mediterranean. The system comprised transmitters glued onto the lobster carapace, and manual as well as automated receivers to locate tagged animals. The data (i.e. number of detected signals) were tested to assess any difference in the diel activity of lobsters. The field study lasted 79 days in total. Lobsters remained in the study area for periods ranging from a few hours to the entire duration of the study. The longest distance travelled by a tagged lobster was 2.2 km. The number of signals varied significantly across the day, with the highest value recorded in the full-light hours (1000–1500), but they were not sufficient to assess clearly the diel activity of the released lobsters.The interpretation of data suggests that: (1) released lobsters preferred a deeper habitat than that of the release site; and (2) the lobsters that reached a rough rocky area with available shelters settled there, while those that did not meet such a habitat soon moved out of hydrophone detecting range.

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Impacts of land use and topography on soil organic carbon in a Mediterranean landscape (north-western Tunisia)

10.5194/soil-2019-15 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Donia Jendoubi ◽

Hanspeter Liniger ◽

Chinwe Ifejika Speranza

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Soil Samples ◽

Spectral Library ◽

Grazing Land ◽

Mediterranean Landscape ◽

Field Crops ◽

Land Use Types ◽

The Impact ◽

North And South ◽

North Western

Abstract. This study evaluated the impact of land use and landscape forms on SOC within the Wadi Beja watershed in north-western Tunisia. A soil spectral library was set to assess the variation of the SOC of 1440 soil samples from four land use types (field crops, permanent crops, forest, and grazing land), three slope categories (flat, moderate, and steep) and two aspects (north- and south-facing). For field crops, only one factor – slope – significantly affected SOC, which SOC levels in north-facing areas appear higher in flat areas (0.75 %) than in hilly areas (0.51%). However, in south-facing areas, SOC levels were also higher in flat areas (0.74 %) than in hilly areas (0.50 %). For permanent crops, which was interplanted with field crops, the slope significantly affected SOC levels where SOC levels have been improved to 0.97 % in flat north facing and 0.96 % in flat south-facing areas, which are higher than hilly south – and north-facing areas (0.79 %). In the grazing land use system, both investigated factors – aspect and slope – significantly affected the SOC levels which, SOC levels were significantly higher in flat areas (north-facing: 0.84 %, south-facing: 0.77 %), compared to hilly areas (north-facing: 0.61 %, south-facing: 0.56 %). For the forest, none of the factors had a significant effect on the SOC, which they are higher in flat areas (north-facing: 1.15 %, south-facing: 1.14 %), compared to 1.09 % in north and 1.07 % in south-facing in steep areas. This study highlights the importance of the land use and landscape forms in determining the variation in SOC levels.

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Gastropods from the Jurassic neptunian sills of Rocca Busambra (north‐western Sicily, Italy): Patellogastropoda, Pleurotomarioidea, Scissurelloidea, Fissurelloidea and Eucycloidea

Papers in Palaeontology ◽

10.1002/spp2.1258 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

János Szabó ◽

Maria Alessandra Conti ◽

Stefano Monari ◽

Jobst Wendt

Keyword(s):

Western Sicily ◽

North Western

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Modernization and Development: the Role of Regional Elites and Noncorporate Groups in the European Mediterranean

Comparative Studies in Society and History ◽

10.1017/s001041750000671x ◽

1972 ◽

Vol 14 (3) ◽

pp. 328-350 ◽

Cited By ~ 51

Author(s):

Peter Schneider ◽

Jane Schneider ◽

Edward Hansen

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Social Change ◽

Social Stratification ◽

Field Work ◽

Social Structures ◽

Skilled Workers ◽

Political Activities ◽

Western Sicily ◽

Culture Centered

This paper is about social change in underdeveloped areas. It is based on field work in the European Mediterranean between 1965 and 1967. Hansen worked in the wine and champagne district of Villafranca del Panadés, roughly 30 miles from Barcelona, in Catalonia. The Schneiders were in the wheat and pastoral latifundium zone of Western Sicily. The two regions exhibit quite different patterns of land use and tenure, social stratification and settlement. We were struck, however, by two characteristics which they shared. First, we found a plethora of noncorporate social structures (for the most part coalitions) which organized fundamental economic and political activities of a quite modern sort. In rural Catalonia, coalitions of businessmen, skilled workers and government functionaries are formed within the context of an emergent bar culture, centered in major towns like Villafranca. In Western Sicily, until quite recently, the locus of similar coalitions was the latifundium. As yet, no clearly defined urban tradition has replaced this predominantly rural one

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Comparative evaluation of three contrasting land use systems for soil carbon, microbial and biochemical indicators in North-Western Himalaya

Ecological Engineering ◽

10.1016/j.ecoleng.2017.03.001 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 103 ◽

pp. 21-30 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Sudeshna Bhattacharjya ◽

Debarati Bhaduri ◽

Swati Chauhan ◽

Ramesh Chandra ◽

K.P. Raverkar ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Soil Carbon ◽

Comparative Evaluation ◽

Western Himalaya ◽

Biochemical Indicators ◽

Land Use Systems ◽

North Western

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Effects of Vegetation Cover and Land Use Changes on Soil Erosion in Kalaya Watershed (North Western Morocco)

International Journal of Geosciences ◽

10.4236/ijg.2015.612107 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 06 (12) ◽

pp. 1353-1366 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Khadija Ben Hamman Lech-hab ◽

Lamiae Khali Issa ◽

Ahmed Raissouni ◽

Abdelkrim El Arrim ◽

Abdelghani Afailal Tribak ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Soil Erosion ◽

Vegetation Cover ◽

Land Use Changes ◽

Western Morocco ◽

North Western

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Middle Bronze Age land use practices in the north-western Alpine foreland – A multi-proxy study of colluvial deposits, archaeological features and peat bogs

10.5194/soil-2020-84 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Sascha Scherer ◽

Benjamin Höpfer ◽

Katleen Deckers ◽

Elske Fischer ◽

Markus Fuchs ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Bronze Age ◽

Microbial Biomass Carbon ◽

Peat Bogs ◽

The North ◽

Settlement Site ◽

Middle Bronze Age ◽

Alpine Foreland ◽

North Western ◽

Land Use Practices

Abstract. This paper aims to reconstruct Middle Bronze Age (MBA) land use practices in the north-western Alpine foreland (SW Germany, Hegau). We used a multi-proxy approach including the biogeochemical proxies from colluvial deposits in the surrounding of the well-documented settlement site of Anselfingen and offsite pollen data from two peat bogs. This approach allowed in-depth insights into the MBA subsistence economy and shows that the MBA in the north-western Alpine foreland was a period of establishing settlements with sophisticated land management and land use practices. The reconstruction of phases of colluvial deposition was based on ages from optically luminescence (OSL) and radiocarbon (AMS 14C) dating from multi-layered colluvial deposits and supports the local archaeological record with the first phase of major colluvial deposition occurring during the MBA followed by phases of colluvial deposition during the Iron Age, the Medieval period, and modern times. The onsite deposition of charred archaeobotanical remains and animal bones from archaeological features, as well as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), charcoal spectra, phytoliths, soil microstructure, urease enzymatic activity, microbial biomass carbon (Cmic) and heavy metal contents, were used as proxies for onsite and near-site land use practices. The charcoal spectra indicate MBA forest management which favoured the dominance of Quercus in the woodland vegetation in the surrounding area north of the settlement site. Increased levels of 5ß stanols (up to 40 %) and the occurrence of pig bones (up to 14 %) support the presence of a forest pasture mainly used for pig farming. In the surrounding area south of the settlement, an arable field with a buried MBA plough horizon (2Apb) could be verified by soil micromorphological investigations and high concentrations of grass phytoliths from leaves and stems. Agricultural practices (e.g. ploughing) focussed on five stable cereal crops (Hordeum distichon/vulgare, Triticum dicoccum, Triticum monococcum, Triticum spelta, Triticum aestivum/turgidum), while the presence of stilted pantries as storage facilities and of heat stones indicate post-harvest processing of cereal crops and other agrarian products within the settlement. In the area surrounding the settlement, increased levels of urease activity, compared to microbial biomass carbon (up to 2.1 µg N µg Cmic−1), and input of herbivorous and omnivorous animal faeces indicate livestock husbandry on fallow land. The PAH suites and their spatial distribution support the use of fire for various purposes, e.g. for opening and maintaining the landscape, for domestic burning and for technical applications. The offsite palynological data support the observed change in onsite and near-site vegetation as well as the occurrence of related land use practices. During the Early and Middle Bronze Age fire played a major role in shaping the landscape (peak of micro-charcoal during the MBA) and anthropogenic activities promoted oak dominated forest ecosystems at the expense of natural beech forests. This indicates a broader regional human influence in the north-western Alpine foreland at low and mid altitude inland sites during the Middle Bronze Age.

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