Reconstructing the Mid- to Late Holocene human-environments interactions in Cape Corsica (Corsica Island, Western Mediterranean) based on sedimentology, pollen analyses and geochemistry
Contamination, Sb, Meria, Cape Corsica, Last millenia
Abstract :
[en] This paper aims to reconstruct the interactions between human populations and their environment over the last 4500 years in Cape Corsica, a rocky peninsula situated on the northern edge of Corsica Island. During the Iron Age and Roman times, this region in the North Tyrrhenian Sea was at the crossroads of maritime trade routes, and was therefore recognized for its geostrategic position. However, little is known about its exact contribution in terms of natural resources exploitation and land use, nor regarding the general Late Holocene landscape evolution of the area. Three boreholes were drilled in three coastal lagoons situated on the eastern shore of Cape Corsica, at Biguglia, Meria and Macinaggio. To reconstruct the coastal landscape configuration together with vegetation history, land use and mineral extraction, laboratory work comprised granulometry, loss on ignition, pollen identification and elemental geochemistry. The chronostratigraphy is based on nine radiocarbon datings for all cores, and complementary 137Cs and 210Pb measurements were performed on the Meria core for recent chronology. For the northern edge of Cape Corsica, pollen results reveal that the highest human impacts on the vegetation composition were recorded during the Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age, throughout Roman times, and in the Pisan-Genoese period, respectively. For all these periods, forest and maquis opening was observed to be coeval with cereal cultivation, thus revealing development of agriculture at the northern extremity of Cape Corsica. Conversely, the Middle to Final Bronze Age and pre-Christian era were characterized by a major recovery of the maquis and scarce evidence of land use. At Biguglia lagoon in the southern part of the peninsula, the vegetation composition for the last 1100 years reveals forest opening with moderate development of agriculture and, in the 10th Cent. CE., the connection between San Damiano Island and La Marana coastal barrier. In Cape Corsica, local contamination by mineral extraction (antimony in the form of stibine) is attested in the Meria valley during the known period of exploitation and also prior to this activity, possibly dating from the Genoese or the Corsican independence periods.
Research Center/Unit :
Geology - ULiège
Disciplines :
Earth sciences & physical geography
Author, co-author :
Ghilardi, Matthieu
Revelles, Jordi
Fagel, Nathalie ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de géologie > Argiles, géochimie et environnements sédimentaires
Schmidt, Sabine
Delanghe, Doriane
Language :
English
Title :
Reconstructing the Mid- to Late Holocene human-environments interactions in Cape Corsica (Corsica Island, Western Mediterranean) based on sedimentology, pollen analyses and geochemistry
This article is a contribution of the multi-disciplinary research programmes Programme Collectif de Recherche « Géoarchéologie des basses vallées fluviales: la nécessaire prise en compte de l’évolution paysagère au cours de l’Holocène (2013–2015) » and «Approche géoarchéologique des paysages de Corse à l’Holocène, entre mer et intérieur des terres Tra Mare e Monti – (2018–2020) » directed by Matthieu Ghilardi (CNRS- CEREGE) and funded by the French Ministry of Culture and Communication (Direction Regionale des Affaires Culturelles de Corse, Ajaccio).
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