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Human-Environment interactions in and around Venice Lagoon: micro-ecologies and geoarchaeological narratives from Roman Period to Middle Ages

Project description

Historical interdisciplinary approach to understanding Venice Lagoon

The EU-funded WaterScapes project is a Roman-to-Mediaeval, geo-archaeological study investigating how environmental changes, natural limitations and potentials, and human activities have shaped Venice Lagoon, Italy. WaterScapes will adopt a three-pronged approach. Firstly, it will combine geographical and laboratory studies in an historical context derived from literary sources. Secondly, it will study the impact of human activity and statistically compare it with natural changes in terms of quality and quantity. Finally, it will focus on the social impact on the region's quality in a past-versus-present comparison, as well as give attention to climatic and coastal change. The goal is to project the acquired understanding towards better waterscape policies and management.

Objective

WaterScapes is an interdisciplinary project that examines the relationship between environmental changes, natural constraints and potentialities and past societies settled in and around Venice Lagoon from the Roman to Medieval periods. WaterScapes has 3 core objectives. First, it will explore the high-resolution potential of paleo-archives, which have been undervalued by traditional archaeological research and text-based narratives. This will be achieved through geophysical surveys and coring missions in various sites (Venice, Torcello, Altinum, Lio Piccolo, Aquileia, Grado), laboratory research (geochemistry, bio-sedimentology, etc.) and contextual analysis of the settlements through literature reviews. Second, it will examine waterscapes as a human-made environment in Venice Lagoon in order to determine the historical roots and mechanisms responsible for the Holocene-Anthropocene transition. The research will be centred on multi-period waterscape archaeology to see how former cultures shaped themselves to the surrounding environments and developed different waterscapes through water management practices. WaterScapes will qualitatively and quantitatively analyse the degree and consequences of human interventions vs natural dynamics using multivariate statistical analysis based on bio-geoarchaeological proxies from the investigated sites. Third, WaterScapes will emphasise the social aspect of the materiality of the past, simultaneously measuring its legacy in the present. Establishing the relation between variations in past climatic conditions and coastal changes enables to contribute to the understanding and modelling of the ongoing processes, thereby providing tools for the policies of territory management. WaterScapes integrates perfectly in the principles of European Framework for Action on Cultural Heritage, and in two areas of continued actions: a resilient Europe-safeguarding endangered heritage and an innovative Europe-mobilising knowledge and research.

Coordinator

UNIVERSITA CA' FOSCARI VENEZIA
Net EU contribution
€ 172 750,08
Address
DORSODURO 3246
30123 Venezia
Italy

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Region
Nord-Est Veneto Venezia
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Total cost
No data

Partners (1)