Search

The Italian peninsula offers an excellent case study within which to investigate long-term regional demographic trends and their response to climate fluctuations, especially given its diverse landscapes, latitudinal range and varied elevations. In the past two decades, summed probability distributions of calibrated radiocarbon dates have become an important method for inferring population dynamics in prehistory. Recent advances in this approach also allow for statistical assessment of spatio-temporal patterning in demographic trends. In this paper we reconstruct population change for the whole Italian peninsula from the Late Mesolithic to the Early Iron Age (10,000–2800 cal yr BP). How did population patterns vary across time and space? Were fluctuations in human population related to climate change? In order to answer these questions, we have collated a large list of published radiocarbon dates (n = 4010) and use this list firstly to infer the demographic trends for the Italian peninsula as a whole, before addressing each of five sub-regions in turn (northern, central, and southern Italy, Sicily, Sardinia). We also compare population fluctuations with local paleoclimate proxies (cave, lake, marine records). At a pan-regional scale, the results show a general rapid and substantial increase in population in the Early Neolithic with the introduction of farming at around 8000 cal yr BP and further dramatic increases during the Bronze and Iron Age (~ 3800–2800 cal yr BP). However, different regional demographic trajectories exist across different regions of Italy, suggesting a variety of localised human responses to climate shifts. Population and climate appear to have been more closely correlated during the early–mid Holocene (Mesolithic–Neolithic), while later in the Holocene (Bronze–Iron Ages) they decouple. Overall, across the Holocene the population dynamics varied by region and depended on the long-term socio-ecological dynamics prevailing in a given area. Finally, we include a brief response to the paper 'Radiocarbon dated trends and central Mediterranean prehistory' by Parkinson et al. (J Word Prehist 34(3), 2021)—synchronously published by Journal of World Prehistory but wholly independently developed—indicating how our conclusions accord with or differ from one another. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of World Prehistory is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article focuses on the development of the study of accounting in the Italian education system between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It also focuses on the subsequent formation of a scientific and experimental forma mentis that would prepare students for administrative and managerial activities in industry, commerce and public administration. Starting from the second half of the nineteenth century – when the presence of accounting in education was limited to secondary school and implemented with sporadic educational initiatives by private bodies – and covering approximately the 50 years after the unification of Italy, this study analyses, through the lens of Foucault’s power–knowledge relationship, the institutional and structural measures adopted by the State to develop the study of accounting in Italy, in the period 1890–1935. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Economic Botany is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Results relating to the identification of macroscopic plant remains (leaves, fruits, seeds) discovered during the archaeological excavation of the Roman harbour of Pisa, in Tuscany, Italy are reported. The plant samples include the cultivated species Prunus spp., Corylus, Olea, Vicia, Juglans and the nemoral wild species Salix spp., Quercus spp., Fagus, Ulmus, Alnus. The remains of cultivated plants — fragments of fruits and seeds — were perhaps part of the boats' cargo or stores for the crew's meals. In the case of the wild taxa, the simultaneous presence of fruit and leaves, suggests that the remains recovered came from the forest vegetation bordering the area of excavation and the adjacent higher grounds, thus delineating a new vegetation landscape for the ager pisanus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The results of the stratigraphic and sedimentological analysis carried out at an exceptional archaeological site situated in the coastal plain of the Arno and Serchio Rivers (western Tuscany, Italy) are reported. The site, discovered near central Pisa, records a 1000-yr history of a riverine harbour built by the Etruscans and used by the Romans. This harbour was adjacent to the Arno River, located within an abandoned channel then still connected to the sea, thus allowing efficient stock transfer to and from Roman Pisa. The archaeological importance of this site is primarily due to the discovery of at least 16 well-preserved Roman ships and many other remains mostly deriving from their cargoes. The sedimentological relevance of this record is related to the recurrent, catastrophic, destruction of the harbour documented by the features of the sediment encasing the ships and by the ships' distribution and age. Such repeated destruction was related to catastrophic flood flows generated by levee crevassing of the Arno River during high-magnitude floods that occurred between the second century BC and the fifth century AD. The Pisa harbour tells a story of river channel instability. The repeated flooding of the harbour indicates that the Roman Arno River attempted to abruptly change its course, exploiting a pre-existing river channel. The concomitance of climatic and eustatic causes is expounded upon to explain the sedimentary dynamic of a coastal floodplain during historical times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]