Holocene land use in western Sicily: A geoarchaeological perspective

Geoarchaeological research within Sicily continues to characterize the effects of anthropogenic and geological processes upon the island's Holocene alluvial landscape developments. Interdisciplinary approaches have been used including geomorphological mapping, archaeological survey and excavations to characterize land-use practices though the mid-to late Holocene. Landscape development changes are recorded in the alluvial sediments as a consequence of land use by the indigenous and Roman settlers of Sicilian valleys in the Nebrodi and Polizzo Mountains. A marked change in erosion has been identified during the late Roman occupation of Sicily, probably as a product of intensive pastoralism and land clearing. Sedimentation during indigenous hilltop occupation of north-central and western Sicily was dominated by coarse-grained (cobble or boulder) deposits attributed to flash-flooding. Sedimentation that temporally coincided with the Greek and later Roman occupation of the adjacent valleys is marked by fine-grained deposits. These data continue to support the geological and archaeological interpretations of human-landscape interactions in Sicily. Furthermore, such geoarchaeological data may be used in models to strengthen our present and future landscape conservation methods. © The Geological Society of London 2011.