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The Dutch Aamsveen lies in a glacial basin in the Dutch-German border area. It consists of remnants of a cross-border raised bog and a lagg with degrading species-rich basiphilous plant communities. Farther west, the Glanerbeek drains the footslope at the edge of the basin and adjacent lagg. For the Netherlands, this is a rare wetland ecosystem and an important Natura 2000 area, but it is threatened by ongoing degradation. A spatiotemporal landscape ecological system analysis (LESA), including extensive palaeoecological research, showed the fundamental role of the interplay between infiltrating acid bog water that gradually acquires basic cations from the underlying base rich sediments as it flows laterally towards the lagg, where it seeps up, and the (lesser) influx of base rich surficial groundwater from the ice-pushed ridge in the west. Anthropogenic disturbance of this interplay has led to serious system degradation. The results of this LESA served to develop an integrated management plan at landscape level, instead of habitat level plans as is usual in the context of Natura 2000. This study illustrates the relevance of a spatiotemporal LESA for the recovery and sustainable management of such complex, dynamic systems.

Following a synthesis of published archaeological investigations in the territory of Sezze by the team of the University of Groningen within the Pontine Region Project (PRP), this paper discusses the methodology and first results of two more recent fieldwork projects within the framework of the PRP, both funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO): 1) the Avellino Event Project (AVP) of the universities of Groningen and Leiden that studies the distal effects of the great Bronze Age eruption of mount Vesuvius on the human environment of the Fondi and Pontine plains. 2) the Minor Centres project that studies the development of the settlements of Forum Appi and Ad Medias along the Via Appia in relation with the development of the Roman countryside. Both projects add significantly to the long term reconstruction of the human landscape in the plain south of Sezze as well as open up perspectives on further interdisciplinary work.

In 2017, an excavation led by the Groningen Institute of Archaeology and in collaboration with the Tor Vergata University of Rome, took place on two small islands in the Caprolace lagoon (Sabaudia, Italy), where Middle Bronze Age layers had previously been reported. Combining the results of an environmental reconstruction of the surroundings and a detailed study of the pottery assemblages, we were able to trace a specialised area on the southern island, in all probability devoted to salt production by means of the briquetage technique. The latter basically consists of boiling a brine through which a salt cake is obtained. The technique was widespread all over Europe, from Neolithic to Roman Times. Since the evidence points to an elite-driven workshop, this result has deep implications for the development of the Bronze Age socio-economic framework of Central Italy. Pottery evidence also suggests that in the Bronze Age sites along the Tyrrhenian coast of Central Italy where briquetage has already been hypothesised, more complex processes may have taken place. On the northern island, we collected a large number of so-called pedestals, which are characteristic features of briquetage, while chemical analyses point to salt or fish sauce production, like the roman liquamen, in a Middle Bronze Age domestic context.