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SUMMARY:Rise and fall of Bronze Age Mediterranean societies: a new geoarch
 aeological and chronostratigraphic sequence of Nuragic Sardinia - Gian Bat
 tista Marras (British School at Rome)
DTSTART:20250319T173000Z
DTEND:20250319T190000Z
UID:TALK227641@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:91369
DESCRIPTION:Around the beginning of the Late Holocene (4\,200 years BP) ac
 ross the western Mediterranean regions\, Bronze Age societies developed un
 ique socio-economic and political complexity reflected in the construction
  of monumental stone architecture. New geoarchaeological and chronostratig
 raphic research in Sardinia\, Italy\, exposes for the first time the envir
 onmental underpinnings of the expansion and decline of the Nuragic Bronze 
 Age monument-building society. These findings also highlight the role of p
 rehistoric societies in shaping the landscape of the Mediterranean region 
 over the Holocene.\nMulti-proxy geoarchaeological analyses—including soi
 l micromorphology\, XRD mineralogy\, magnetic susceptibility\, and geochem
 istry—reveal that the Bronze Age climax soil type of basaltic mesas in S
 ardinia was a dark Vertisol rich in primary nutrients and montmorillonite 
 clay. These fertile soils sustained grassland ecosystems and played a key 
 role in the distribution of early Middle Bronze Age Nuragic monuments acro
 ss Sardinia’s basaltic landscapes. However\, prolonged and intensified l
 and use\, particularly animal herding and agriculture\, to support monumen
 t construction led to soil erosion and\, ultimately\, the replacement of d
 eep\, nutrient-rich Vertisol cover with a thin\, oxidised and vertic Cambi
 sol one. These processes resulted in a significant increase in sediment su
 pply in the catchment east of the mesa\, causing a new major phase of allu
 viation in the valley bottoms during the Late Holocene. These landscape ch
 anges triggered a socio-environmental crisis marked by the abandonment of 
 the mesa at the end of the Middle Bronze Age\, hence excluding the influen
 ce of a climate change in causing the local societal collapse. \n
LOCATION:Latimer Room\, Clare College
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