Research

You are here

Dr. Sylvain Burri (from CNRS-Université d’Aix-Marseille and collaborator of the MEMOLA project) has begun the ethnoarchaeological study of some areas of the Euganean Hills through a historical and ethnographical study of the incultum landscape. He started the study of the medieval historical registers and archives listed in the Archive of Venice, to make the census and the analysis of all the activities of uncultivated areas in the Euganean Hills (charcoal, mines, resins, limekilns).

The Padua team has performed the recognition  on  the  surface  of  all anomalies interpreted on raster images obtained  by  remote  sensing  (LiDAR, Radar, Aerial photographs). For instance, the historical photographs and LiDAR images,  allowed  to  recognize  traces  of the  paleo-riverbeds  and  their  relation with the settlement patterns and the formation of agrarian landscapes, as we can see in Baone area (one of the sample areas chosen in the Euganean Hills for the reconstruction of land and water uses).

During October, CeRPHAAL in collaboration with the University of “Aleksandër Xhuvani”. Elbasan, carried out the first excavation season at the site of Magjerice, located in the region of Përmet, in the Upper Vjosa Valley. The excavation uncovered stratigraphic layers containing artifacts remains dated probably to the Late Roman and Roman period.  Also, a naturally carbonized wheat deposit was found below a demolished roof-tile layer.

The University of Cordoba has developed a new land use distribution model, which will support the quantitative assessment of the long-term historical land uses in the study areas of the project. The historic land use distribution model is composed by three modules: i) land use requirements sub-model; ii) potential spatial distribution sub-model; and iii) land use allocation sub-model. The next steps will be to apply the model in the four MEMOLA study areas to analyze the possible historical land use patterns.

 

The University of Palermo team, with Dr. Flavia Pinzari of CRA-RPS of Rome, is studying past landscapes using ancient soil horizons as archaeological records. The project aims at evaluating the biodiversity of no longer existing environments, in order to reconstruct the past agroecosystems. One of the approach used in the study consisted in the selective sampling of buried paleo-soil horizons for the search of “testimonials” or useful archaeobotanical "indicators" that can tell something about past environments and peculiar ecosystems no longer present.

Leonor Peña Chocarro, CSIC senior researcher, gives a worshop about floating soil samples to the students from the University of Padua.

Prof. Matthew Johnson (Northwestern University of Chicago) held a series of seminars organised by the Chair of Medieval Archaeology at the University of Padova within the MEMOLA project on:
- What is Theory for?
- Understanding Landscape archaeology: from theory to practice and back again

The seminars took place from the 25th to the 27th of March 2014 in Padova.

Cycle of seminars held by dr. Robin Brigand about the archeo-geographical study of the Veneto landscapes. From the 10th to the 11th of April 2014 in Padova.

 

The conference Historical irrigation systems: between conservation and modernization was held from the 15th to the 18th of December 2014 in Granada.

José María Martín Civantos ( University of Granada) and José Castillo Ruiz (University of Granada) talk about the Traditional irrigation systems: its heritage and landscape value.

The Town Hall of Padova and the local Cultural Association "Cominato Mura di Padova", in collaboration with the MEMOLA project, have organised the Conference "Castles and fortification walls. The castle of Padua and defenses of the territory in the Middle Age", from 8th of May to the 19th of June 2015.

 

Pages