Ricerc@Sapienza

L’applicazione delle tecniche palinologiche a contesti sedimentari marini rappresenta un valore aggiunto
in molte indagini stratigrafiche e paleoclimatiche Quaternarie. Per l’Olocene sono stati finora pubblicati solo
pochi record pollinici dai mari italiani, nonostante le notevoli potenzialità che essi dimostrano da un punto di
vista biostratigrafico e paleoclimatico. Lo studio del polline fossile è infatti in grado di fornire informazioni
complementari a quelle di foraminiferi, nannoplancton, alchenoni e isotopi, estendendo l’interpretazione

Rock art sites of Tadrart Acacus represent an outstanding record of ancient human groups who lived in the central Saharan region during the Holocene, from the early hunting-gathering communities to the emergence of the first Pastoral society, to the development of the Garamantian state, until the Tuareg occupation. The subjects and scenes are painted and engraved on cliffs, isolated boulders or on the walls of rock-shelters, and in the rare deep caves. They mainly represent animals and humans, both isolated, in groups and performing daily or ritual activities.

Rock art is one of the most significant aspects of Saharan cultural heritage. The recent critical political developments determined the inaccessibility of many sites, raising the risk of destruction of the artworks, already significantly endangered by natural and anthropic threats. It is urgent to propose concrete actions to improve the understanding of this heritage and raise awareness of its extraordinary value, as a testimony of the past, as well as a resource for the future.

A marine sediment core from the western Mediterranean provides a new high-resolution 4500 year record of palaeomagnetic secular variation and relative palaeointensity. In 2013, the 7.1 m C5 core was recovered from the Tyrrhenian Sea as part of the NextData climate data project. The coring site, 15 km offshore from the Volturno river mouth, is well located to record combined marine and terrestrial palaeoclimatic influences, and the fine-grained, rapidly deposited sediments are effective palaeomagnetic recorders.

Lago di Vico is a volcanic lake located 50 km northwest of Rome, 40 km from the Tyrrhenian Sea, in central Italy. It has a max. depth of 50 m, an elevation of 510 m a.s.l., a diameter of ca. 5 km, a surface of ca. 12 km2, and a catchment area of ca. 40 km2. It is located in the central collapse caldera of the Vico volcanic district. The catchment, exclusively formed by volcanic rocks, is delimited by the edge of the caldera, peaking 965 m a.s.l. at Monte Fogliano where an estimate of the rainfall provided a value of about 2000 mm.

Multiproxy analysis composed of biostratigraphy and pollen analysis allowed reconstructing the palaeoecolo-gical and palaeoenvironmental evolution of the Tirso river coastal plain in Sardinia (NW Mediterranean) in thelast 6 millennia. We demonstrated that interplay between littoral and ?uvial processes have signi?cantly con-trolled the environmental evolution of the area and have played a key role in the pattern of historical andprehistorical settlements of this wide portion of western Sardinian coastline. At the end of Neolithic period (ca.6.0 to 5.5 cal.

This paper focuses on southern Ethiopia, along the outer rim of the Rift Valley and not far from the Kenyan border, in an area forming part of a larger region known as a cradle of humankind. However, it also hosts a diverse Holocene rock art heritage, which is still underestimated and underdocumented. Paintings and engravings are widespread in the region, both in rock shelters and open-air sites, often located in remote areas currently inhabited by communities belonging to different ethnic groups.

This paper inserted within a geoarchaeological study, provides a model for the investigation and the support of past dynamics of a mountainous landscape in the Aures region (Algeria) during the Holocene. It introduces the first analysis based on the detailed mapping of morphological features of the study area in relation with a typomorphology theoretical model that was confronted with data from archaeological research.

This volume presents the results of a long study begun in 2004 within the framework of the Archaeological Mission in the Farafra Oasis of Egypt directed by Barbara Barich and Giulio Lucarini, of the Sapienza University of Rome (now under the auspices of ISMEO). The book focuses on the features known as “Steinplatz-type hearths” and their role in the settlement patterns of the human groups living in the Egyptian Western Desert during the middle and late Holocene.

The Pierres de Ben Barour, also known as trapping or tethering stones (TS), are stone artefacts
with notches or grooves usually interpreted as hunting devices on the basis of rock art
engravings. Though their presence is a peculiar feature of desert landscapes from the
Sahara to the Arabian Peninsula, we know little about their age, context and function. Here
we present a new approach to the study of these artefacts based on a large dataset (837
items) recorded in the Messak plateau (SW Libya). A statistically-based geoarchaeological