Charcoal Hearth Remains as Environmental Archives: An Interdisciplinary Study at Poggio di Montieri, Italy

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis contribution presents interdisciplinary research on charcoal hearth remains carried out at Poggio di Montieri, Central Italy, a hill heavily exploited in the Middle Ages for the extraction of silver-bearing ore, and then managed until the nineteenth century with a multiple land use system based on pasture. Linking together pedological and archaeological surveys with anthracological, dendro-anthracological and chemical analyses, as well as with information from historical texts and maps, this research outlines the environmental dynamics that occurred in this area in the last few centuries. Although ore processing undoubtedly required large quantities of charcoal as fuel, no evidence of charcoal hearth remains from the Middle Ages have been found, while at least two charcoal production phases, starting from the seventeenth century, were individuated. Despite an increase in charcoal production at the end of the last phase, in the eighteenth–nineteenth centuries, no over-exploitation of the forest resources at Poggio di Montieri was documented. The lack of such an expected over-exploitation could be due to the use of wood from pruning and shredding, which allowed the sustainable management of the forest resource and was the legacy of the multiple land use systems of previous centuries.KEYWORDS: pedologydendro-anthracologyforest soilhistorical ecologycharcoal kilnstopographic analysis Disclosure StatementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Additional informationFundingThe author GM has benefited a Marie-Curie COFUND postdoctoral fellowship, co-founded by the European Commission and the University of Liege (ref. number: 600405). The author VP has benefited a PhD grant by the University of Genoa and a Juan de la Cierva – formacion (FJC2019-040406-I) postdoctoral fellowship at the Catalan Institute of Classical Archaeology.Notes on contributorsV. PesciniV. Pescini is an Environmental Archaeologist, specialising in anthracology and archaeobotany. Her research focuses on the study of agro-sylvo-pastoral practices and their environmental effects through time. She received her Bachelor and Master’s degrees in Medieval Archaeology (2010) and Archaeobotany (2013) respectively at the University of Siena (Italy). In 2019 she completed her PhD in Historical Geography which was followed by a post-doctoral position at the University of Genoa (Italy). In 2020 she was awarded a Juan de la Cierva – formation (FJC2019-040406-I) scholarship at the Catalan Institute of Classical (ICAC) of Tarragona and in 2022 she obtained a Ramon y Cajal junior (RYC2021-034621-I). Throughout her career she has collaborated in interdisciplinary research projects with archaeologists, naturalists, historians and geographers.G. CertiniG. Certini is Full Professor of Pedology at the University of Florence, Italy. His current research interests are soil genesis and degradation, soil carbon sequestration, fire effects on soil properties, land take, and the Anthropocene.G. MastrolonardoG. Mastrolonardo is a soil scientist expert on the study of the organic fraction of soil and land degradation. Among his interests is the study of the chemical and physical properties of soil as affected by wildfires and the accumulation of carbonised organic materials. In 2013 he obtained a Dual Doctorate Degree at the University of Florence and the University of Paris. In 2016 he obtained a Marie Curie post-doc fellowship, co-funded by the University of Liège (Belgium) and since 2021 he has been a Research Fellow at the Department of Agricultural, Food, Environmental and Forestry Sciences and Technologies (DAGRI) of the University of Florence.