The cultural landscape near the ancient city of Tharros (central West Sardinia) vegetation changes and human impact文档.pdf

Journal of Archaeological Science 40 (2013) 4271 e4282 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Journal of Archaeological Science journal homepage: http://www. /locate/jas The cultural landscape near the ancient city of Tharros (central West Sardinia): vegetation changes and human impact Federico Di Rita a, *, Rita Teresa Melis b a Dipartimento di Biologia Ambientale, Sapienza Università di Roma, Piazzale Aldo Moro 5, 00185 Roma, Italy b Dipartimento di Scienze Chimiche e Geologiche, Università degli Studi di Cagliari, Via Trentino 51, 09143 Cagliari, Italy a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t Article history: The evolution of the cultural landscape in coastal western Sardinia is investigated by means of pollen Received 1 March 2013 analysis in the Mistras Lagoon sediments, near the ancient city of Tharros, with particular attention to Received in revised form changes in evergreen vegetation and the impact of human activity. The pollen diagram, spanning the 30 May 2013 time interval from 5300 to 1600 cal BP, documents the influence of man, climate, and geomorphic dy- Accepted 30 June 2013 namics on the evolution of a semi-open evergreen vegetation landscape and variations in extent of a salt- marsh environment. Anthropogenic indicators and microcharcoals concur in depicting increased land Keywords: use coinciding with the Nuragic, Phoenician, Punic and Roman dominations. Pollen data, along with Poll