Holocene landscape dynamics in a Sicilian upland river valley

For the past three years there has been an ongoing geoarchaeological investigation of the river valley of the Fiume di Sotto di Troina in the Sicilian Nebrodi Mountains by the University of Cambridge in collaboration with the Università di Catania, the Oxford Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the Italian Centro Nazionale di Ricerca. This study seeks to document landscape development and define land use practices during the later prehistoric to the modern period, through a programme of geomorphological mapping augmented by a suite of sedimentological and micromorphological studies in association with a focussed archaeological survey and site specific investigations. This paper presents the preliminary findings of the study, which suggests a relatively stable Holocene landscape interrupted by two or three major periods of incision and aggradation. In particular, there is some evidence suggesting clearance and soil erosion in the Copper Age (second half of the 4th millennium BC).