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IX/2/2018
INTERDISCIPLINARIA ARCHAEOLOGICA
NATURAL SCIENCES IN ARCHAEOLOGY
homepage: http://www.iansa.eu
A look at the region
The SUCCESSO-TERRA Project: a Lesson of Sustainability from the
Terramare Culture, Middle Bronze Age of the Po Plain (Northern Italy)
Mauro Cremaschi
a
, Anna Maria Mercuri
b*
, Alessandra Benatti
b
, Giovanna Bosi
b
, Filippo Brandolini
a
,
Eleonora Clò
b
, Assunta Florenzano
b
, Elisa Furia
b
, Guido S. Mariani
a
, Marta Mazzanti
b
,
Maria Chiara Montecchi
b
, Eleonora Rattighieri
b
, Rossella Rinaldi
b
, Paola Torri
b
, Andrea Zerboni
a
a
Department of the Earth Sciences, “Ardito Desio”, State University of Milan, Via Leopoldo Cicognara 7, 20129 Milano, Italy
b
Laboratory of Palynology and Palaeobotany, Department of Life Sciences, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Viale Caduti in Guerra 127,
41121 Modena, Italy
1. Background
How can we mitigate the efects of climate change? How
can our society develop towards models of sustainable
development in the coming years? The “bridge” to
sustainability is a pivotal topic of international debate and
is among the priorities of the agenda of the Horizon2020
Societal Challenges, linking the past with the future. Despite
the many achievements emerging from some new solutions,
it is becoming increasingly aware that the study of the past is
at the root of reliable and responsible actions for the future.
The SUCCESSO-TERRA Project (
Human societies,
climate‐environment changes and resource exploitation/
sustainability in the Po Plain in the mid-Holocene: the
Terramare culture
; 2017–2020) is an interdisciplinary
research program aiming at reconstructing the landscape
and land-use transformations that occurred during the
trajectory of the Terramare culture in the southern-central Po
Plain of Northern Italy (Figure 1). The project, funded by
Volume IX ● Issue 2/2018 ● Pages 221
–229
*Corresponding author. E-mail: annamaria.mercuri@unimore.it
ARTICLE INFO
Article history:
Received: 29
th
December 2018
Accepted: 31
th
December 2018
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/ 10.24916/iansa.2018.2.8
Key words:
archaeology
climate change
Terramare
mid-Holocene
interdisciplinarity
ABSTRACT
This backstory article deals with the SUCCESSO-TERRA Project (2017–2020), an interdisciplinary
research program aiming at reconstructing the land-use transformations that occurred during the
development of the Terramare culture in the southern-central Po Plain of Northern Italy. Topics
include climate-environment changes, human impact and exploitation of natural resources that
are interconnected topics in human ecology and environmental sciences. These topics can only be
understood in a long-term perspective integrating archaeology, geology, botany and other sciences. The
text includes the theoretical basis, the research strategy and the main methodological approaches given
by geoarchaeology and palynology, the two research sides constituting the partnership of the project.
Figure 1.
The logo and concept of the SUCCESSO-TERRA Project.
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IANSA 2018 ● IX/2 ● 221–229
Mauro Cremaschi, Anna Maria Mercuri, Alessandra Benatti, Giovanna Bosi, Filippo Brandolini, Eleonora Clò, Assunta Florenzano, Elisa Furia, Guido S. Mariani,
Marta Mazzanti, Maria Chiara Montecchi, Eleonora Rattighieri, Rossella Rinaldi, Paola Torri, Andrea Zerboni: The SUCCESSO-TERRA Project:
a Lesson of Sustainability from the Terramare Culture, Middle Bronze Age of the Po Plain (Northern Italy)
222
MIUR (Ministry of Italy for University and Research, action
20158KBLNB, P.I.: M. Cremaschi) joins together experts
on Geoarchaeology (University of Milan) and Palynology
(University of Modena and Reggio Emilia) to study high-
resolution archaeological sediments with an interdisciplinary
ecological perspective.
SUCCESSO-TERRA points towards the relationships
between climate-environment changes, human impact,
and exploitation of natural resources – topics that are
traditionally interconnected in human ecology (Butzer,
1982). These topics can only be understood given a long-term
perspective:
integrating archaeology, geology, and biology
(mostly consisting of botany and zoology). The concept that
archaeological sciences can be a tool to deal with modern
societal challenges is at the basis of SUCCESSO-TERRA:
an “old but new approach” to compare current issues to those
concerning sustainability in the 3
rd
millennium BP.
Archaeological scientifc investigations with a long-term
perspective have repeatedly suggested a possible nexus
between changes in climate (main trends and rapid events)
and societal crises during the Holocene (Jalut
et al.
, 2009;
Mercuri
et al.
, 2011); the main role played today by the
on-going climate change in infuencing human adaptation
is also evident (Oldfeld, 2005; Mercuri
et al.
, 2015a).
To establish if climate change infuenced the cultural
trajectory of the Terramare culture – and if so, then to
estimate its true contribution – is the core of the project.
The Terramare settlements are exemplar archaeological/
palaeoenvironmental contexts showing the complex dynamic
between regional climatic/environmental changes and land
use.
SUCCESSO-TERRA avoids climatic determinism and
maintains a bi-directional perspective in the study of the
relationships between climate, environment, and people
– considering as it does the environment and civilizations
as part of a complex dynamic system
(e.g.
Stofe
et al.
,
2003; Mercuri, 2008; Cremaschi, Zerboni 2009; 2011;
Mercuri, Sadori, 2012). From one side, climate changes have
triggered environmental and cultural adaptations. From the
other side, people have continuously, and deeply, shaped the
landscape in which they settled. However, a continuing and
increasing human exploitation of natural resources creates
an imbalance in the system (Diamond, 2005), resulting in
possible episodes of population relocation or the collapse
of human societies. Within this framework, Bronze Age
Mediterranean civilizations have ofered us several examples
of crises with catastrophic outcomes. Similar dramatic efects
have been recorded along the Alpine fringe with the crisis
of the pile-dwelling communities (Magny
et al.
, 2011). All
these episodes led to signifcant changes in the structure of
the involved civilization that, experiencing as they were the
frst steps of urban culture at that time, had an unsustainable
impact on the environment.
Interdisciplinary research is mandatory if we want
to understand the adaptive strategies of civilizations at
diferent times and within a long-term perspective (Mercuri
and Florenzano, 2019). The Terramare case study refers to
the changing environment during the Middle and Recent
Bronze Ages (ca. 1550–1170 years BC; Bernabò Brea
et al
., 1997; Mercuri
et al.
, 2006a), at the Middle to Late
Holocene transition, and at the border between continental
and Mediterranean Italy.
2. The Terramare narrative based on archaeological
and scientifc evidence
The term Terramare indicates the banked and moated
villages of the Bronze Age, located in the alluvial plain of
the Po River of Northern Italy, mostly in present-day Emilia
Romagna (Pearce, 1998; Bernabò Brea, Cremaschi, 2009;
Cremaschi, 2013). The Terramare culture fourished in the
central part of the Po Plain during a period spanning the
16
th
to the 12
th
century BC. The Terramare economy was
based upon farming, herding, and metallurgy (Bernabò
Brea
et al.
, 1997); moreover, Terramare settlements relied
on having a well-developed management of water and wood
resources. The people settled in an open environment that
hosted scattered woodland and plentiful water resources.
The Terramare people promoted networks of commercial
exchange between northern Europe and the Mediterranean
region. This civilization lasted for approximately 500 years,
before suddenly collapsing around 1150 BC (Cardarelli,
2009).
Extensive excavations and geophysical surveying
disclosed the complexity of their settlements and the
interconnections between residential areas, defensive
structures, felds and the natural hydrography. Agriculture in
felds was supplied with irrigated water, and an innovative
and sophisticated management system of the natural
hydrographic network was developed (Cremaschi, 2009).
Large artifcial canals were excavated to draw water from
rivers to the moats surrounding villages; then, water was
redistributed to the felds through a dense network of
irrigation ditches (Cremaschi, Pizzi, 2007; 2011; Cremaschi,
2018). The irrigation strategy and competent agriculture
triggered this skilled civilization to its apogee with a
demographic increase from the Middle to the Recent Bronze
Age. Mesophilous woods (oaks and hornbeams) gave a
major supply of natural raw material for building, fuel, and
food (Cardarelli, 2009; Cremaschi, 2010; Mercuri
et al.
,
2006a; 2015b). Pollen diagrams show low forest cover close
to sites with a signifcant presence of wet environments and a
set of anthropogenic habitats testifed by pollen indicators of
crops and synanthropics (API, as described by Behre, 1981;
Mercuri
et al.
, 2013).
According to the palynological record, the agricultural
economy was based on forest management including
coppicing, fruit collection in the wild, and crop felds. The
felds included diferent types of cereals (Ravazzi
et al.
,
1992; 2004; Mercuri
et al.
, 2015b; Cremaschi
et al.
, 2016)
with evidence of intercropping with legumes (Mercuri
et al.
,
2006a; 2006b). Moreover, most of the open landscapes
around the villages were used for pastures as suggested
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IANSA 2018 ● IX/2 ● 221–229
Mauro Cremaschi, Anna Maria Mercuri, Alessandra Benatti, Giovanna Bosi, Filippo Brandolini, Eleonora Clò, Assunta Florenzano, Elisa Furia, Guido S. Mariani,
Marta Mazzanti, Maria Chiara Montecchi, Eleonora Rattighieri, Rossella Rinaldi, Paola Torri, Andrea Zerboni: The SUCCESSO-TERRA Project:
a Lesson of Sustainability from the Terramare Culture, Middle Bronze Age of the Po Plain (Northern Italy)
223
mainly by Cichorieae and other pasture pollen indicators
(Ravazzi
et al.
, 2004; Mercuri
et al.
, 2006b; 2015b;
Cremaschi
et al.
, 2016). These land-use types have also been
confrmed by the recovery of well-preserved macrobotanical
remains in most of the studied contexts (Rottoli, Motella,
2004; Rottoli, Castiglioni, 2009).
The intensifcation of the food demand probably caused
cereal production to be inadequate for such a high number of
people. Environmental stresses became ever more evident and
wood resources were renewing slowly. For instance, the last
phases of the pollen diagram from the Terramara di Montale
show a decrease of woodland together with a reduction in
cereal felds suggesting that soil and wood overexploitation
might have been among the actual causes of the Terramare’s
crisis (Mercuri
et al.
, 2006b). At the top of the sequence of
Santa Rosa di Poviglio, in correspondence with the drying of
the moat system, a similar dramatic decrease of woods suggests
that there may have been a twofold causation in the societal
crisis afecting the Terramare culture: the increased aridity (a
natural factor) and the overgrazing of natural resources (an
anthropogenic factor) might have played a fairly synchronous
action on the landscape (Cremaschi
et al.
, 2016). The societal
collapse of the Terramare culture is dated at ca. 1150 years
BC; settlements in the central Po Plain were abandoned and
Final Bronze Age settlements survived only in the northern
sector of the Po Plain and in the Northern Apennines.
3. Research strategy
3.1 Key archaeological sites
The SUCCESSO-TERRA Project analyses data from three
Bronze Age sites (Figure 2): (i) the Terramara Santa Rosa
di Poviglio (Bernabò Brea, Cremaschi, 2004) (Figures 3–5)
and (ii) the Vasca di Noceto site (Bernabò Brea, Cremaschi,
2009) (Figures 3, 6–8) are in the Po Plain; while (iii) the
San Michele di Valestra (Cremaschi, 1997) site is a coeval
settlement in the Apennines (Figures 3, 9–10). The frst and
second sites are well-known archaeological sites belonging
to the Po Plain Terramare culture, whose excavations have
been on-going for many years. The latter – San Michele di
Valestra – is a Bronze Age site, located outside the Terramare
territory, but in the adjoining Apennine range. This site
survived the Terramare crisis and was settled with continuity
throughout the Middle, Recent, and Final Bronze Ages, up
to the Iron Age.
The methodology of the project is interdisciplinary; it is
mainly based on geoarchaeological and archaeobotanical
(pollen and macroremains) investigations. The main actions
are on-going: to carry out archaeological excavations in the
key sites, and a regional survey in areas surrounding the
main archaeological settlements.
3.2 Geoarchaeology
Geoarchaeological investigations at selected sites are
on-going, the main aim being to understand the human and
natural contributions to the development and abandonment
of the Terramare settlements in the Po Plain. Since the
beginning of research into the Terramare in the nineteenth
century, it has been clear that the moats surrounding these
sites were connected to adjoining rivers from which water
was obtained by canals (Pearce, 1998; Cremaschi, 2013).
Additionally, the moats were fed by artesian wells excavated
within the limits of each settlement (Cremaschi
et al.
, 2006;
2016). At the Santa Rosa di Poviglio site (Figures 3–5), for
instance, all these hydrological structures date back to the
late Middle Bronze Age and, along with the infrastructure
and residential buildings, are part of the urban planning
project. Many large water wells had been opened along the
edge of the settlement after the Middle Bronze Age and they
Figure 2.
Map of the central sector of the Po
Plain of Northern Italy indicating the sites
investigated in the SUCCESSO-TERRA
Project.
0 20 km
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IANSA 2018 ● IX/2 ● 221–229
Mauro Cremaschi, Anna Maria Mercuri, Alessandra Benatti, Giovanna Bosi, Filippo Brandolini, Eleonora Clò, Assunta Florenzano, Elisa Furia, Guido S. Mariani,
Marta Mazzanti, Maria Chiara Montecchi, Eleonora Rattighieri, Rossella Rinaldi, Paola Torri, Andrea Zerboni: The SUCCESSO-TERRA Project:
a Lesson of Sustainability from the Terramare Culture, Middle Bronze Age of the Po Plain (Northern Italy)
224