Search results for " Settlement"
showing 10 items of 149 documents
In-between sprawl and neo-rurality. Sparse settlements and the evolution of socio-demographic local context in a Mediterranean region
2018
Dispersed urbanization during the last half century has transformed metropolitan regions into well-connected, low-density residential areas. However, this kind of urbanization has changed irreversibly the traditional rural landscape around cities, leading to a new definition of &lsquo
The GIS Platform and the Spatial Analyses
2019
Spatial analyses, carried out using a GIS (Geographic Information System) platform, investigated the relationship between different environments (from the coast to the highlands) and human settlement and mobility strategies, in a diachronic perspective. Mobility strategies of the last hunter-gatherers in Sicily, the origin and first development of husbandry, the debated question about territorial relationships between indigenous people and Greek colonists, the birth of an articulated territorial exploitation system in Medieval times are some of the main topics discussed in this chapter.
L’intervisibilità. Analisi del paesaggio nella chora della colonia greca di Himera
2016
This study focuses on the analysis of the landscape in the territory of the colony of Himera. In particular, this work is inspired by a detailed examination conducted on the basis of parametric modelling, which has helped us to understand what factors (pedology, altimetry, geology, supply basins, etc.) had an effect in the settlement choices of the Imerese territory during the Colonial Age. We analysed the role intervisibility had between sites in the organisation of the landscape. By avoiding a deterministic logic, we intersected the data from previous surveys on the development of predictive models with the archaeological data, formulating hypotheses on the role that the main settlements …
Pollen and Plant Macroremain Analyses for the Reconstruction of Environmental Changes in the Early Metal Period
2006
A sharp increase in human population density and the same time fundamental changes in the location of settlement, moving away from earlier inhabited places points to significant changes in the environment. This period with a sharp decrease in anthropogenic indicators and poor records of slash and burn cultivation and field crop-growing is named “transition” period (Vasks et.al.1998) and indicates the lack of stable and continuous inhabitant sites. This phenomena can be explained by the small size of settlements at the Early Iron Age, expressed by a weak cultural layer and these could be defined as separate farmsteads. Modern farming practices, especially modern tillage, adversely affected t…
Urban Blight and Redevelopment: An Urban Participation Path
2018
This paper pays particular attention to one of the many participatory models present in the landscape of urban and territorial planning. Specifically, the ACTION PLANNING model was chosen; a model used in Anglo-Saxon countries to identify the problems and needs of the inhabitants of a given territory, through the involvement of interested parties or stakeholders. The model is applied in Sicily, to Villaseta, a small rural settlement, located southwest of the city of Agrigento, which consists primarily of affordable and social housing. It is a suburb without identity, left to itself, where – despite the valuable cultural, historic, scenic, and most importantly human resources – one notes the…
New archaeological discoveries through magnetic gradiometry: The early Celtic settlement on Mont Lassois, France
2006
The burial complex of the “Lady of Vix” was discovered and excavated in the 1950s at the foot of Mont Lassois (Figure 1), a mountain situated close to the town of Chatillion-sur-Seine in the Bourgogne region of France. The assemblage of the burial goods was rather extraordinary, including such items as an artfully crafted golden necklace with winged horses and a voluminous wine-mixing vessel, probably made in a Greek workshop, capable of holding 1100 liters. According to archaeological research, this member of the aristocracy must have lived during the period between 550 and 500 BCE. Several large-scale geophysical research projects were undertaken in the vicinity of the burial complex duri…
LONG-TERM STRUCTURAL DEFICIENCIES IN A MAT FOUNDATION ON CLAY SOIL
2013
A 3-story building with a mat foundation consisting of a slab on a grid of grade beams performed poorly on clay soil. Cracking of the slab became rogressively worse as a result of the incorrect esign and fluctuations in the groundwater pressure under the foundation. The cyclic presence and absence of water rusted the steel reinforcement, and the sulfates in the clay soil caused formation of ettringite in the concrete. Plastic hinges formed in the slab and settlements occurred, causing damage to the beams. The situation is still in progress and may lead to the collapse of the structure under normal service conditions. The geotechnical and structural investigations performed to survey and ass…
Spatial Structures of the Philippines: Urbanization and Regional Inequalities
2017
This chapter examines the fundamental spatial structures of the Philippines. It defines the role and organization of the different levels of the administrative hierarchy (provinces, regions, cities and municipalities) down to the barangay and sitio/purok levels. This leads to the definition of the “urban” in the Philippines and the rise of urbanization in recent decades, from the original urban settlements of the Spanish era, with their patterns following the same rules as in Latin America (fort, church and plaza), to today’s cities. Forms of housing have evolved over time, from the archetypal bamboo/nipa hut (bahay kubo) and the urban stone and wood house of the elites (bahay na bato), now…
ARROWS AND EARTH SHRINES: TOWARDS A HISTORY OF DAGARA EXPANSION IN SOUTHERN BURKINA FASO
2002
The history of the Black Volta region in what is currently south-west Burkina Faso and north-west Ghana has been marked by the agricultural expansion of Dagara-speaking groups. This article explores how and why these groups were able to expand at the expense of neighbouring segmentary societies such as the Phuo and the Sisala. Violence certainly played a role in their territorial expansion, but so did specific strategies of ritual appropriation of new territories. The Dagara system, with its characteristic fission of existing earth shrines and networks of interlinked shrines, allowed mobility and helped the migrants bring new territories under their ritual control. In addition, patriclans a…
Synchronous Worlds
2021
In the Mediterranean basin, the archaeological presence is extremely relevant and diffuse. Together with this is a difficult intertwining with contemporary urban settlements, which archaeology, by tradition, has to be protected from. If conservation is the goal of restoration, the problem of the cohabitation between past and present use is still an issue. This paper will focus on the project of enhancement of the archaeological park of the Greek colony of Naxos, near Messina, in Sicily, led by the Department of Architecture of the University of Palermo in cooperation with the administrative head of the park. At the crossroads between the sea, the highway, a lemon orchard and the city of Gi…