THE GEOLOGY OF SOUTHERN ITALY - A GEOARCHAEOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE

The premise of this course investigates the environmental and subsequent socio-political implications of climate change and availability to natural resources. Interdisciplinary investigations including geomorphic mapping, palaeobotanical, archaeological survey and excavations have characterized land-use practices through the mid to late Holocene. A marked change in erosion has been identified during the late Roman occupation of western Sicily and interpreted as product of land clearing and intensive pastoralism. Sedimentation during indigenous hilltop occupation of north central and western Sicily was dominated by coarse-grained (cobble/boulder) deposits attributed to flash-flooding. Sedimentation that temporally coincided with the Greek and later Roman occupation of the adjacent valleys is marked by fine-grained deposits. These data continue to support the geologic and archaeological interpretations of human-landscape interactions in Sicily. Furthermore, such geoarchaeological data may be used in models to strengthen our present and future landscape conservation methods.

A ‘capstone’ course has been developed at the University of Northern Iowa that encourages students to obtain a fundamental understanding of the relationships between humans, their environment and the role interdisciplinary scientific research plays in not only understanding our past, but using this knowledge to plan for a sustainable future. The big picture course questions include: A. What role does the environment play in your quality of life (health, financial status, spirituality, & access to natural resources to meet your basic needs)? B. We know that environments change through time and at different rates (hours to millions of years). What challenges does this present to the human race? Can we learn something from the Earth’s history to better prepare ourselves from future changes? What are some of the hurdles we as a human race face when it comes to living with environmental problems? C. The environment is not the only variable that determines whether a civilization succeeds or fails. What are the other variables? What are the interrelationships between these other variables and environment? D. What are the roles of technology with respect to your quality of life and the success/failure of the United States of America?