Lavagnone (Desenzano del Garda): new excavations and palaeoecology of a Bronze Age pile dwelling in northern Italy (original) (raw)
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2005
Lavagnone is a lacustrine basin, today turned into a peat bog, which was continuously settled for about 1,000 years during the Early, Middle and Late Bronze Ages. Since 1991 research has been carried out under the supervision of R. C. de Marinis (Università degli Studi di Milano) in four different areas of the basin in order to reconstruct the features of the settlement and the changes that occurred over the course of time. Palynological and palaeobotanical analyses, taking place since 2002 in cooperation with CNR-IDPA (Milano), are focused on determining the palaeoenvironmental manifestation, both then and now, of the anthropogenic exploitation of the basin.
Le Bronze moyen et l’origine du Bronze final en Europe occidentale, de la Méditerranée aux pays nordiques (XVIIe - XIIIe siècle av. J.-C.), Colloque APRAB “Bronze 2014, 2017
The pile-dwelling of Lavagnone (Desenzano del GardaLonato, Brescia) is a reference site for the absolute and relative chronology of the Bronze Age in northern Italy and for the cultural characterization of the \u201cpalafitte and terramare\u201d civilisation. Following the results of the excavations, several settlement phases are recorded, from the beginning of the EBA to the latest MBA. In this work, we present the results of an archaezoological study which focuses on MBA levels. The ensemble of faunal remains is composed of 6851 bone fragments, of which only 49.6% can be determined. Of these, the 94% are form domestic animals, while the remaining 6% are from the wild species. Among the domestic fauna, the dominant species are sheep and goat, followed by pig, cattle, dog and the horse. Among the wild species, we appreciate the presence of red deer, roe deer, wild boar, hare, wolf and wild cat. Thanks to a well-preserved stratigraphy, it is possible a distinction in phases for the sample of faunal finds, thus allowing not only a general analysis but a detailed economic reconstruction from a diachronic point of view.L\u2019habitat de Lavagnone (Desenzano del garda-Lonato, Brescia) est un site de r\ue9f\ue9rence pour la chronologie absolue et relative de l\u2019\ue2ge du Bronze en Italie du Nord et pour la caract\ue9risation culturelle des civilisations \uab palafittiques et terramaricoles \ubb. Suite aux fouilles, plusieurs phases d\u2019habitat ont \ue9t\ue9 identifi\ue9es, du d\ue9but du Bronze ancien au Bronze moyen tardif. Dans cet article, sont pr\ue9sent\ue9s les r\ue9sultats d\u2019une \ue9tude arch\ue9ozoologique qui se concentre sur les niveaux Bronze moyen. Le corpus faunistique se compose de 6851 restes avec seulement 49% de d\ue9terminables. Au sein de cet ensemble, 94% appartiennent \ue0 des animaux domestiques et donc \ue0 6% d\u2019esp\ue8ces sauvages. Les esp\ue8ces domestiques dominantes sont la ch\ue8vre et le mouton suivis par le porc, le b\u153uf, le chien et le cheval. Ont \ue9t\ue9 d\ue9termin\ue9s dans les sauvages : le cerf \ue9laphe, le chevreuil, l\u2019ours brun, li\ue8vre, le loup et le chat sauvage. Du fait de la bonne qualit\ue9 des stratigraphies, il est possible de distinguer les corpus fauniques par phases ce qui autorise non seulement une approche g\ue9n\ue9rale mais aussi une reconstitution d\ue9taill\ue9e de l\u2019\ue9conomie animale d\u2019un point de vue diachronique
M. Baioni, C. Mangani, R. Micheli: Wetland Archaeology in Northern Italy: An Overview
Ballmer, A., Hafner, A., Tinner, W. (eds) Prehistoric Wetland Sites of Southern Europe. Natural Science in Archaeology. Springer, Cham. , 2025
Northern Italy has furnished abundant evidence of the ‘pile-dwelling phenomenon’ which is found throughout the Alpine area. Neolithic pile-dwellings are known for northern Italy starting from the Early Neolithic (Isolino di Varese). However, lake-dwelling villages were most widespread in Northern Italy between about 2000 and 1400 BC, between the Early and Middle Bronze Age, and continued in the Late Bronze Age. At a time when in other Alpine regions piledwellings became rarer, in a large part of northern Italian territory they became the main settlement model. Pile-dwelling villages spread from western Piedmont to Veneto, from Trentino to the lower Lombardy and Veneto plains, along the banks of lakes, peat bogs and river depressions. The main concentration of pile-dwelling settlements was in the Varese lakes and around Lake Garda. In recent decades, in part thanks to the introduction of dendrochronology, our knowledge of these sites has deepened. New excavations, scientific analysis and dendrochronology have helped to increase our knowledge of these settlements.
Le Bronze moyen et l’origine du Bronze final en Europe occidentale, de la Méditerranée aux pays nordiques (xviie-xiiie siècle avant notre ère), Colloque APRAB “Bronze 2014”, Strasbourg 17 au 20 juin 2014, Strasbourg, 671-677 (Mémoires d’Archéologie du Grand-Est 1, 2016
Middle Bronze age faunal reMains froM the pile-dwelling settleMent of lavagnone (desenzano del garda, Brescia, italy) by a. amato, M. rapi et u. tecchiati T he site of Lavagnone is about 10 km south of Desenzano, near the Garda lake (Brescia, Italy); it occupies a marshy area, which corresponds to a former lake bed formed during one of the most recent Quaternary glaciations as an intermorainic basin. The basin-today turned into a peat bog-has been settled for the whole Bronze Age. Thanks to a well-preserved stratigraphic deposit, Lavagnone represents a reference site for the absolute and relative chronology of the Bronze Age in Northern Italy and for the cultural definition of the "Palafitte e Terramare" civilization. Excavations, carried out since the 1970s (De Marinis 2000), investigate five areas situated next to each other over a length of about 170 metres: Sectors A, B, C, E and D, which are located in order to enable the examination of the stratigraphic sequences starting from the northeastern edge and extending to almost the middle of the basin. Several settlement phases have been identified, from the beginning of the EBA, to which relates the earlier pile dwellings, to the latest MBA. The EBA is subdivided into EBA I (EBA IA; IB, IC) and EBA II; dendro-chronological data available for EBA IA and IB contexts links these phases to the xxith and xxth centuries BC. Regarding the MBA, the latest findings show the presence of the initial and full phases also of advanced stages (MBA 1, 2A, 2B, 3). We present the results of a study focused on the animal bones assemblages from the MBA levels. The faunal assemblage analyzed is composed of 6851 fragments (Schmid 1972) (fig 1). Of these, 3395 were identified, namely 49.6% of the entire assemblage, while 3456 (50.4%) were classified as unidentifiable (fig. 2). The macroscopic analysis shows that 1.2% of the bones exhibit cut marks, traces of burning (1%) and gnawing marks left by rodents and carnivores (2%). The faunal remains present the so called "tobacco" color, typical of remains from pile-dwelling sites. In some cases traces of human modifications were noticed on the bones, probably carried out in order to obtain bone tools. The identified specimens are mainly from domestic animals (94%) such as cattle, pig, sheep, goat, horse and dog. Only 6% of the remains belong to wild mammals. The most represented domestic species are sheep and goat (fig. 3) with 1327 fragments (39.1%). As it was possible to distinguish between sheep (246 specimens) and goat (34 specimens) (Kratochvil 1969), it can be said that these animals were present at the site with a ratio of 7:1. An MNI of 45 individuals has been calculated for the caprines. The kill offpattern for these species is based on the observation of the tooth wear stages as well as the degree of the epiphyseal fusion. The results from the study of the tooth wear stages reveal that 66.7% of the animals killed were adults, with juvenile representing the remaining 33.3%. This data shows a specific economic choice in which preference was given to meat, but also to secondary products. The epiphyseal fusion data shows that the animals were killed when about 30-40 months old (Barone 1980), but all other age groups are represented as well. The withers height for goats, based on Radius and Metacarpal bones, is between 60 and 62.6 cm (Schramm 1967). For sheep, the value, calculated on Radius, Tibia, Metapodials and Calcaneus is around 55.6 cm (Teichert 1975).
Quaternary International 243, PP. 280-292, 2011
Fondo Paviani is a Bronze Age archaeological site located in the Valli Grandi Veronesi area in the lower Venetian plain (northeastern Italy). The inhabited area is surrounded by a moat and a quadrangular rampart, a structural characteristic specific to the so-called terramare, villages that were common in the alluvial plains both north and south of the Po River during the middle and recent Bronze Age. Dark-coloured anthropogenic deposits occurring inside the site of Fondo Paviani were exposed during archaeological excavations and along stratigraphic cross-sections. Here, the micropedological and pedochemical characters of the deposits have been used as a key to decipher the formation processes and post-depositional modifications involved in order to reconstruct the human activities and environmental conditions recorded in the stratigraphy. This reconstruction has been formulated by integrating the abovementioned analytical techniques with geomorphological, pedological and archaeological data.
Quaternary International, 2018
Using morphological, stratigraphic, paleoecological and geoarcheological data, as well as radiocarbon datings, we reconstructed the evolution of the coastal plain of Mondragone, in the northern sector of the Campania Plain, during the last 40 kyr. The Late Pleistocene-Holocene morphodynamics of this coastland were mainly dictated by mutual interaction between tectonics, sea-level fluctuations, Quaternary volcanic eruptions, and subsidence. These processes also influenced the dynamics of prehistoric and proto-historic human populations. Actually, the discovery over the last 25 years of several archaeological sites referable to Upper Paleolithic-Early Iron Age as well as the recent finding of artifacts, fauna and, for the third time in Campania, of Neanderthal human remains in the Roccia San Sebastiano cave, demonstrates that the coastal plain of Mondragone had always hosted human settlements. This constant frequentation is confirmed by, both emerged and submerged, ruins of Roman age and Middle Ages, and the high level of urbanization of the modern town. The interpretation of four borehole stratigraphic sequences down to 22 m bgl, of microfossils analysis and sediment facies highlighted the succession of transition, from marine to freshwater, and continental paleoenvironments in this coastal plain. These wetlands developed in climatic conditions that varied from glacial (Würm) to postglacial phases. Some deposits are interpreted as marshy sediments accumulated in shallow, elongated ponds behind sandy beach or dunes, which existed almost up to the present. The reconstruction of landscape morphodynamic evolution shows that after the "super eruption" of the Campanian Ignimbrite (~39 kyr BP) the physiography abruptly changed. A wide gulf characterized by grey tuff cliffs and facing northwest formed, along the littoral between the Garigliano and the Volturno river mouths during the volcanic stasis of the Phlegrean Fields, which lasted about ten thousand years after the violent ignimbrite eruption. In this period, the presence of Neanderthal and of a settlement in the Roccia San Sebastiano cave, at the foot of Mt. Massico, is proven by the findings of an excavation. Later (~20 kyr BP-Holocene), subsidence and sea-level rise activated strong erosion processes due to the postglacial marine ingression, with a consequent rapid shoreline recession and the genesis of transition environments. Finally, according to the results of previous multidisciplinary research carried out on other Campania coastal plains, adjacent or not to the studied area, distinct generations of post-Campanian Ignimbrite-Holocene coastal lakes (lagoons, ponds) and waterlogged environments (marshes, quagmires) were recognized, slightly below and at the current sea-level.
The Holocene 0(0) 1–22 , 2020
The mountainous inland of northern Calabria (Southern Italy) is known for its sparse prehistoric human occupation. Nevertheless, a thorough multidisciplinary approach of field walking, geophysical survey and invasive research led to the discovery of a major archaeological archive. This archive concerns a rich multi-phased dump, spanning about 3000 years (Late Neolithic to Late Imperial Roman Age) and holding two Somma-Vesuvius tephra. Of these, the younger is a distinct layer of juvenile tephra from the Pompeii eruption, while the older concerns reworked tephra from the Bronze Age AP2 eruption (ca. 1700 cal. yr BP). The large dump contains abundant ceramics, faunal remains and charcoal, and most probably originated through long-continued deposition of waste in a former gully like system of depressions. This resulted in an inversed, mound-like relief, whose anthropogenic origin had not been recognized in earlier research. The tephras were found to be important markers that support the reconstruction of the occupational history of the site. The sequence of occupational phases is very similar to that observed in a recent palaeoecological study from nearby situated former lakes (Lago Forano/Fontana Manca). This suggests that this sequence reflects the more regional occupational history of Calabria, which goes back to ca. 3000 BC. Attention is paid to the potential link between this history and Holocene climatic phases, for which no indication was found. The history deviates strongly from histories deduced from the few, but major palaeorecords elsewhere in the inlands of Southern Italy (Lago Grande di Monticchio and Lago Trifoglietti). We conclude that major regional variation occurred in prehistoric land use and its impacts on the vegetation cover of Southern Italy, and studies of additional palaeoarchives are needed to unravel this complex history. Finally, shortcomings of archaeological predictive models are discussed and the advantages of truly integrated multidisciplinary research.
Environmental evolution, faunal and human occupation since 2 Ma in the Anagni basin, central Italy
Scientific Reports
We present the study of a composite, yet continuous sedimentary succession covering the time interval spanning 2.6–0.36 Ma in the intramontane basin of Anagni (central Italy) through a dedicated borecore, field surveys, and the review of previous data at the three palaeontological and archaeological sites of Colle Marino, Coste San Giacomo and Fontana Ranuccio. By combining the magneto- and chronostratigraphic data with sedimentologic and biostratigraphic analysis, we describe the palaeogeographic and tectonic evolution of this region during this entire interval. In this time frame, starting from 0.8 Ma, the progressive shallowing and temporary emersion of the large lacustrine basins and alluvial plains created favorable conditions for early hominin occupation of the area, as attested by abundant tool industry occurrences and fossils. This study provides new constraints to better interpret the hominin migratory dynamics and the factors that influenced the location and spatial distri...