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International audience; Objects of this study are the wooden artifacts discovered in the archaeological excavation of Mephitis goddess sanctuary in the Ansanto Valley (Rocca San Felice e AV, Southern Italy). At the moment of discovery, in the mid of last century, woods were waterlogged and mineralized, and they were restored to allow their preservation. Purpose of this work was the wood identification, in order to gain information on some technological aspects, and the analysis of wood preservation state. Wood species were identified by means of magnifiers or optical and scanning electron microscopes, while the state of preservation was studied through microscopy and chemical analyses (FTIR-ATR, ash content and pH measurement). Four different taxa have been identified with certainty among all the findings: Quercus sp., Fagus sylvatica L., Rosaceae, Populus/Salix. It was not possible to identify the wood of all the findings, because some sampled fragments were too small or because of the deformation of wood tissues. The state of preservation showed a great variability over the analyzed findings. A general damage degree was observed, sometimes also macroscopically visible. The polarized light microscope and FTIRATR spectroscopy demonstrated the absence of cellulose in the analyzed samples. The wood cell wall was not detectable by means of SEM because it is completely covered by restoration material. Because of the lack of visibility, it was impossible to identify the type of biological damage occurred to the wood.

The Ansanto Valley (southern Italy) is characterized by vents and boiling mud lakes that emit typical volcanic exhalations (mostly fossil CO2). This fossil dilution spreads over the Ansanto Valley and its impact on local trees is investigated in this study. Six trees at increasing distance from the emitting sources and 2 aliquots of gas were sampled. Dendrochronological analysis was performed on tree cores in order to check the accuracy of the tree-ring sequences; the results indicate no anomalies in the curves of the analyzed trees. δ13C and radiocarbon (14C) analyses were performed on the α-cellulose extracted from some selected tree rings. The main aim of δ13C analysis was to gain information about the origin of CO2 arising from the source; the results support the hypothesis of a carbonatic origin, with respect to a volcanic origin. 14C analysis was performed to evaluate the influence and to quantify the percentage of fossil dilution characterizing the local atmosphere and affecting the trees at different distances from the source during the years. The results show the presence of a strong fossil dilution affecting the trees, increasing toward the sources (from ∼6% at 80 m distance to ∼30% at 20 m from the nearest vent) with quite stable values over the examined period.

The Ansanto Valley (southern Italy) is characterized by hydrothermal phenomena, with volcanic gas emissions arising from some vents. In the 1 st millennium BC, a sanctuary dedicated to the goddess Mephitis was built but later destroyed by landslides in the valley. During archaeological excavations in the 1950s, many items were found including wooden artifacts, preserved thanks to the imbibition and subsequent mineralization of the wood tissues due to the gas emissions. Radiocarbon dating of these objects is underway at CIRCE (Centre for Isotopic Research on Cultural and Environmental Heritage), in Caserta, Italy. Unfortunately, 2 main problems arise in dating these materials. The first is possible fossil dilution caused by the CO2 emitted from the nearby volcanic vents, which could affect the trees of the valley and also the archaeological materials. In order to determine the magnitude of the fossil dilution in the area, 14C measurements were performed on contemporaneous wood cored from 2 oak trees growing near the vents. 14C values measured in these samples confirmed the presence of a strong fossil dilution in the Ansanto Valley. The second problem is the restoration that the objects underwent during the last century (mostly by using modern organic substances). To investigate suitable pretreatment procedures for removing the restoration materials from the archaeological findings, contemporaneous wood was also analyzed. The wood of trees from the Ansanto Valley and from a distant village (unaffected by the Ansanto fossil dilution) were submitted to the same restoration process applied to the archaeological artifacts, followed by an “artificial weathering” process. Some archaeological materials were also tested for the removal of restoration materials. We subjected the artificially aged trees and the archaeological samples to different chemical processes. Here, we present the results of these processes. Almost all methods turned out to be suitable for the contemporaneous wood, while the results for the archaeological samples remain uncertain. For this reason, more tests are needed, concerning the “artificial weathering,” the restoration, and the chemical procedure for removing the consolidation materials.

International audience; A lake-level record for the late Holocene at Lake Ledro (Trentino, northeastern Italy) is presented. It is based on the sediment and pollen analysis of a 1.75 m high stratigraphic section observed on the southern shore (site Ledro I) and a 3.2 m long sediment core taken from a littoral mire on the southeastern shore (site Ledro II). The chronology is derived from 15 radiocarbon dates and pollen stratigraphy. The late-Holocene composite record established from these two sediment sequences gives evidence of centennial-scale fluctuations with highstands at c. 3400, 2600, 1700, 1200 and 400 cal. BP, in agreement with various palaeohydro-logical records established in central and northern Italy, as well as north of the Alps. In addition, high lake-level conditions at c. 2000 cal. BP may be the equivalent of stronger river discharge observed at the same time in Central Italy's rivers. In agreement with the lake-level record of Accesa (Tuscany), the Ledro record also suggests a relatively complex palaeohydrological pattern for the period around 4000 cal. BP. On a millennial scale, sediment hiatuses observed in the lower part of the Ledro I sediment sequence indicate that, except for a high-stand occurring just after 7500 cal. BP, lower lake levels generally prevailed rather before c. 4000 cal. BP than afterwards. Finally, the lake-level data obtained at Lake Ledro indicate that the relative continuity of settlements in humid areas of northern Italy during the Bronze Age (in contrast to their general abandonment north of the Alps between c. 3450 and 3150 cal. BP), does not reflect different regional patterns of climatic and palaeohy-drological conditions. In contrast, the rise in lake level dated to c. 3400 cal. BP at Ledro appears to coincide with a worldwide climate reversal, observed in both the hemispheres, while palaeoenvironmental and archaeological data collected at Lake Ledro may suggest, as a working hypothesis, a relative emancipation of proto-historic societies from climatic conditions.