Search results for " Landscape Archaeology"

Social Lives of Monumental Walls: Hunting along the Upper Tigris

2021

On the left bank of the Tigris in northern Iraq, in an area today partially flooded by the Mosul Dam reservoir, lies an enigmatic monumental enclosure known in the literature as the “Tigris Wall.” Before its partial submersion under the waters of the modern lake, the large L-shaped embankment, about 4 × 4 km long, enclosed an area of ca. 1600 ha, overlooking the Tigris and its alluvial plain. By means of a holistic strategy that includes different levels of analysis (remote sensing, pedestrian and UAV photogrammetric surveys, excavation, and settlement pattern analysis), this paper addresses the structure, its context, and its environment. Relying on the results of this multi-disciplinary a…

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Survey with Commercial-Grade Instruments: A Case Study from the Eastern Ḫabur Archaeological Survey, Iraq

2018

Low-altitude photography in archaeology is now common practice at the scale of excavations; however, landscape-scale applications are a relatively new endeavor with promising analytical potential. From 2014–2016, an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with a mounted camera was used to document sites recorded as part of the Eastern Ḫabur Archaeological Survey (EḪAS), an archaeological reconnaissance project in western Dohuk Province, Iraqi Kurdistan. The EḪAS team documented over 70 archaeological sites with the UAV, from single-phase artifact scatters, to archaeological remains with standing architecture, to tells that cover more than 30 hectares. Representative examples from this survey are pres…

BOTANICAL CONTRIBUTION TO ARCHAEOLOGICAL LAND EVALUATION IN THE FP7 MEMOLA PROJECT

2014

Cinquant’anni di ricerche e prospezioni nella chora imerese. Bilanci e prospettive

2018

The aim of this paper is to make a critical review of the archaeological research (excavation and survey) in the hinterland of Himera, from the beginning of the last century to the present time. The research is focused on: identifying the geographical and morphological characters, and the resources of the territory in Antiquity; analysing the distribution of the settlements from the Greek to the Medioeval times, both connected to the resources and to the various aspects of the landscape. Finally, the modern and contemporary activities, such as the agricultural use of the territory.

From the banks of Upper Tigris River to the Zagros Highlands. The Tübingen Eastern Ḫabur Archaeological Survey. Trial season 2013

2016

After decades of strife and unrest, during which Northern Iraq remained closed to the outside world, a new era of international scientific enterprise has begun in this region thanks to the recent democratic and civil upturn and its subsequent economic resurgence. In the last few years, together with the restoration and refurbishment of historical monuments, there has also been a spread of new archaeological undertakings in the form of surveys and excavations, the quality and quantity of which is fully shown in the present volume. A Tübingen University research project was initiated in the northernmost part of Iraqi-Kurdistan, in the province of Dohuk. The research area is located at the foo…

Settlement Dynamics on the Banks of the Upper Tigris, Iraq: The Mosul Dam Reservoir Survey (1980)

2020

The paper describes a dataset of archaeological sites and villages now partially covered by the water of the Mosul Dam Reservoir. For the first time the dataset offers digitized information on c.150 archaeological sites detected during a survey carried out by the Iraqi State Organization for Antiquities and Heritage in the 1980s. Knowledge of the map of these sites will have a substantial impact on interpretation of Tigridian settlement dynamics.   Funding statement: This research has received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Archaeology of Uplands on a Mediterranean Island. The Madonie Mountain Range In Sicily

2019

The book presents an archaeological research conducted within the Highlands of Sicily. Results of the archaeological survey in the Madonie mountain range, in northern Sicily, supported by a chronological and cultural grid, drawn by the excavation of Vallone Inferno, deal with complex and fascinating problems of uplands and mountainous landscape. Settlement patterns, between the Late Pleistocene and the Medieval era, are investigated through the support of spatial analyses. A diversified use of the mountain is currently attested by this research, according to the different prehistoric and historical times. This work is innovative for the Mediterranean area, where there are no similar example…

LiDAR-derived DTM for historical landscape evaluation: the case study of the “Harvesting Memories” project (Castro Valley and Mt. Barraù, Corleone – …

2016

The project “Harvesting Memories” is focused on the analysis of the long-term transformation of the cultural landscape in a rural area of Central-Western Sicily (Castro Valley and Mt. Barraù, Corleone – Palermo). In order to quickly outline the history of the territory with an acceptable precision, our survey aimed at covering and sampling as much surface as possible, according to time and human resources available. To reach this goal, in the research design we opted for qualitative surveys. The choice of the fields to be surveyed was based on GIS analysis — our predictive model took in consideration slope, water sources and presence of points with high visibility in the landscape —, that h…

Plant communities and landscape diversity in NW Sicily: The MEMOLA EU FP7 Project case study

2017

The MEMOLA EU FP7 Project case study” was presented at IV International Plant Science Conference (IPSC) held in Parma (Italy) on September 20-22, 2017. The poster focuses on the contribution of botany in the interdisciplinary debate of Memola Project and underline the role plant communities play in understanding the formative processes of the Mediterranean Landscapes.

Making a rural landscape: ecological and human dynamics in the holm oak forest of Mt. Barraù (Corleone, Palermo, C-W Sicily)

2017

The Harvesting Memories Project (funded by Bona Furtuna LLC) aims to investigate the long-term landscape transformations in the central part of the Alto Belice Corleonese (Central-Western Sicily). The case study area is formed by a sequence of gentle hills (Contrade Castro and Giardinello), rich in water springs that offer an optimal condition for agricultural exploitation, irregularly interrupted by the Mt. Barraù (1420 m a.s.l.) with steep and abrupt slopes in the south-west side. The study of this territory is approached by an holistic perspective to detect and evaluate the relationships and the interactions among human activities and the environment. The holm oak forest that covers part…