Fortified centers, settlements systems and environmental processes in Tyrrhenian Calabria from the second to the first millennium B.C.: an interdisciplinary research

The Tyrrhenian Calabria from Amantea to Capo Vaticano is characterized by high relief rocky coasts alternating with narrow and discontinuos pebble beaches and with the 20 km long S.Eufemia coastal plain. In response to the uplift which affected southern Italy during the late Quaternary, flights of marine terraces are preserved along the coasts interrupted by steep catchments and entrenched alluvial fans. Since the prehistoric times indigenous people found favourable conditions for location of settlements on top of the gentle Pleistocene marine terraces and paleosurfaces located inland. During the Archaic and Greek Age colonies rose in this coastal area of Calabria where also sheltered bays located at the base of the rocky promontories were settled, giving more socio-economic transformations to the environment. Such a long-lasting history of human settlements and colonizations makes this area a very interesting site for researches addressed to the understanding of people–environment relationships since the late Holocene and to the reconstruction of the complex dynamics between centralized and scattered settlements of prehistoric and historic periods. To this aim geo-archaeological researches are in progress in the area which embraces the archaeological sites of P.ta Zambrone (middle to late Bronze Age), Torre Galli (Iron Age to Archaic Age) and Piano della Tirena (Arcaic period to Roman Age). Archaeological excavations guided by geophysical surveys are in progress near the sites above mentioned and geomorphological and multi-proxy paleoenvironmental investigations (pollen, charcoal, Foraminifera, Ostracods and soil analyses) at a regional scale are carried out in order to spread light on the paleoenvironmental changes occurred during the Late Holocene in this sector of the Italian coasts. The researches are financially supported by the MIUR, PRIN 2009. They are based on a integrated approach which could give rise to relevant results in both the historical-archaeological perspectives and the investigations on the role exerted by the human pressure as forcing factor in the Holocene paleoenvironmental changes.