Pollen, herds, jasper and copper mines: economic and environmental changes during the 4th and 3rd millennia BC in Liguria (NW Italy)

This paper reviews the interdisciplinary projects carried out during the last 25 years in eastern Liguria (NW Italy). These have brought together archaeologists, geographers, palaeobotanists and historians in a series of research exercises based upon many different types of evidence: archaeological excavation and survey, ecological analysis of existing landscapes, geoarchaeological, anthracological and palynological analyses. Taken together, the results of this research provide a rich source of material for developing an understanding of how humans in eastern Liguria have interacted with the landscape through time. The influence of human activity on the vegetation of Liguria, in the Late Neolithic, Copper Age (Chalcolithic) and Bronze Age, is part of a complex system of agricultural activity mainly involving transhumant pastoralism. Several peat sites and buried soils have supplied the palaeoecological data that indicate the considerable effect of this economic activity on the landscape: a reduction in fir woodland, a decrease in arboreal species and an increase in the diversity of light demanding herbaceous and fern taxa. The environmental and economic changes during the 4th and 3rd millennia BC in eastern Liguria are also testified to by the starting of quarrying and mining activities to obtain both red jasper and copper.