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Archaeological excavations in urban and rural contexts often uncover dark homogeneous anthropogenic deposits, soils and soil horizons, known as Dark Earths, Cultural Layers and Anthrosols. Major scientific questions arise about the processes that lead to the formation of these soils and deposits, as they are often related to a complex combination of environmental, climatic, and anthropogenic factors. Many studies focused on the morphological and physical-chemical investigation of the archaeological remains found as well as the inorganic constituent of the soil. The organic fraction has been only roughly investigated and studies carried out on a molecular level are very limited. However, a more refined investigation of the chemical constituents of these soils can potentially reveal pivotal insights on the archaeological context such as past domestic habits and/or urban organization. It has been demonstrated that, among organic matter constituents, fecal steroids are promising biomarkers to track fecal input in many environmental matrixes such as water, soils, and sediments. In this paper we determine the fecal sterols and stanols content in dark homogeneous anthropogenic deposits and soils found in seven archaeological sites in Italy (from Verona, Como, Florence, Mel and Conegliano) dated from the Late Bronze Age and the Medieval Period, aiming to assess the major contribution of the fecal input using diagnostic fecal indexes obtained from specific fecal sterol proportions. To this purpose, a baseline was established by identifying the fecal fingerprint of domestic herbivores (caprids, ovines, equines and bovines) and omnivores (pigs). Based on their fecal fingerprint, we classified the deposits of seven studied sites into four distinct categories: i) the medieval sites of Verona, presented a strong mixed fecal input from both herbivores and humans; ii) the medieval sites of Como and Florence which showed a similar pattern, with a predominance of human fecal input over livestock; iii) the late medieval soils of Mel and the late bronze age Cultural Layers of Castellar di Leppia (Verona) which exhibited a generally scarce fecal contamination while iv) the final bronze age site of Conegliano (Treviso), a strong fecal contamination from herbivores was detected. These results thus demonstrate that for the Medieval Dark Earth the socio-cultural processes leading to the formation of the Dark Earth differ in terms of sewage and waste management and/or in animal husbandry practices. • The molecular fecal fingerprint of domestic animals was established. • Seven archaeological sites in north-central Italy were analyzed for fecal input. • The diverse fecal contamination patterns reveal past habits of sewage and water management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grotta Guattari is a key cave site for Mediterranean prehistory. It is where a perfectly preserved paleo-surface, littered with bones and containing a Neandertal cranium, was exposed in 1939. Recent research, moreover, has yielded even more Neandertal remains in a side chamber that had remained unexplored. This paper gives an account of the stratigraphic sequence of the atrial portion of Grotta Guattari described in 1989 along the walls of the 1939 to 1950 excavation trenches. This key sequence, capable of elucidating the sequence of events recorded in Grotta Guattari, remained until now unstudied. The stratigraphy represents the interval between ca 125 ky BP (Marine Isotope Stage – hereafter, MIS – 5.5 or Tyrrhenian transgressive cycle) and ca 50 ky BP (MIS 3). Grain size, chemical, and heavy mineral analyses were coupled with the micromorphological study of thin sections, corroborated by SEM/EDS chemical determinations and XRD analyses. The presence of secondary Ca–Al and Ca–Fe phosphates, formed in response to the weathering of guano, indicates that part of the archaeological record (bones and ash) has weathered away. Weathering was so intense that also the more unstable mineral species, especially augite, disappeared from the heavy mineral assemblage. The differential preservation of the archaeological record shall therefore be taken in consideration when interpreting in behavioural terms old and new excavation data. • Grotta Guattari is a key cave site for Mediterranean prehistory, famous for the retrieval of a Neandertal cranium in 1939. • We present the results of analyses done on a stratigraphic sequence that was described in 1989 in the atrial portion of the cave and that was never published before. • Secondary Ca–Al and Ca–Fe phosphates, derived from the weathering of guano, indicate that bones did not survive in some stratigraphic units that, nevertheless, contained lithics. • The disappearance of bone and possibly ash constitute a potential bias in the interpretation of the cave stratigraphy in behavioural terms. • The extreme diagenesis that implied secondary Ca–Al and Ca–Fe phosphates also affected the heavy mineral assemblage, with the disappearance of unstable minerals (especially augite). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Soil micromorphology has become an important tool in urban archaeology to investigate enigmatic dark, humus-rich, apparently homogeneous units, known as Dark Earth. It has also proven to be of great value to study microstratified sequences (such as floors), allowing a finer grained picture. Phytolith studies have also shown to be of particular interest to investigate archaeological layers, especially where other botanical remains are poorly preserved. The integration of phytolith studies and micromorphology allows understanding of the distribution and orientation patterns of the phytoliths and their relation to other features/fabrics, contributing to a better understanding of taphonomical processes and the identification of different human activities. The aim of the present article is to demonstrate the possibilities of such an integrated approach by the example of the site of the Court of Hoogstraeten, situated near the top of a steep slope, next to the Palace of the Dukes in the centre of Brussels (Belgium). The present article focuses on one complex sequence that includes two levels of Dark Earth and a microstratified sequence. The integrated study demonstrates that the formation of the Dark Earth on the site of the Court of Hoogstraeten results from multiphased processes, whereby various human actions interact with natural phenomena. Among the human activities pasturing, crop growing, manuring and composting have been identified. The microstratified sequence has been identified as a potential floor layer. As such, this approach does not only allow understanding the site formation processes both from homogenised units like Dark Earth, and microstratified ones, but also identification of ancient activities that are rather difficult to interpret based on field data alone. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Fondo Paviani is a Bronze Age archaeological site located in the Valli Grandi Veronesi area in the lower Venetian plain (northeastern Italy). The inhabited area is surrounded by a moat and a quadrangular rampart, a structural characteristic specific to the so-called terramare, villages that were common in the alluvial plains both north and south of the Po River during the middle and recent Bronze Age. Dark-coloured anthropogenic deposits occurring inside the site of Fondo Paviani were exposed during archaeological excavations and along stratigraphic cross-sections. Here, the micropedological and pedochemical characters of the deposits have been used as a key to decipher the formation processes and post-depositional modifications involved in order to reconstruct the human activities and environmental conditions recorded in the stratigraphy. This reconstruction has been formulated by integrating the abovementioned analytical techniques with geomorphological, pedological and archaeological data. This study focuses on three main lines of research. First, it investigates the cultural and natural mechanisms responsible for the vertical accretion of anthropogenic deposits and for their dark colour. Secondly, it reveals the conversion of a part of the intra-site space to a cultivated area through the establishment of a ridge-and-furrow system in the final Bronze Age, the period in which population density of the site was decreasing. The phenomenon of the conversion of originally inhabited areas to cultivated space in terramare during phases of population change appears to be recurring and requires further investigation. Finally, this study records the occurrence of progressively wetter environmental conditions during and after the abandonment of the site in the final Bronze Age. This is marked by the overflow of muds from the un-managed moat and by the successive deposition of wide alluvial covers related to the reactivation of spring-fed rivers in the Valli Grandi Veronesi area in response to a shift towards wetter climatic conditions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]