THE LIVED-IN LANDSCAPE

Descrizione

This book investigates how the cultural landscapes of south-east Italy were created, inhabited, and transformed between the 4^th and 2^nd millennia BCE ‒ a time of profound social and environmental change across the central Mediterranean. Combining archaeological, palaeoeconomic and environmental evidence with cutting-edge spatial modelling, it traces how communities adapted to and reshaped diverse ecosystems. Fortified coastal centres, dispersed inland villages, and seasonal upland sites reveal contrasting but interconnected strategies, reflecting both ecological opportunities and cultural choices. The study highlights prehistoric societies not simply as subsistence communities, but as active agents who endowed places with meanings and reshaped their environments over the long term. It uncovers processes of continuity and transformation that defined the lived-in landscapes of the Copper and Bronze Ages, situating them within broader debates in landscape archaeology. By bridging theory, environmental analysis, and inductive modelling, this volume offers fresh insights into human-environment relations, resilience, and the making of cultural landscapes in the prehistoric Mediterranean.

Il volume è disponibile anche in formato OPEN ACCESS al seguente link: The lived-in landscape

CONTENTS

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION

Landscape dimensions in this work

Landscape archaeology, inductive modelling and machine learning

Niche Construction Theory (NCT)

THE ENVIRONMENTAL AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL BACKGROUND

The study area: a geographical overview

Environmental background: climate and vegetation

Chronocultural framework of the Copper and Bronze Ages ( ̴ 4000-1000 cal. BCE)

Social, demographic and political frameworks in southeastern Italy

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Archaeological and economic datasets

Overview of the collected sites dataset 

Economic data 

Processed topographic and environmental data

Terrain characteristics  

Hydrology

Soil features

Thermotypes as climatic variables in landscape modelling

MaxEnt: principles and practical application

FROM DATA TO MODELS: EXPLORING SETTLEMENT AND LANDSCAPE DYNAMICS

Chronological trends: counting and comparing site distributions across periods

Radiocarbon dates as a proxy for demographic trends

Landscape characterisation based on morpho-hydrological units

MaxEnt modelling: predicting suitable places for permanent settlements

Exploring MaxEnt outputs

MaxEnt suitability maps from cross-validation

Integration of phase-specific MaxEnt outputs with morpho-hydrological and thermotype maps

MODELS IN CONTEXT: COMMUNITY-SCALE READINGS OF THE LIVED-IN LANDSCAPE

People and landscapes across scales

Around the lake: landscapes of the Fucino Basin and surrounding territories between the Copper and Bronze Ages

Communities of the late prehistory in the mosaic landscapes of northern Apulia

Ethnographic insights

FINAL REMARKS

LIST OF SITES INCLUDED IN THE QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS

TABLES

REFERENCES