GEOARCHAEOLOGICAL INSIGHTS INTO THE TIMING, CAUSES, AND MAGNITUDE OF MAJOR EROSION EVENTS IN CENTRAL SICILY, FROM ANCIENT GREEK PIONEERS TO COSA NOSTRA CONTRACTORS

The relationship between soil and society is deep and complex in interior Sicily. Beyond baseline production that sustained agricultural communities for seven plus millennia, the island’s soilscape has been repeatedly tapped to produce grain surplus for external markets, from Roman cura annonae to Mussolini’s “Battle for Grain.” Sicily’s coupled soil and socioeconomic history make it a fitting study site to compare the erosional impact of industrialized agriculture beginning in the 20^th Century CE with earlier episodes of extensive non-mechanized agricultural expansion. Has motorized agriculture wrought unseen changes to soil and fluvial environments in Sicily, or, does it pale in comparison to the magnitude of preindustrial environmental changes? The central aims of this paper are to (1) contextualize erosional processes and effects of the Anthropocene within the deeper history of soil and society in central Sicily; (2) describe the rate of accumulation and character of Anthropocene sediments; and (3) discuss the impact rapid pedogenesis documented in our fieldwork may have for RUSLE and other basin-scale erosion models. Our study includes the three principal tributaries in the Simeto watershed complex, with particular focus on the Gornalunga and Ditiano drainages where we regularly encountered cutbank exposures of floodplain sediments standing six meters above dry streambeds. We incorporate drone survey, sedimentary lithofacies analysis, descriptive fluvial geomorphology, sediment geochemistry, archaeological datasets, and C14 dating on cutbank sequences to support our findings and interpretations. Our paper underscores the value of multidisciplinary approaches and methodologies in exploring soil science questions.