nEU-Med project: studying and understanding the changes in Europe during the 9th-12th century

The research and its aims

During the 9th century southern Europe began to undergo a transformation similar to the economic growth that northern Europe undergo during the 7t to 9th century. Aim of this project is the investigation of this time period in Italy, with focus on the changes in the natural landscape, the human settlements and the use of resources. The ERC nEU-Med starts from all the data collected in the region during the past 30 years from the Università di Siena, coordinated by Riccardo Francovich. Through the analyses of selected samples taken from both in-site (the archeological site of Vetricella) and off-site (near two rivers, the Pecora and Cornia) we will try to analyse and understand the relationship between the humans settlements and the environment and the changes made to the environment during this period.

Methodologies: the project has a high interdisciplinary focus, the laboratory will take care of the palynologycal analysis of selected sample, while other analysis like archaeological research, geoarchaeology, archaeobotany, archaeometallurgy, physical anthropology, and physical chemistry are or will be studied.

Place: northern Maremma region between the “Colline Metallifere” and the coast, which includes the entire gulf of Follonica, the archaeological site of Vetricella and near the Pecora and Cornia rivers.

Link: http://www.neu-med.unisi.it/it/